Stassi Schroeder shared details about a meeting she had with a Vanderpump Rules producer in regard to a potential post-firing return while appearing on a podcast on Tuesday.
Before “Scandoval” broke amid season 10, exposing Tom Sandoval‘s months-long affair with Rachel “Raquel” Leviss, 30, Stassi, 36, considered returning to the series. And during the podcast episode, she explained why she opted against doing so. She also offered an update on her relationships with Lala Kent, 34, Katie Maloney, 37, and Scheana Shay, 39.
“It was right after I’d announced my second book, Off With My Head … I was asked by a producer to come back, and I had to really think about it,” Stassi revealed on the October 1 episode of the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast. “We kind of argued about it.”
Ultimately, however, Stassi decided that because she’d seen success outside of Bravo, it wasn’t in her best interest to return.
“I walked into this meeting being like, ‘You know what? No.’ Because I’d seen the reaction I got from my second book. And I had seen that, like, you know what? My career, I think I can keep going and do it on my terms,” she explained.
But when she arrived at the meeting, she learned that her potential return to Pump Rules may not have been a possibility at all.
“[The producer] was like, ‘Oh, by the way, I take it back. I didn’t get approval yet.’ It was a really messed up situ ation … It was like a mindf*ck,” she recalled, saying that if she had decided to return, it “would’ve killed [her]” to be shot down.
Although Stassi did not want to return to Pump Rules at that time, that’s not to say she didn’t consider returning to reality television in another way.
“It’s something that’s been part of my life since I was, like, 16. It’s always been something that I did, so of course it was always something that was on my mind. But I wasn’t going to do it unless it felt fully right,” she explained.
Four years after her firing from Pump Rules, which was prompted by racially insensitive behavior toward Faith Stowers, Stassi has married Beau Clark, 44, welcomed two kids, Hartford, 3, and Messer, 1, and announced her official return to the small screen.
As fans may have heard, Stassi will soon make her debut in a new Hulu docu-series, Stassi Says, and she will also be featured on the second season of Lisa Vanderpump‘s Vanderpump Villa.
“I’ve had to work on things. I didn’t just get offered things. I had to work on them myself,” she noted.
As for where she stands with her former castmates, Stassi confirmed she’s “still close” with Lala and Katie.
As for Scheana?
“I run into Scheana. Scheana and I have never been besties, but I run into her,” she revealed. “There’s always a kid’s birthday party. So much time has passed. I’ve been out of their filming world for so long and you have to try — when they’re not in their filming world, everyone’s a lot more relaxed and normal. So I don’t have that constant fighting or whatever. I’m just bringing my kid to a kid’s birthday, and we’re just talking about normal sh*t.”