Lisa Barlow was not surprised that Monica Garcia was let go from The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City after season 4. While promoting her new partnership with Clorox, Lisa told Hollywood Life in an exclusive interview that Monica has no one to blame but herself after Bravo decided not to ask her back for season 5. As fans know, Monica’s reckoning came once it was revealed that she was secretly running the Instagram troll account Reality Von Tease which targeted the other women — including Lisa — online.
“It wasn’t a shock, but it was also something we didn’t know,” Lisa said about Monica’s exit from the show. “Bravo doesn’t call us and say, ‘Hey guess what, Monica isn’t coming back.’ You find out by who shows up for things. I wasn’t shocked by it.”
“We all are given an opportunity and it’s what we do with that opportunity that creates longevity in a situation,” Lisa continued. “I think the way Monica went into this… it was like deceit, and then she was caught, so she had to come clean because there were proof, receipts, timelines. I’m not really surprised.”
While Monica is off the show, Lisa, Heather Gay, Whitney Rose, Meredith Marks, and Angie Katsanevas are expected to be joined by one or two newbies (and maybe Mary Cosby) on season 5, which started filming February 5.
Lisa said that that not having Monica or Jen Shah on the next season gives the rest of the cast “some freedom.” While Jen wasn’t on season 4 since she’s in prison until 2028 for her role in a telemarketing scheme, Lisa felt that Monica’s antics made them “go backwards” to what they dealt with at the beginning of RHOSLC.
“With some situations and some of the information that was brought, it was like all the way back to season one. There was no new information. No new secrets,” Lisa explained. “It’s kind of nice to have the freedom from the past. We want to keep moving forward. Even when we were in Palm Springs, and Monica was saying, ‘You think you’re better than all of us.’ I even said, ‘Oh here we go, season one retread information.’ We can’t keep going back to these same narratives for me. I’ve proven that to be false. It’s kind of nice to have a fresh start where we don’t have to go backwards and live in the past and bring up bad information.”
Lisa also noted that dealing with the Jen drama, and then the Monica betrayal, over the last four seasons was “painful” for her and her co-stars. “We experienced a lot. We’re real people, they’re real situations, and we’re going through real things,” she said. “No one wants to keep going backwards. I don’t think any of us want to.”
Not only is Lisa busy filming RHOSLC season 5, but she’s also partnered with Clorox for their Glam Getaway by Clorox Sweepstakes. From now until February 28, people can enter for a chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City, including two tickets to Watch What Happens Live!, hotel, glam treatments, and a shopping spree.
So, which of Lisa’s RHOSLC cast members need to use Clorox to clean up their messes the most? “I actually think all my castmates are clean and neat,” Lisa said. “Heather is probably a hoarder. Heather likes things but she’s super clean. But I think she likes excessive amounts [of things]. She probably has some of the same handbags in every color. But I think they probably all use Clorox.”