‘Vanderpump Rules’ Star Stassi Schroeder Is Back to Reclaim Her Reality TV Throne

As the original queen bee of “Vanderpump Rules,” Stassi Schroeder struck fear in the hearts of her fellow SURvers while spouting off one quotable insult after another. With her impossibly blonde hair, icy blue eyes and chunky jewelry, Schroeder lorded over Lisa Vanderpump’s WeHo restaurant like a combustible sorority president, even warning her sleazebag boyfriend at the time, Jax, “I am the devil and don’t you forget it.”

By Season 6, however, Schroeder had evolved into the most sensible person on the Bravo hit, and her love affair with Beau Clark won over the audience’s hearts. She began hosting the podcast “Straight Up with Stassi,” penned a New York Times bestseller, exposed Tom Sandoval at the party for that New York Times bestseller and was on top of the world. Then, in June 2020, Schroeder and co-star Kristen Doute were fired from “Vanderpump Rules” for reporting recurring cast member Faith Stowers, who is Black, to the police for a crime she didn’t commit. Schroeder, who was several months pregnant at the time, found herself “canceled” and had to rebuild from scratch.

She hired a diversity coach, had difficult conversations and worked on herself. She also expanded her podcast into a sold-out live tour, and kept her distance from the “Vanderpump Rules” universe — including spinoff “The Valley” — while waiting for the right opportunity to reintroduce herself to reality TV. She finally did in “Vanderpump Villa,” joining the Hulu series in its second season. But that only served as the amuse-bouche to her grand reentry with the new show “House of Stassi.”

Debuting July 29 on Freeform (and streaming the following day on Hulu and Disney+),  “House of Stassi” follows Schroeder, Clark and her inner circle as she balances her career, mothering two young children and keeping her stay-at-home husband happy. She’s joined by “Vanderpump Rules” cast members Katie Maloney and Kristina Kelly, her two former ride-or-dies, as well as her younger sister Georgi, her longtime assistant Taylor Strecker (and her pregnant wife Taylor Donohue), Beau’s Italian half-sister Georgia and his womanizing pal Rob. And yes, there are plenty of fireworks (and breaking of the fourth wall) as Schroeder tries to hold it all together while keeping the “Dark Passenger” — her name for her explosive alter ego — at bay.

Schroeder was only 24 when “Vanderpump Rules” debuted in 2013 but is now 38, a brunette and coming into her power. She spoke with Variety about her “Vanderpump Rules” past, “House of Stassi” and everything in between.  

Can we talk about the genesis of “House of Stassi?” You make multiple references to wanting to be Kris Jenner throughout the show, so was it modeled on “Keeping Up with the Kardashians?”

Yeah … Does it get annoying? I can’t help it just because I used to look up to Kim, Kourtney and Khloé and all of them, but when I had kids, I became weirdly obsessed with Kris Jenner. When I would watch her on TV, I’m like, this woman is so present with her family members and it seems like she really enjoys life. You see her with her dirty martini and her friends, and she’s not just all-work or all-mom; she’s a whole woman who’s fulfilled everywhere. I wouldn’t say “House of Stassi” was modeled after it because we are nothing like the Kardashians. I’m inspired by them, but even the way I pitched it, I said, “This is not ‘Vanderpump Rules’ and this is not ‘The Kardashians,’” this is somewhere in the middle.” You’ve seen us on TV, but we’re at this new iteration of our lives that isn’t totally represented yet. Yes, they have “The Valley,” but it feels like it’s the same format as “Vanderpump Rules.”

Did you learn what not to do by watching “The Valley?” That show is dark. Jax was at the worst we’ve ever seen him from the jump.

It’s insane. And it’s freaking me out that I’m seeing the comment section sway to, “We need Jax back,” and I’m like, “Did you not forget the whole reason he’s off?”

He threw a table at Brittany.

Yes. The audience can be really fickle. That freaks me out.

You say early on in “House of Stassi” that “Vanderpump Rules” essentially “made the girls look psychotic” and “covered for the boys,” and that mentality can bleed into the fandom as well when it comes to the men behaving badly.

Katie and I will be the first to say that we played a part in that. We made active decisions to not speak up about things because we wanted to keep the show alive, and if we spoke up then, where would that leave everyone? It’s really complicated. To have producers and what they cover for, to have that bleed into the fandom, that’s just the world we’re living in right now. You see influencer men versus women and men get away with so much. It’s a really fucking crazy world.

How did you convince Katie Maloney to come back to reality TV and why was that so important to you?

It was really last-minute. When we did the sizzle reel, I was pregnant at the time with my second baby, and Kristina and Katie weren’t an option because they were busy filming “Vanderpump Rules” and under contract. Even though Katie and I were in a rocky situation, I still wanted to include her because we’ve been friends for so long. And then, once we got closer to filming, she was not on the show anymore so I sent her a voice note and said, “You can tell me to fuck off and I know you’re so happy with your relationship being off TV, but I’m going to start filming this and I think it would be really amazing if you wanted to do it too and we can explore what’s happened in our friendship.” She was really into it, and it honestly felt like destiny. Ninety-eight % of our friendship has been on “Vanderpump Rules,” from makeups to breakups, so it felt full circle for us to start this new era of our friendship on TV again.

So, you’re a voice note sender? You’re one of those people?

Yes, I am. I don’t like texts, it stresses me out. I don’t like cold calls. I don’t like FaceTime. But I will voice note all day, every day.

How did you get Ariana Madix to appear on the show?

She’s Katie’s business partner and they’re good friends and she wanted to film at the sandwich shop [Something About Her].

That’s quite the coup. I’m curious how you feel about Ariana becoming a breakout star of “Vanderpump Rules?” There’s a contingent of the fan base that feels she mainly just carried water for Tom Sandoval until Scandoval happened.

But she earned that. She might have had that spark from Scandoval, but everything she’s done since then she’s nailed and excelled at. I actually don’t like when people go, “She didn’t contribute to ‘Vanderpump Rules’ and then Scandoval happened and she got all this success.” She really earned that success if you pay attention to what she’s done. Even Season 10 of “Vanderpump Rules” was enough to cover all the previous seasons.

“House of Stassi” presents Beau as a stay-at-home dad and you bringing home the bacon, which is a unique dynamic to present on a show.

He is, and when I pitched the show that was a huge part of it. I would say to people, “I don’t see this dynamic presented anywhere on reality TV and I’m proud of our lives and what we’ve built.”

And that’s the main tension this season, as Beau is feeling emasculated by the dynamic. How did you guys manage that throughout the season?

Before filming, I said to him, “If we’re going to do this, we have to be honest. If you’re feeling something or thinking something, then say it to me. We have to discuss these things.” And filming started and he took that very seriously, and I was like, “Whoa! OK … I didn’t know this stuff.” But I had to tell myself, “This is what I told him to do.” And the thing I love most about reality TV is that I’ve always looked at it like therapy. I don’t like therapy, and maybe it’s because I haven’t found the right person but unpacking trauma on a Tuesday morning just hasn’t been my favorite thing in the world. When you film a reality show, you are forced to think about your feelings, address everything you’re feeling and unpack everything, whereas on a normal day with me and Beau, the day would get ahead of us between the kids and work, and at the end of the day I’d be too tired to talk about an issue I have with him. But on reality TV, you have to talk about your issues over and over until it is solved.

How do you feel about the way you treated Beau this season? There’s a moment where Beau is talking about wanting to return to work and you offer him money not to work. That was pretty tough to watch.

That was awful. Even comments that I made on the staycation, I thought, “God, you were hard on him.” He knows that I’m sorry for that and we’ve talked about these things. I mean, we’re doing really well! He’s just a really wonderful person and everything he does is coming from a place of wanting to make the right decision and being morally sound.

You have a line about Scheana in “House of Stassi” where you say, “Scheana will one hundred % show up at my funeral — and make it about her.”

I wanted to get that taken out. She keeps catching strays from me, so I feel badly about that. She got one from me on “Vanderpump Villa,” too. The thing about Scheana is we might not be close or anything like that, but I really respect her hustle a lot and despite all the negative comments she gets she keeps going, and I really admire that.

And it’s revealed in “House of Stassi” that Scheana tried to get on “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” pitching that Brock grew up Mormon. I wasn’t aware of that.

Nor was I, OK! But it’s funny and I hope that she laughs at it.

Where do you stand with Kristen Doute?

When I see her we are polite and OK, but we don’t —

— Go to Solvang together?

Definitely not! But I wish her the best. With most of my ex-cast members, that was something I had to step away from. You never really grow if you’re just surrounded by the same people, the same places, the same situations. I recognize that and it’s not like they’re bad people or anything, but I needed to grow and I needed to step away from everyone to do that. I like what I’ve grown into and like where I’m at and I’m always scared of everyone rocking the boat on that.

I have to give you credit for reading Tom Sandoval for filth at your book event at TomTom on “Vanderpump Rules” because looking back, you were way ahead of the curve.

God, but I’ve been feeling that way since Season 1! I’ve always felt that way. Season after season I’d ask the producers, “How is he getting such a good edit? I don’t understand this!” And I never really got an answer. That moment at TomTom I was given a gift: him and his stupid fucking spider bite and the texts that he sent me, because I finally had a reason to say how I felt. I’m proud of that moment.

There’s a sweet moment on “House of Stassi” where you and Beau reminisce about a time at Coachella about eight months into dating where you were both on molly and missed an Eminem set to confess your love for one another and discuss your future. Is the solution to just do more molly together?

LOL. Oh my god, is it? Molly brings people closer together. Maybe we should give it a shot again! We haven’t thought about that, but good times! We’d talked about everything before then, but it was such a crazy moment where we were so incredibly connected and saying all the things that you’re too scared to say out loud normally.

This is like the complete inverse of Tom Sandoval and Raquel hooking up at Coachella.

Oh my god! Coachella and “Vanderpump Rules” people … We’re so embarrassing! I haven’t been since. I don’t have the energy at this point.

I don’t blame you. I have to ask about “Summer House.” The first episode of that show was a crossover episode with “Vanderpump Rules” where you and the gals are celebrating your birthday in the Hamptons, and as far as being ahead of the curve goes, you immediately clocked Kyle Cooke in the hot tub.

Well, the thing is I’m friendly with Kyle and he’s a nice guy. I don’t watch “Summer House” but I pay attention to every single Reel, and I do know that he’s been a horrible husband.

You could’ve changed the course of history because he started hooking up with Amanda right after that.

Oh my gosh! The butterfly effect. I remember that producers wanted us to make out so badly, too. We were alone in the hot tub with cameras all around us and it felt very much like, OK, is this what it feels like on “The Bachelor?”

Were there other big moments on “Vanderpump Rules” where producers pushed you to do things that you didn’t want to do?

Yeah, so … This feels like a therapy session now. Producers are fascinating people because they know how to become your best friend and nudge you along to a certain path or story to help move story further. There’s a fine line between making you do something that you wouldn’t do or nudging you into something, and it’s not black-and-white but very gray. I don’t look back and think negatively about “Vanderpump Rules,” but when I came back for Season 3 there were a lot of reasons that I didn’t want to film with Jax that producers knew about. I explained it to them and the network knew, and that just wasn’t really [an option]. So, then you gotta leave or deal with it, and when I left for a little while I thought, “Oh, I’ve just let this man win. He now gets to be the star of the show and gets to be friends with all my friends.” So I did come crawling back for Season 4 because I was like, “I am not going to let this fucking person win. I will befriend him again and I’m going to win.” That’s what I had to do because producers didn’t respect … but it’s fine.

Where do you and Jax stand today? And he’s apparently dating … his publicist?

That’s fully insane! She’s always been shady and everyone’s always felt weird about her. We haven’t spoken to Jax in four years, so he hasn’t been a part of our lives but I’m paying attention to everything and it’s wild. I really feel for Brittany.

What are your thoughts on the “Vanderpump Rules” reboot?

I haven’t seen it …

There are two cousins who make OnlyFans content together.

I have heard there are things like that! I have met some of them and they all seem very lovely. I wish them all the best, but it seems like an entirely different show.

Because it isn’t a real friend group. They were just sort of thrown together for the show.

Oh! Nobody’s ever going to recreate the original “Vanderpump Rules.” Even though I don’t really talk to the cast members anymore, I think they would all agree with me that throughout the entire series, we didn’t even know that the show was successful. We never felt like the show was big or people watched it or “we’ve made it.” We always felt like Bravo’s ugly stepchild.

And now it’s one of the most celebrated shows in Bravo history and a new clip goes viral every week.

I get tagged in TikToks and Reels, so I’ve noticed that. It’s only now that I think, “Oh, we really did something there.” In the moment, we didn’t feel that way, and maybe that is the magic of the show. We were best friends, dating each other, had nothing to lose, didn’t know what the fuck we were doing and kept it going and they never let us know how successful it was.

Can we talk about how much you were paid on “Vanderpump Rules?” I imagine it wasn’t as much as you should have been paid given the success of the show.

It was, like, nothing. I think the first season was $3,500 and then you got half that because of taxes, so I think I got around $1,000 and that was it. And the second season was just a little jump from that. The third season was the first time I got a check that I was proud of and I think it was $23,000 or something like that. It made me feel something. And then it jumped up eventually, but that’s every reality show.

Your “cancelation” looms over “House of Stassi” in an interesting way.

I know. I can’t stop bringing it up. When I was watching scenes back, I was like, “You keep bringing this up.” But it was such a big part of my story and such a big part of who I am right now. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it.

What steps did you take in the wake of that to become more aware?

It was a lot of shutting up and listening and really just being fucking awake to things. When I felt on top of the world in “Vanderpump Rules,” I was so used to being in the same environment, the same situations, not thinking differently and being narrow-minded in everything, whether I’m in a fight with a friend or whatever. I was never expanding my brain or myself, and after I was canceled, there was a lot of trying to do that.

Do you think you deserved to get fired from “Vanderpump Rules” or do you believe it was too harsh a punishment?

I don’t think it’s up to me to decide what I deserved or not. I don’t have that right. But as hard as that was, I’m so thankful that it happened the way that it did because I wouldn’t be here with you right now and I’m better for all of it. Being pregnant helped me through everything. If I wasn’t pregnant, I’d have gotten wasted and taken Xanax. There was something about being pregnant with my daughter where it was, like, “This is your moment to be whatever you want to be because right now, you’re nothing.” I took that all very seriously, I learned from it in the places I needed to learn, I made peace with the things that I thought were unfair and I moved forward for the sake of my daughter.

To go back to “Vanderpump Rules” and its blind spot regarding bad male behavior, do you feel that is in large part because Lisa Vanderpump has a blind spot regarding bad male behavior? I think of the amount of chances she gave DJ James Kennedy or Jax compared to, say, Kristen.

I think that every person has a blind spot for things and people like who they like and don’t like who they don’t like, and that’s her. It’s just like everybody else.

Because James and Jax were given so many chances until they literally assaulted a woman.

Well, I assaulted Kristen and I got a lot of chances!

That scene is … pretty iconic.

Was it? People say that but that’s a scene that I hope my children won’t see — although I know they will. That’s an embarrassing … That’s not ideal.

Violence is not the answer.

Yes.

So, I’ve dined at Sexy Unique Restaurant, aka SUR, and I need to know your honest opinion of the food there.

Oh, it’s different now. They’ve changed the menu.

I dined at it back in the day, and all I’ll say is the goat cheese balls were solid.

They’re not anymore. They’ve changed them! It’s wild. I’ve only been once since they changed everything and since my time on “Vanderpump Rules” ended, and … I was shocked. That’s it. I don’t want to shit on a restaurant, but it is what it is.

There’s a line you say to Kristen on “Vanderpump Rules” that goes viral every so often: “The only thing that I have holding me back right now is that I have self-respect and dignity. Thank God for Kristen, who is unburdened by those anchors.”

We were going to Katie and Tom’s engagement party at Lisa’s house and Kristen wasn’t invited! I get tagged in so many things and I think, “God, I was so much more ruthless back then! I wish I could tap into that …”

There aren’t as many medieval torture fantasies on “House of Stassi.”

No! There’s not. You know what? Maybe I peaked on “Vanderpump Rules.”

How prevalent was the drug use during the early seasons of “Vanderpump Rules?” There is an infamous scene where Kristen is freaking out in Mexico about Sandoval cheating on her and she says, “Can I have a bump of tequila?” The fandom is convinced that “tequila” was the code word for cocaine.

No. So, the girls were not doing that. Kristen was not doing that.

But Jax has admitted that he was on a ton of coke.

Yes, but he also didn’t do that in front of us. I’ve caught it when I watched things back on camera or see a TikTok.

Interesting. So, how many times did they try to get you on “The Valley?”

Not since it aired. There was a giant push and everyone thought I was crazy for saying no to that. They were like, “You’re fired! Why aren’t you saying yes to this?” And I said, “Because I believe in something greater.” At first, before COVID, it was supposed to be a natural spinoff of “Vanderpump Rules” with the OG cast, and that I was really into because we didn’t have to focus on SUR. But once everything happened in 2020, and they started picking up the idea of “The Valley” again and talking about new people, I felt that I had the opportunity to really change myself. I wouldn’t grow if I had stayed doing things like that.

How are you and Beau doing now? Is he back to work and have you become more accepting of that?

So, we’ve pivoted a little bit. He’s been auditioning more and he also started golfing, working on his art and doing things that matter to him because the show also became a job. We’ve been really open with each other about what makes us happy, and it feels like we’re in a really good place right now.

How do you keep “The Dark Passenger” at bay? It seems to come out when you feel like you’re being abandoned or think there’s a possibility that Beau might leave — when it feels like the walls are caving in, and it’s not really Beau, necessarily, but the ghosts of past relationships.

It’s like you see into my soul. You really do sound like the therapist I have seen, and these are the conversations I’ve had with Beau. You might not believe it because you’ve just watched “House of Stassi,” but I’ve gotten so great at containing “The Dark Passenger” and recognizing when I start feeling those feelings. It is, like you said, an abandonment thing. Beau and I figured it out relatively early on after “Vanderpump Rules” that all of these relationships that I’d been through, the second I feel like someone’s leaving or not present, I don’t know how to handle that. I’ve dated a lot of horrible people, and I don’t know what that says about me to go from Jax to Frank to Patrick, and I don’t feel like unpacking that with a therapist. I survived that, I’m fine, and I feel like I’m a happy, normal person, but that is always where “The Dark Passenger” spiraled from. It would spiral when it was late night and Beau didn’t want to go to bed at the same time as me and I was irrationally angry because I associated that with only betrayal and lies happening late night when you don’t want to come home with your person. But I trust Beau fully and wholly, so “The Dark Passenger” isn’t about that anymore.