‘RHOSLC’ Cast on Jen Shah’s Guilty Plea, Friendship Fallouts and ‘Tumultuous and Traumatizing’ Season

Katcy Stephan
·6 min read

Season 3 of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” has already started off with a bang, and its cast promises things won’t be slowing down anytime soon.

At BravoCon, stars Lisa Barlow, Meredith Marks, Whitney Rose and Heather Gay spoke with Variety about the season’s biggest drama so far and what fans can expect in the coming episodes.

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Jen Shah, who pleaded guilty in July on criminal fraud charges stemming from an alleged telemarketing scheme, did not participate in the convention.

Two duos emerged on the red carpet: Rose/Barlow and Marks/Gay. The ladies, who have already had explosive fights in the season’s first three episodes, declined to comment on their current friendship status, but insisted that their red carpet pairings spoke volumes about the state of things.

Read both interviews below.

WHITNEY ROSE AND LISA BARLOW 

What can you tease about the rest of the season?

Barlow: The biggest teaser is that I’m here with Whitney.

Rose: I like to explain it like an airplane ride where they say, ‘Buckle up, because we’re about to hit turbulence.’ We hit turbulence.

Barlow: I think the first three episodes were so emotionally packed. Let’s just say, it continues.

Lisa, you’ve been dealing with some unproven accusations from Jen that you called her son the N-word.

Barlow: Let’s call them false accusations. I ran into Jen last night and she’s like, “Oh, my God, give me a hug!” And I’m like, “We’re not there. You lied about me. We’re not in a great space right now.” I was a very good friend to Jen. I was extremely supportive. And my big expectation From Jen was that she would be a friend back.

So far in the season, we’ve seen all the ladies try to come together and support Jen Shah. How did you react to her guilty plea?

Rose: It was very shocking, because she screamed, “Innocence, innocence, innocence.” Her change in plea was shocking. We thought she’d fight it to the end. To not hear from her, it was pretty eye-opening. When the ship goes down, you’ve got to take everyone with you.

Barlow: Her ship might not be heading the same place as ours.

Rose: We’re on a life raft.

Barlow: No, we’re on a super yacht.

Rose: I was actually with this beauty when I found out.

(Rose taps “The Real Housewives of Potomac” star Gizelle Bryant on the shoulder and she joins the conversation.)

Rose: I walked into the house and the first thing you said to me was, “Tell me about Jen.”

Bryant: I was all in it! You know me.

Barlow: How do you feel about it?

Bryant: She’s guilty, right? I heard she was hanging out in New York. So when’s she going [to jail]?

The sentencing is currently scheduled for December.

Bryant: Aww. Too bad!

(Bryant walks away.)

Whitney, we’ve seen you show a very vulnerable side of yourself this season, between officially leaving Mormonism and coming to terms with childhood abuse.

Rose: For me, I haven’t been an active member in 15 years, so it was just the final straw to close the chapter in my life. It was important for me to do that because it’s an energy thing. It’s me growing.

Lisa, we’ve heard some remarks about you this season implying that you perform sexual favors in exchange for things like Vida Tequila promotion or courtside seats. How do you respond to that?

Barlow: I have never done a favor for Vida Tequila. I have never done a sexual favor for our brands. I don’t need to. We make amazing, beautiful products. It was so bizarre to me and so weird. All of it was just so insane. It was hurtful to hear.

Rose: I think we should clarify one thing. The rumor didn’t start as that. It started when Meredith came to my house and said “favors for games.” The two are not related.

Barlow: What ended up happening is, Whitney had heard something else that wasn’t true, and Meredith had gone from house to house talking to everyone about, “My marriage isn’t okay, my businesses aren’t okay.”

Rose: In true Whitney fashion, I delivered it in very poor timing and poor delivery.

Barlow: And the rumors are false. I have never done sexual favors for Vida or Jazz tickets. Never!

Rose: Thank you for forgiving me for participating in that.

Barlow: Whitney said sorry once, and that’s all it took, because I know she meant it. After you watch the last episode, you’ll see I’m grateful to Whitney, and that was a big catalyst in our relationship, too. Because if she didn’t tell me, they would have been talking about this behind my back forever. So she basically stopped the bleeding, and I’m super grateful for it.

HEATHER GAY AND MEREDITH MARKS

What can you tease about the rest of this season?

Gay: I have a total easter egg. I get a black eye. Can you believe it? Unfortunately, I cannot discuss it because my attorney is a toughie and will not allow me to.

Marks: I have advised her, she’s not allowed to.

Are you her attorney?

Marks: Perhaps.

Gay: Meredith Marks, Esquire. She’s instructing me to invoke my fifth amendment right.

Meredith, can you tease anything?

Marks: Not about the black eye. That’s now privileged.

Gay: Attorney-client.

Marks: There’s a lot of chaos. You already see in this week’s episode. It was really frenetic. That’s kind of the vibe moving forward. Maybe not to that level all the time. It’s tumultuous and traumatizing. Those are my two Ts in a pod.

We’ve seen each of you face big conflicts so far this season: Heather with Whitney, and Meredith with Lisa. Where do you stand now?

Gay: [Gesturing to Marks] Well, we’re best friends. So that answers it for you.

We’ve seen you show support for Jen Shah so far in the season as she’s going through a difficult time. Now, the guilty plea has happened. Looking back, does this new information change any of those feelings?

Gay: It didn’t change any of my feelings looking back. It just changed my double-down on support going forward, because that was a huge surprise. Obviously, anyone that loves or knows Jen would realize what a colossal thing that would be to plead guilty. And that in and of itself is something that you need friends to support you through.

Marks: It was very surprising and shocking. It was not something that I think any of us anticipated, so close to her trial, especially. No, it didn’t change anything about the past because now we’re looking forward into what she’s dealing with. And that’s a lot. It’s intense. It’s things that you never wish on your worst enemy, nonetheless on your friends. You’ve got to just move forward.

These interviews have been edited and condensed.

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