‘Pump Rules’ Star Katie Maloney Reveals How Kristen & Stassi’s Firings Brought Them All ‘Back Together’ After Feud
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Katie Maloney EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife how she, Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute put their ‘differences aside’ after the ‘Vanderpump Rules’ firings.
Amid everything that has happened throughout 2020, Katie Maloney especially didn’t see one thing “coming”: the Witches of WeHo reuniting. This was what Katie and her co-stars Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute infamously referred to themselves as, until Kristen had a falling out with Katie and Stassi in Season 8 of Vanderpump Rules. That all changed, however, when Bravo fired Stassi and Kristen in June after it had come to the public’s attention that they reported their co-star, Faith Stowers, to the police for a crime she did not commit in 2018. After the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum this summer, Faith had expressed her hurt over the situation, which sparked public criticism of Stassi and Kristen (they have since apologized). While appearing on the Aug. 17 episode of HollywoodLife TVTalk, Katie EXCLUSIVELY told us how the incident ended their feud.
“It was just when Kristen and Stassi got fired or they announced that they wouldn’t be coming back to the show, we just put our differences aside and just came back together just to support,” Katie revealed. “We’ve been like sisters for a long time and when one of us is going to go through something like that, it doesn’t matter where we are at, we’re going to drop what we’re doing to be together and be there for one another. That was the moment, I guess, that brought us back together.”
The reunion was organic, since Katie added that she immediately decided she was “coming over” on the very same day it was announced that Kristen and Stassi were let go from the show. However, Katie admitted she “definitely didn’t see that coming” — AKA, their patched-up friendship — and it was also shocking for fans to see Katie and Stassi reunite with their former frenemy, Kristen, for a lunch date at The Grove in Los Angeles on July 8.
On Season 8 of Vanderpump Rules, Kristen faced friction in her friendships with Katie and Stassi as they grew increasingly frustrated with Kristen’s ongoing drama with her ex, Brian Carter. “When they got fired, it was like all of our drama that we had and last summer — Carter this and Carter that — it just all seemed so petty,” Katie explained. “I just was more focused on wanting to be there to support my friend emotionally or physically or whatever it may be, because I think we were all very shocked by what had happened.”
Stassi Schroeder issued a public apology (as did Kristen Doute) in the wake of her firing.
However, they aren’t all exactly BFFs again. “It’s been a slow rekindling,” Katie clarified. “Slowly we’ve been spending more time together.” So, Katie couldn’t say for sure if the “Witches of WeHo” are back — “we haven’t put any labels on it,” she told us. This isn’t the first rough patch their friendship has gone through, however.
“We’ve been through it before,” Katie added. “We had the falling out and we got back together as friends and we’ve been down this road before and I don’t want to continue it, but I think just kind of understanding that life is bigger than the small things and that you need to just find forgiveness in your heart and put your differences aside, I guess. I’ll definitely talk more about it and I’d definitely like to talk with her about it, but we’ll see. So we’ll see!”
While Kristen and Stassi have left the show (in addition to Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni, after their old racist tweets resurfaced), Katie is still patiently waiting to film Season 9 of Vanderpump Rules. Meanwhile, she has a new passion project to keep her busy: You’re Gonna Love Me, a podcast that she launched on DearMedia on Aug. 14! Katie revealed how this podcast came about during our interview as well.
“I’ve been working on this since last fall,” Katie said. “I wanted to launch it in the spring, but when COVID started going crazy and we were all quarantined it kind of pushed everything back. But I had been flirting with the idea of doing a podcast for a long time.”
“I love podcasts, my friends have podcasts but I wanted to just kind of take my own experience in life and being on the show and just put out there and all of the intimate moments with that for millions of people,” Katie continued. “People definitely think they know who I am, but I just get put in the boxes of being a mean girl or a b-tch or a bully which I can see, because I watch the show. I know how I can be sometimes, but there’s so much more to me than just that.” And she’s of course bringing her Vanderpump Rules family into this new venture! James Kennedy appeared on the podcast’s second episode, and she also plans to invite Tom Schwartz, Lala Kent and Dayna Kathan.