The cast of Vanderpump Rules are no strangers to controversy.
The staff of Lisa Vanderpump’s West Hollywood restaurant SUR made their debut on Bravo in 2013 as part of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills spinoff. The season 1 cast included Vanderpump, Stassi Schroeder, Jax Taylor, Katie Maloney, Tom Sandoval, Kristen Doute and Scheana Shay.
By season 3, Tom Schwartz, Ariana Madix and James Kennedy were full-time cast members. Lala Kent, Faith Stowers and Brittany Cartwright made their first appearances in season 4.
After seven successful seasons, the Bravo series added several new cast members — Dayna Kathan, Max Boyens, Brett Caprioni, Danica Dow and Charli Burnett — for season 8. Kenndey’s girlfriend, Raquel Leviss, and Schroeder’s now-husband, Beau Clark, were also promoted. Fans of the show, however, were quick to point out that the new additions didn’t address the lack of diversity on the cast.
As season 8 wrapped up, Stowers, who made her final appearance on the season 6 premiere after word got out that she had an affair with Taylor, spoke out about being treated unfairly by her former costars.
“I did a show with an all-white cast. I was the only black person on the show … It was a lot,” Stowers told Floribama Shore’s Candace Rice via Instagram Live in June 2020. “I felt like after their friend did something that we both were involved in that [Jax has] done, like, a thousand times, they wanted to attack me instead of him. They wanted to attack, attack, attack, attack, attack. I was wrong, I was this, I was that, calling me names, saying my hair was nappy, which is weird coming out of their mouths.”
The former SURver went on to reveal that Schroeder and Doute tried to turn her in to the cops for a crime she didn’t commit.
“There was this article on Daily Mail where there was an African American lady. It was a weird photo, so she looked very light-skinned and had these different, weird tattoos. They showcased her, and I guess this woman was robbing people. And they called the cops and said it was me,” Stowers recalled at the time. “It was just funny because they thought it was me because it was a black woman with a weave. So they just assumed it would be me, and they called the cops on me.”
As a result, Schroeder and Doute were fired from the show. Sources told Us at the time that their costars were surprised by the move, which they learned about online.
“The rest of the cast is just finding out the news about the firings. They are shocked,” one source said. “There was still no word to the cast about the plans for starting up filming for next season.”
While Schroeder’s comments about Stowers caused her to lose her job, the incident was hardly the first time she made headlines for her off-camera remarks — and she isn’t the only cast member who has issued an apology in the past.
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Scroll through for a recap of the biggest Vanderpump Rules controversies: