Faith Stowers believes there’s still a lot more work to be done on Vanderpump Rules, including firing Jax Taylor. This week, Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute were fired from the Bravo reality series after past racist actions against Stowers resurfaced.
While speaking with ET’s Nischelle Turner, the former Bravo star says Taylor “probably had more terrible things to say than these two young ladies.”
“He’s said very, very mean things to new cast members. He did not receive me and Lala Kent very well when we first started,” Stowers claims. “He said very mean things to us as well, later on apologizing. But it seems like he continues to get away with everything he does and I’m not sure why, especially at his age. It’s not like he’s doing this as a young adult, as a kid and just making these little mistakes young people sometimes do.”
“He’s a grown man in this society, this is a life he wants to live and I feel like Lisa [Vanderpump] definitely needs to tell him he’s wrong,” Stowers adds. “She really needs to reprimand him off the show as well.”
In a statement to ET, Bravo and Evolution Media confirmed on Tuesday that Schroeder, Doute, Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni will not be returning to Vanderpump Rules. The firings came after Stowers went on Instagram Live and recalled an incident from 2018, claiming that the women called the police on her for crimes she had nothing to do with.
“It was very painful. I was in a very bad spot because I had never experienced that kind of bullying before,” Stowers expresses of Schroeder and Doute’s actions. “I was just getting over the bullying that I was getting from the Vanderpump fans with me and Brittany [Cartwright] and I was trying to move forward with my life. And then I got the call from MTV. They were so excited to have me. So I was excited for this new chapter of my life and then here I am trying to go and do that and then I get this boom in my face saying that they were trying to pretty much destroy me, especially dealing with the cops because I have kind of a fear of police enforcement because of all the things happening.”
“They tried to have the military also arrest me or take me down because they thought I went AWOL, not knowing that I have honorable discharge papers that show that I had done my eight years of service for my country,” she continues. “So they tried to take that from me too and then when that didn’t work, they said the night of the scandal, when it all comes out, the night of Sheana’s birthday party, Jax’s car went missing out of his home. They said that I was the person that went into his home and did grand theft auto, like, I went and broke into his home and stole his car. So they said so much that it was hard to take in and I was really numb at that moment.”
As for Jax not standing up for her at that moment and going along with Schroeder and Doute, Stowers says, “He was arrested for stealing on the show. So I was like, why would you do that? You know how that feels because you actually did it, you actually did steal something and get arrested. So why would you put what you went through on me, when you don’t even know that I did that?”
When asked if Lisa Vanderpump was ever aware of the situation, Stowers shares that she knew about the fighting between her and Cartwright. Taylor cheated on Cartwright with Stowers in 2017.
“I think she knew about the incident between me and Jax before filming even started because I had told Lala. I’m pretty sure I think somebody told her about it,” she explains. “I mean, as they should because she’s a producer on the show. She’s not just a character. So I knew that she knew something about it from my understanding,” adding that she doesn’t know if Vanderpump knew about the other incident.
“I would expect her to have something to say about it to help it because this is her platform as well,” Stowers says. “What they do is also a reflection of her stage and what she’s bringing out to the public.”
Following Stowers’ interview, Vanderpump did make a statement about the firings and explained that things were brought to her attention that she was previously unaware of.
Vanderpump stated that fans know she has “always been an equal rights activist and ally — my family, my businesses and I condemn all forms of cruelty, racism, homophobia, bigotry and unequal treatment. We’ve never tolerated it in the workplace or our lives.”
Now that the people have been fired, how does Stowers feel about Bravo’s actions and the show moving forward?
“I’m not gonna lie, at first I was like, this is gonna change their lives — and I wasn’t necessarily happy about it,” Stowers says of Schroeder and Doute’s firing. “But what I was happy about was Bravo — this huge production company — taking the time to give a voice back to the people and say, ‘We hear you.’ And that to me, what that was, is Bravo saying, ‘We’re not a platform that’s just going to ignore what’s happening in today’s society and all the injustices that’s going on. We hear you.'”
“And that made me feel really, really, really, really good because I didn’t think that it would go that far. So it’s a production company and a network that I can be proud of, that will take a stance on something like that, because that really affected me,” she notes.
As for her thoughts on whether Vanderpump Rulesshould be canceled, Stowers says, “No.”
“I think the show is a great, great idea. I just think that maybe they could put people out there that could give a voice to people and be more relatable to people of color,” she expresses.
