Coming full circle. Lala Kent and Ambyr Childers didn’t get off on the right foot — but have since developed a surprising friendship.
Kent and Childers first butted heads amid the reality star’s romance with Randall Emmett. The director was previously married to the You alum from 2009 and 2017. They welcomed daughters London and Rhylee, in 2010 and 2013 respectively, before calling it quits.
In 2018, Emmett confirmed his romance with Kent after his divorce was finalized. At the time, Childers made headlines when she called out the Vanderpump Rules star on social media.
“Since you don’t want to answer my text messages, I’ll try here,” the Arizona native wrote via Instagram in August 2019. “Lala, I appreciate your love towards my children, but until you’re officially their stepmother please refrain from posting my children on social media! I hope [you] understand where I’m coming from. Many thanks.”
Kent, for her part, welcomed daughter Ocean in March 2021. The Utah native got engaged to Emmett one year before they expanded their family.
After postponing their wedding due to COVID-19, Kent sparked split speculation in October 2021 when she removed all traces of her then-fiancé from her social media feed. One month later, Us confirmed that Kent and Emmett had called it quits.
The Bravo personality later addressed the issues with the film producer that she felt went ignored.
“Randall was never, ever home. He would always say that it was work-related and he was always on his phone. It was nonstop on his phone, and I still didn’t even register it,” she claimed during the season 9 Vanderpump Rules reunion in January 2022. “I just knew that Randall was not who I think he is. I thought I knew that he was loyal to me. That is all I wanted. Because I was like, ‘I know how dudes are and I know I can trust him.’”
Emmett, however, publicly showed support for his ex-fiancée. “She’s the mother of my child. No matter what happens in life, I will never disparage or talk ill about her because she’s Ocean’s mom,” he said on GG Gharachedaghi‘s “Genuinely GG” podcast in March 2022.
The Midnight in the Switchgrass director noted that cordial coparenting has always been his priority. “I have two other kids and I coparent with Ambyr and in that world I never said one negative thing and vice versa,” he added. “At the end of the day, I am not that comfortable in this whole thing, but the truth is that I just have to always look at the big picture.”
Later that year, the Florida native claimed Kent and Childers were teaming up to launch a smear campaign against him.
“I believe that Ambyr and Lauren [Kent’s real name] are working together in [an] attempt to destroy my reputation to give them both an advantage for custody,” Emmett alleged in documents obtained by Us Weekly in November 2022. “Ambyr has completely fabricated abuse that never happened and I believe that Lauren has convinced her to do so.”
He added: “Ambyr’s claims now stem from her friendship with my former fiancée, Lauren Burningham, the mother of my youngest daughter, Ocean … Lauren and I are in the middle of a very contentious custody litigation, in which Lauren has made false allegations of abuse, though she has never filed a DVRO Request against me, because she knows she is not a victim of abuse.”
The Give Them Lala author, for her part, seemingly slammed Emmett’s comments. “When the day comes that you crash and burn, you can try to blame everyone around you for your demise. And not if, but when that day comes — where your truth is revealed that you desperately tried to cover up — you will have to look in the mirror and know [that] no one did this to you but you,” Kent wrote via her Instagram Story that same month.
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Scroll down to relive Kent and Childers’ ups and downs: