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Stassi Schroeder opened up about her return to reality television during an interview on Monday.
Days after the trailer dropped for her new Hulu series, House of Stassi, on which she serves as an executive producer, the 37-year-old married mother of two addressed her transition out of her Vanderpump Rules persona, compared filming to “therapy,” and revealed the advice she gave to husband Beau Clark, 46, while also dishing on a secret falling out she had with Katie Maloney, 40, explaining why she’s thankful she was fired from Pump Rules, and more.
“The last time people saw me, I was this crazy girl … crashing out, dark passengering,” Stassi shared during an April 27 interview with Marie Claire. “I work really hard. I try really hard and I’m constantly trying to build the most for my family, and I’m proud of what I’ve done in the last five years. I still crash out. It just looks different.”
“People have seen my lowest moments, my highest moments, all of it,” she continued. “This is the first time they’re seeing what my life is actually like now.”
Because Stassi has been doing reality television since she appeared on The Amazing Race at 16, the concept “excites [her]” and is something she “[feels] passionately about.”
“I will bleed out for this,” she vowed of her latest series.
Although Stassi has remained in the spotlight since her Pump Rules exit in 2020, which was prompted by racially insensitive statements and behaviors exhibited toward Faith Stowers, 37, networks weren’t begging for her to launch a new show.
“That’s not how Hollywood works,” she noted. “You really have to fight for things.”
After a three-year “arduous journey,” Stassi landed at Hulu, intending to use her executive producer role to her benefit.
“I was very certain that if I’m going to do reality TV again I need to be able to say, ‘No, you can’t show this with my kids.’ I’m protecting my family at this point … [And] I can see where the cracks are. Why a certain show doesn’t do well or why one does,” she reasoned. “This is what I’m good at…I’m just hoping that, you know, I’m able to protect [my kids] throughout this process.”
Noting that production “felt like one long therapy session,” Stassi pointed out that “you have to say what you’re thinking out loud—otherwise there is no show.”
Even with husband Beau, whom she married in September 2020, Stassi said that the two of them “got all of [their] sh*t out on the table in a constructive way, being respectful of each other while being open and vulnerable and honest.”
“We’re a solid, stable marriage,” she noted. “What people in the comment section say, it doesn’t matter. We need to just know that we always have each other, we’re each other’s priority.”
Ahead of filming, Stassi advised Beau to be honest on camera “because that is what makes a good reality TV show. And that is what people relate to and want to see.”
“I don’t like living with skeletons in my closet. I don’t like living with secrets. It stresses me the f*ck out. I prefer to live very openly so everyone knows my sh*t,” she went on. “Because then it’s like, ‘You can’t catch me on anything.’”
Moving on to her friendship with Katie, Stassi admitted that the two of them had a falling out “for years” that no one knew about.
“Now we’re rebuilding our friendship after growing in two completely different directions,” she shared.
As she looked back on her Pump Rules exit in 2020, Stassi admitted that she didn’t realize “how privileged she was,” adding that she was thankful for the backlash and firing because it led to personal growth.
“I was incredibly selfish and chaotic and I just feel like I didn’t consider other people before I did things or said things. And if I were still in Vanderpump Rules, I’d probably be the same person. This time away from reality TV has shaped who I am now,” she explained. “There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about the canceling. I have this insecurity: Is this person I’m meeting, do they think these things about me? And that’s my burden to have, and I’m okay with it. But it’s not like it just happened and then I came back. No, I will live with this for the rest of my life.”
Considering her children, including Hartford, 5, and Messer, 2, Stassi said she hoped to teach her kids what she learned from the scandal.
“These are things that I can make sure that she is now aware of,” she noted.
Then, asked about the possibility of joining Traitors, Stassi wasn’t interested, especially considering the show is part of the NBCUniversal family, which she no longer trusts.
“I just go based on gut feelings…does this make me feel excited and peaceful? And when I imagine going on a challenge game show I get a pit [in my stomach] … It would be like throwing me to the wolves,” she explained.
House of Stassi season one begins streaming on Hulu on July 29.