What a whirlwind interviewing Rachel going viral, breaking the Internet, so many rumors, so many press articles, and it's unsettling to be honest, you know, She's gotten a lot of hate in the world, and I'm taking on a lot of that hate now. And it's been really interesting because I'm proud of myself for not caring really that much.
Like just people that I really respect in the entertainment industry and in politics and government and business, and people I just interact with on a data are all saying to me, you're doing the right thing, and change scares people, and I'm totally on the right side of history that I've had five documentarians reach out to me to want to do documentaries. Just the swirling press shows that I struck a chord and a nerve And there are so many different things that people want to say and talk about.
So let's break it down first. Some people say to me, oh, wow, is Andy Madge you're doing this? Have you spoken to him? And I say I have not, but I'm sure he is. And this is not a target on Andy. This is not a target on Bravo. This is about a systemic issue in the entertainment industry. People have come and said, oh, aren't you a hypocrite. I'm a hypocrite because there was a show that I was talking I was never talking to Bravo, by the way. I was talking to a
production company. I spoke to Andy one time, but he wasn't even working on this project, and I spoke to a production company in Bravo was the most logical place that this project would live about Connecticut, And a couple of months ago I decided I didn't want to do it anymore. I just backed out of the project. And it wasn't really that well thought out, and I didn't know that I would even talk about this quote unquote reality reckoning or have a problem with exploitation. I didn't
really think about it. I didn't allow myself to be exploited because I also was in a power position. When you are a rain maker, you make money, you make ratings, you're not as exploited as other people who don't really have a vote and a voice. So there were things though that happened with vote incidents and the way that people are just lied to and manipulated. There are things that have happened, but I never so I can handle myself in any industry. I've been exploited in other industries too.
It's okay.
I can totally handle myself. So I just decided several months ago that I didn't want to do the show because I had heard about this lawsuit against the production company that I was doing the show with that they had stolen allegedly someone's show from Married to Medicine. Now, one of the publications was calling recently and saying, well, that's hypocritical. That was two years ago, that lawsuit. Okay, I didn't know about it.
Two years ago.
I wasn't following the improper practices within the world of reality TV and the behind the scenes underbelly. I do have another life, another job, I have a daughter, so I did not know about that. I was already feeling hesitation, not because of Bravo. I didn't know any of this. I was already feeling hesitation about doing this show because A I want content to the people. I want to be on platforms where I can control when it goes up and what goes out, not having to have a
bay of editors control my content. It takes a week to film the Housewives episode, and you only get an hour of footage, which is that's where all the juicy other things that aren't shown live on the cutting room floor. So I wanted content to the people. It's where I'm moving with social media. It's very obvious. Everyone was like, oh, TikTok, she's starting a beauty line that was false. Didn't happen Instagram, none of this. I just wanted content to the people
the way that I want it. So I was having that thought, and then I just got a shady sense of the partners I was working with the way that they were working, and I had a weird feeling that they kind of were withholding some information about the show and wanted to put language in that created loopholes so they could then do the show with or without me, even though it was my concept and I had spoken to Andy about it. So I just felt a little sketch. It wasn't a big deal. So I walked away from
that deal. And now that's because the Bravo machine is hard at work, because they are being pummeled and the best is yet to come, Like they have only just begun to feel the wrath that's coming down on them because they this Pandora's box that yes, I opened by saying something, but I did not expect the half of this. I didn't experience a lot of that treatment myself. But I understand it, and I know that I've kind of ignored hearing different people's stories in the past because it
wasn't about me. And I now hear a lot of people on the different shows doing that as well, ignoring because it's not about them, and they're making money on this platform.
And I get it. I get it.
You're on Beverly Hills, you're on Vanderpump, you're not talking. You're making money right now in a strike environment.
I get it.
So one of the outlets was saying Bethany shouldn't be leading this charge because it's hypocritical of her because she was going to be in business with Bravo.
I'm not in a charge against Bravo.
It's against an entire industry where people need to be unionized. Because it's so cheap to make the shows. That's gonna age like milk. Yes, it's so cheap to make the shows, but the money that the shows generate is as much as network television. So do the math. If it's cheap to make the shows and the shows are getting millions of views and millions of dollars in advertising.
Who's getting fucked?
I guarantee it's not least a vander Pump and Alex Baskin who owns Evolution Media.
And it will come out. I'm sure.
I'm putting it out there that I worked with Mark Burnett and they bought Evolution Media, and Evolution worked on The Big Shot and I loved the show, and the show went well, and it was really like a tight production, and it was a big production. But you can ask anybody on the crew if this happened or not. The first night was on election Day and it was freezing. It was unseasonably cold, and it was my birthday. I
think it was my birthday. It was right about my birthday, right around my birthday, and it was election Day and it was unseasonably cold, and we were in Connecticut at my house. I hadn't spent a night at my house yet. And I walked into the house because I had just bought it, and there were had to be one hundred people in the house, one hundred people, like rings of coffee on the countertop, like it was a disaster. It was such a horrible mess. I was getting such anxiety
about a mess. And there were all these contestants that were there before we picked the first group, and they all came in I think on buses or cars, and they had been staying at a hotel for a long time, way longer than they were supposed to be and they had to stay in a hotel for not only quarantining, because of COVID, and it was the worse time to do a show. And I kept feeling terrible that they were It was around Thanksgiving. I think they had to be in that room, I felt. I kept saying, like,
this is not it's not a good situation. And we were in my house and they were all downstairs. I wasn't with them, but it was freezing, and they wanted us to get this whole shoot of this first episode done in one day, and it was now getting to be like one o'clock in the morning, two o'clock in the morning, and I said to the EP, the EP and some working under her. Many people ended up quitting, by the way, the sound girl quit after this day.
And I said, is this legal? Because people were there till like two o'clock in the morning and it was freezing, and I was frozen solid, and I had been there all day, but they had been there I think even longer, or maybe they came in the buses, but I can't. And and the EP said to me, it's not legal, but it's not right.
It's not right.
And I understood why the producers wanted to keep it going, and maybe even the cast would have understood because they had to get the shot from the first day. They only had this location this one day because of budgets or whatever reason. They were only going to be here at this house, taking everyone out to Connecticut on this one day, so they felt like they had to get it in. But it just felt like this is not appropriate.
But there was nobody to say it wasn't appropriate. There was no master, there's no governor, there's no HR, there's no union representative. So I know that, and my name is on that product, and everybody knew that it was fucked up. And the next time we shot, we were in the office that the show had sort of rented out for us, and I did a speech to everybody and said that will never happen again, Like that does not reflect you know, what this show is.
So I just want to mention.
That there needs to be a controlled environment, There needs to be guardrails. So about the interview, A lot of people just don't care for Rachel and don't believe her and her team Ariana because she got cheated on which I get. I could reiterate a thousand times that it was pushed through the pr machine and this particular incident triggered people more and everybody did make a lot of money and Rachel did not. And the number out there saying that she made several hundred thousand dollars for the
season and is false, completely false. And also think about this, It's been said publicly by the producer of the show that they were going to cancel the show and Sandal Scandival saved it, So you don't have a new character. She's been on two seasons of reality TV. This is her third season as a full time person coming in to make three hundred and sixty thousand dollars. She hasn't been there for ten years, and they wouldn't give her three hundred and sixty thousand dollars on a failing show
that's going off the air for a third season. It just wouldn't happen. So that's completely false. And people are saying, Oh, I should be paying her, like they're trying to say that I'm exploiting her for ratings.
That's to live on the rest of her life. Just so you know whether I paid her or not. How do you know what I did? How do you know what I'm doing with her? Nobody knows what I'm really doing.
But I love the speculation and the thing that people don't realize, particularly on TikTok, but definitely social media in general. Bring it on.
I love it number one worldwide.
For having a conversation with a woman who hasn't been able to get a conversation out unedited, and everyone thinks that they saw everything on this television show. I worked in reality TV for fifteen years on every type of show from The Apprentice to the Skating with the Stars to the Big Shot. I've worked on talk shows. I've worked in every area of this business. It takes a week to film a one hour episode on the Housewives, So what the hell do you think is on that cutting room floor?
Just nothing?
Just eating cupcakes, like taking baths, or do you think there's actual shit there? Because I can tell you that when I was in Scary Island, with Kelly. The cast were the cast were the ones who shut down the situation with Kelly. We were the ones who realized that she seemed like she was going through something, an emotional breakdown of some sort, and particularly Sonya was like, now we have to stop, and we all got it. We did stop, and she was escorted home the next day.
With all due respect to her, she was escorted home the next day. A producer that does not fly first class was seated on the plane next to her first class. I remember them telling me, Wow, I've even flew first class. They wanted me to travel with her and the entire cast because I remember us filming. After thought, there's no way she's coming back, like she just had some sort of an emotional break. And the show can do that to you. The pressure, the editing, the alcohol, the interviews,
just all of it. And even if you act that way and then other people see you as that way, and then you see yourself, you see yourself differently in the edit, it's still part of it. So we all were the ones who were like, Okay, it's enough, like let's stop. And then later the camera stopped, but they had her filming again days later. We all were shocked. We thought she was going away somewhere, but not for
the show. They want to capture that, so they want to get it all, but a lot of it ends up on the floor, and they want to ride the line with the can. They want to ride the line with airing what they can air without getting sued without it looking like it's fully illegal. And so I just want to say to you, if it takes a week to film a show that's going to fill forty something minutes of airtime, what do you think you don't see?
It's a lot.
So no one's an expert on what really happened behind the scenes of this affair. But the man who cheated on his girlfriend of ten years is living with her now, so she's at least forgiven him enough to live together. But the girl that was friends with her on the show, who's apologetic and who did fuck up, it seems, was
emotionally abused at this reunion. She had sex multiple times for many months with a man with a girlfriend who he's now living with, who have been on a reality show together for that entire time, who are profiting from the scandal individually and together, who have businesses that profit off the show that profited off the scandal. Who get to be on television another season on a show that
was getting canceled because of the scandal. And the girl, one of the people, is not compensated and she's you could hate her or lover. There's a villain. You needed a villain, and she's the villain. So she's allowed to talk and have a voice. And it's been insane. And watch out the Bravo pr Machine numbers. They're throwing out several hundred thousand dollars, which is not true anyway. They're trying to throw out numbers and clump together everything she's
ever made on vander Propert rules not this season. And Lisa vander Pump and Alex Baskin coming out and commenting on what she's making. They're just trying to protect the realm. They have to protect the realm.
This is massive.
Bravo's never had a hit like this ever in its history. So what would you do if you had the biggest hit of your life. You would have to prote the realm at any cost. It's the number one most important thing to Bravo, to Lisa vander Pump, to Evolution, to MGM, on top of evolution to Alex Baskin, to Tom to Ariana. And here's one thing no one's talking about. Rachel left the show. She could have gone back, She could have
gone back and made money. She took a stance, So I would like to know what everyone would like her to do. So, of course, it's such a big thing that everyone's talking about because everyone is perfect and no one's ever made mistakes, especially in their twenties. Has anyone ever made a mistake in their twenties that they regret? Oh wait a second, what about if you guys are drinking and maybe doing drugs and like out late at night at nightclubs?
Oh what if you guys work at a nightclub. What if you're out late.
At night listening to bands and music and there are a bunch of other twenty and thirty year olds around also drinking and listening to bands and music in La you know, a very fast town of like broken dreams. I think it's shocking that before Rachel, there's never been a woman who's had an affair or made a mistake. So, yeah, I was perfect in my twenties. Everything I ever did in my twenties was perfect. I've never been cheated on.
It'd never cheated because I've never heard of that happening before.
It's very strange.
And also imagine if like you could get paid for that, you get paid after having an affair, and like the business thrives and succeeds and goes through the roof.
That's amazing. Wow, what a model.
Wait a minute, and what about if the people who own the bars that the people get drunk in and have affairs in and around also make money not only on the restaurant and bars, but they kick it up to the top to Bravo and NBCUniversal, who also gets to profit on it. So they're profiting on a scandal, cheating bars and ratings and advertisers, all on a show that takes like over a week to shoot, but you only get to see an hour. But I'm sure everything
that's not in that hour is really boring. I'm sure nothing happens because nothing happens at all after midnight, you know what I mean. It's really a boring time when you're wasted two in the morning. I'm sure there's.
Nothing to film.
They should be filming like in the morning, like meditation practice or like a yoga retreat.
That's what it is.
Like, maybe that would be more interesting television, and Bravo should do that. They should do a show called Meditation Nation with a bunch of young people that don't drink, don't have affairs, everyone's best friends. There's no conflict, no restaurants, no advertisers, and it's just really about self help, reflection and meditation.
That's kind of.
Would be a really that's maybe a good show for them, and then everyone will love Rachel because she'll just be meditating, no mistakes the media or the media. Yes, that I shouldn't be leading this charge, Okay, that I shouldn't leave the charge against Bravo. Okay, great, someone like to nominate themselves because I'm send an edit arrangement over momentarily. I'd
love for someone to nominate themselves. Does anyone think I like thought a couple weeks ago, I'd like, wake up, like, hmm, let me fucking start a ship storm, make tons of enemies, burn bridges that I didn't need to burn, and be the leader of a charge, like having meetings that I don't need to have, like having meetings with SAG and AFTRA and with lawyers and with you know, all these different people like I could be surfing. So if somebody
else wants to leave the charge, have at it. And the best part about this whole thing is I don't give a shit, Like I don't care what people think. That's what's funny. I look through social media and get dragged and trolled, and I like it means you're engage, You're so bothered, you're so triggered.
Keep it up.
Like hate sites about me, hate blogs. People their entire day, their entire lives are spent like putting little fuzzy microphones in front of their mouth to like talk about me.
Go keep going.
I don't need a publicist anymore. I've got all these hate sites. Keep going, keep going, baby. I like it. So people have a hard time with that, because then where are're gonna go?
I don't give a shit. It's engagement. Congrats.
I get some questions about Nini in the beginning of this about that she she says I can say things she can't say.
I know what to say and what not to say. I like Nini.
Nini has talked before about unfair practices. The difference is that Nini's talked about herself, how she herself has been wronged and she's sued for compensation and settled for herself. So that's the difference. I haven't gone and said like here, I want compensation for anything, and this is what happened to me. So my my charge, as page six calls it, is about the entire industry and really other people and myself. But since I'm not going back to network TV and streaming,
it doesn't really matter to me. You can watch my YouTube series and get everything you know that I'm doing because I don't want to be on.
Normal network TV.
But uh, and the reason I didn't want to go back to traditional cable TV is the numbers don't lie. On my podcast and on my YouTube series, I get the same, if not more views than the Real Housewives reboot gets. They get like a couple of hundred thousand, like four hundred thousand viewers for a multi million dollar budget project like so unwieldy, so bulky. I'd rather just video something in the moment and throw it up on
YouTube content to the people. So I'm not interested in that unwieldy, bulky model with like a bunch of executives in a conference room and pitching them something that they won't understand and editors and glossy magazines and budgets. I would rather just get the content up. Also, I was part of this machine, like the cheerleader for this machine. I've said things to people that I will always regret. But we're the soldiers. We're not the ones in charge that, frankly,
should instill better workplace practices. Gretchen ROSSI was at Tamram I think Tamra's house, and Vicky and Tamers said they were gonna get her naked wasted. They kept giving her drinks, and then in another room, Tamer's son you heard like forcing himself on her. And I didn't see like a camera person go in and open up the door and be like get off her. It goes as far as it can go, but someone might have psychological damage from that.
I mean, there's a woman who had a man naked climb on top of her on below deck, and the captain who came down and threw him off the boat is getting, you know, praised, and that's great for him, But what about the camera people and somebody else in video village, which is a room where there's a group of people watching a small screen. What about someone in there being like, oh my god, there's a fucking naked
guy in going into her room. But no, because it's good for the show to hear Gretchen having someone force themselves on her while she's blackout, wasted and could make really bad decisions. Who's there to say, like stop, Who's there to say, let's stop with this Kelly thing. We sent her home, but she shouldn't be filming anymore. It's at the very least it's emotionally not the right place for her. But no, because it's about ratings and about money.
You know, I was breaking down after Dennis died and you had to come back and film, and I was in Florida and I was cracking.
But no, that's good.
Having a nervous breakdown and cracking is good. I was the one, and I have all the receipts who called Bravo and said to pay for Luanne to go to rehab because and to pay her for the reunion that she was missing, because if they didn't, she would have come to the reunion and been like a mess.
But that would have been great for them.
And I said to him, I wasn't showing up if they didn't do that, and it doesn't matter that she hates me and that she's making money off Bravo now and doing her show. It's fine, and did Ultimate Girlship,
It's fine. But the truth is they wanted her to exploit herself on the reunion and I had power then, so I said, and you can ask Barbara, and you can ask her good friend, Anne Leuen's good friend Ann, Barbara, myself and Anne who arranged everything from the intervention to me getting the lawyers to saving Luanne from spending seven million dollars in a house, And you can ask the
two of them. If I didn't do that, if I didn't call Bravo and say I'm not going to go, and she has to be paid for the reunion and for rehab, and that year I was there was a firing squad against me and I and she would have been one of my only allies. And I still said to do it because it was a difference between right and wrong.
So that happened.
So to close out on Rachel, she's a person, she has an opinion, she has a voice, she has a story. You don't have to like it, you don't have to believe it, you don't even have to listen into it. But to abuse someone who did something that so many other people have done, To abuse someone did anyone ever hear the very basic saying to err is human, to forgive is divine.
She made a mistake.