Credit: Instagram, Charles Sykes/Bravo
Kristen Doute is firing back at claims of having accused Zack Wickham of being manipulated by Nia Booko.
After his reconciliation with Janet Caperna, 36, came to a quick end following a couple of shady statements from Nia, 36, on the third season of The Valley, and as Zack, 39, addressed his tension with longtime friend Brittany Cartwright, 37, Kristen explained what she meant in regard to Zack’s status with Janet.
“Do I think Zack is manipulated? No,” Kristen, 43, stated on a recent episode of The Valley: After Show.
Reflecting on their photoshoot, where the potential manipulation of Zack was mentioned, Kristen admitted she got “really, really mad,” before clarifying the statement she made about Zack.
“What I was saying was that Zack was sh*t-talking Janet a bunch. And I stand by that I was mad,” she explained. “Zack is an almost impossible person to manipulate, and I will stand here, and now, on this hill I will die on, when people say that like, I can convince Zack to feel certain ways, it is the opposite. Zack can convince me of feeling certain ways but not about certain people.”
But according to Brittany and Lala Kent, 35, the allegation came straight from Kristen.
“She actually told us it was Nia, not her, that was making Zack feel some type of way, and then everybody denied everything the next day. It was wild,” Brittany recounted.
Even Nia remembered Lala and Brittany claiming that Kristen told them that she manipulated Zack, but added that Kristen had told them to “roll the tapes.”
She then said that the women may have gotten the wrong idea about her statements to Zack regarding his temporary makeup with Janet.
“Maybe they heard me giving Zack a hard time, but me playfully giving my friend a hard time is not going to whatsoever sway his opinion. He’s going to do what he wants,” Nia insisted.
As for Zack, he accused the women of “trying to affect [his] relationship with Kristen” by suggesting she was trying to cause trouble between him and Nia.
“I’m sorry, [but that] is on such solid ground. I would never. Like, you can’t get through that,” Zack declared of his closeness to Kristen.
Zack then accused his co-stars of deflection.
“I can turn the tables around and sit with Kristen, Nia, and [Jasmine] and go individually to each one of them and be like, ‘So why are you controlled by this person?’ The projection onto me is like, how about look in a mirror?” he asked as Jasmine Goode, 38, recalled Lala suggesting that Kristen had manipulated her out of attending a previous event with the cast.
“Lala was saying that Kristen [was] stirring the pot and made me not go to game night. No, I didn’t want to go to game night,” she corrected.
As for Janet, she said she didn’t want a friend who could “be manipulated to not be [her] friend.”
“If you like me, be my friend. If other people can influence or sway you to not be my friend, we’re good. We don’t need to be friends,” she stated as Michelle Saniei, 37, agreed.
During another segment of The Valley: After Show, the cast discussed the unexpected drama between Zack and Brittany, which was sparked by Zack aligning with Kristen and Nia.
“I asked Zack like, ‘Are you really gonna believe like, Kristen and Nia over me?’ And he immediately is like, ‘Yes,’” Brittany shared as Zack admitted that he “100 percent” believed Kristen and Nia over her.
“Zack and I have years of friendship. We’ve known each other for almost 10 years before he ever even moved to LA, so then to not even like, question, oh, maybe Brittany’s telling the truth about this,’ yeah, that hurts,” Brittany continued.
After Kristen noted that Brittany felt a certain way since she was close with Janet, accusing her of being “friends with the enemy,” Zack said he felt like Brittany didn’t see what he did, and what “most people” did, of Janet.
“I think that’s what puts more of a strain on our relationship,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Brittany suspected Zack didn’t feel “seen” by her amid his falling out with Janet.
“I think he still like, had some kind of like, anger towards me about that, and I think it’s just grown because I’m still super close to her, super close to him, [and] he thinks I’m choosing her side all the time,” she shared, “but that’s not what it is.”
Brittany also felt that Zack wanted her to “blindly take his side” and felt “hurt” that she didn’t.
Then, after recalling how she was accused of taking up for Janet more than for Zack, Brittany confirmed that her “feelings [were] hurt for sure.”
“And I think whenever I finally get to watch these episodes, I’m gonna be really hurt, I’m gonna cry, because he’s been my friend for so long and he’s like, ride or die,” she went on.
According to Zack, he acknowledged that their relationship has been “a little bit rockier,” but said that Brittany needed to “see some things differently than the way she’s seeing them.”
“I’m ride or die, and I’m not dead yet, so we’re good. But I’m just standing my ground for once,” he reasoned. “It’s not gonna go anywhere. But also … here’s the thing: The way you treat people is not working.”
After Zack accused Brittany of “blanket [giving her] love out,” Brittany admitted to seeing the best in people.
“But I don’t want to change that about myself,” she clarified. “I have trained myself, unknowingly, to accept that from people and it just breaks my heart because he never did that to me before, so it makes me sad.”
The Valley season three reunion begins tonight, August 5, at 8/7c on Bravo.