Behind every reality tv star, there's someone picking up the pieces. For Rachel, that is her manager, Juliette.
Rachel has turned over the podcast to let Juliette tell all as she talks with entertainment journalist, Lanae Brody, and reveals the role the media plays in the whole situation.
This is Rachel Go's Rogue. This is Rachel Savannah Lovis, and you're listening to Rachel Goes Rogue. Today, we're doing something a little bit different. I am handing the reins over to my manager, Juliette. There's been a lot of questions and I've asked my manager to step in and take the reins on this one because she is able to articulate all of the things that happened when I was away at the Meadows and she had to step in and deal with all of this chaos. Just giving more of an insight on what that was like, because this scandal kind of took over the media for months and months and months and months, and it was very stressful, and Juliette was there for all of it, thank goodness, because I had, you know, I had to deal with my own stuff. In order to be healthier, I had to take that time away. Juliet was my representative that really stepped up for me and really took over, which I really needed at that time because the press was insane. People were asking for comments, there were rumors and mistruths being talked about. You know, there was full blown fan fiction. There were allegations that I was pregnant, that I was seen at an airport, that I was not at mental health facility, I was actually at a spa. Just all this stuff that was not accurate at all, and I couldn't even have predicted that was going to happen. I just knew it was all too much that first month leading into the reunion, and then I had to take some time away to figure my stuff out. So Juliette was my first hand woman, and I think that she's more well equipped to answer the questions that Lenae Brody is asking. Lenae Brody has almost sixteen years of experience working in entertainment journalism with a heavy emphasis covering all things Bravo. She has also been a moderator at Bravo Con, so I know that she's very emotionally invested in the situation and has all the tough questions. And this isn't a cop out for me to like not take accountability or people say that I just physically and mentally was not there for the heart and the meat of the chaos. I was taking care of my mental well being. But Juliette was and she earned every dime of her rate during that time, so I'm going to hand it over to Juliette and Linee Brody.
Juliet I'm so excited to chat with you today. First and foremost, I think you're going to answer so many journalists, fans, even like fellow colleagues of ours in the industry. I think You're going to answer a lot of questions, and this should be a really insightful chat. So thank you for taking the time today to do this. Well, thank you. You know. I think my first question when I was asked a chat with you is I really want to know how she met Rachel and how their relationship started, Like did you find her? Did she find you? Had you guys met at you know, an event ten years ago? Like why don't you talk to me about that first? Fortunately, I've been doing this for twenty four years and I've been very lucky that because of word of mouth, that's how I get all my clients. And actually we had a mutual friend that when it happened, Just to kind of remind you that timeline of that when it broke, I think and look, I am not great at all my dates and times, so bravo, fans, give me a break. If I'm a day or two off. I believe it happened on the Wednesday that they were in New York and then the video and then it broke, and then Friday broke news wise, and she found out that she had been taped without her knowledge and thought, you know, oh goodness is at a whole different level. And she told her family and friends and they connected us, and by the Sunday, I was on the phone with the lawyers and helping her get sort of organized and figure out what we needed to do. So it happened very quickly, and it was from a neutual referral and they hit it off, and I spoke with her parents, and you know, I'm funny because I know there were people that were afraid to work in a situation right And for me, I think we did it very strategically as far as not speaking too much and speaking quietly and calmly and when we needed to, trying to always be honest with the media. But I tried to not be just reactive. You know, at the end of the day, I had a person that I was trying to help, not just a narrative or story. And had you known about Bravo, I mean, obviously you knew like what Bravo was, but like, did you know the depth of this, like for the fans, like we spoke about, you know, before we started, guys, we had to talk about like the fandom that is the Bravo universe, aka the Bravoaholics, and they call them. Yeah, they come full force, like if you if you need anything, like if you're wondering what episode a certain line was in, Like there's a Brava Holic that's got it, Like, yeah, sure, So you know, like were you familiar with the neverk had you seen the show? Did you have to google who Rachel was? Like talk to me about that. I was very familiar with Bravo. I've worked with different housewives in the past. However I've never seen or heard of inproperles and and now they're gonna come from each but but I am now well versed. But you know what, at the end of the day, for me, public relations and a situation are the same things, no matter what the actual item itself is. The principles are the same, the tactics are the same. You know. I believe in being very honest with the media outlets because I wouldn't have a career if I was misleading the outlets. And so fortunately I have very good, lengthy, strong relationships with the outlets, with the journalists themselves, so therefore I could maneuver the situation. And then I had to learn as I went. And obviously the situation itself was horrible, right, so you know, but I'll tell you what is just to me is how many affairs have we seen in Hollywood? Right? How many cheating scandals or whatever? And not very many, if any. And maybe the one that was closest to it was baby Sheen has right with her first one with Eddie, they don't hit the fervor, and the with the this one did, so that in itself is fascinating. But when I took Rachel on for me, it was wow. I mean, I helped this young woman with this you know, horrible narrative and try to help her through it, and then it ended up being a whole lot more right. Well, and you know, people who don't do what we do right, like don't really know, so like just to walk through through it very quickly for like the cliff note version for people like yes, when this all goes down and you know, the story broke on TMZ, and you know, it's like there's shirts like I know where I was I survived scandal, Where I was when scandal, Like I think it was March third, right, Yeah, I think that's right. Yes, that's sad that I know the day off topic. Anyways, you know, like we as journalists like knew where we were. And I just I remember I was a reporter at at People at the time, and it was like, oh my god, like jaw hit the floor when we read the TMZ headline, and you know, right away as a journalist, well doing our due diligence, which is reaching out to the fellow publicist involved, and in that moment, it was not you, and I just remember by it must have been. If I remember correctly, I think Rachel had somebody else for like a two day stint in between you guys write for like that first weekend, because I just remember we're all like, okay, you know, I won't name names, but like this person who does work with Rachel is now claiming they don't work with Rachel. And now I'm told this person's working with Rachel, And oh my god, I thought I reached out to Rachel's rep. But now I'm hearing that this is not Rachel's rep. It's this person. And then I believe by Monday your name was given to me start reaching out to. And I was literally sitting there like, Okay, I just want to do the right work. But like that's what we do, and like you know, we use websites that are updated constantly or supposed to be to tell us who the right representative is to reach out. Yes, I have to imagine when you got thrown in by that Monday, because like I said, she did have somebody else for that like forty eight hour when there was actually two people, Oh there were okay, because I'm like a usual who works with other vander Pump. Yes, and that was a problem, right, because which we'll get into, i'm sure. But so first of all, the person was working with her who is not actually hired, was advising her through Tom. I'm just gonna say it. And and she and then that situation when she found out Tom had recorded her, it was it became a conflict and she was concerned. She went to somebody else first, I think, and they were too afraid of the magnitude. They basically said, and these are good people. I'm not naming them. They're good people. They just said we're small, we're startup, we can't wait hold hat and yeah yeah, so that's on it. Okay, So like by Monday again for those who like don't works, like I started reaching out to Juliet being like, hey, I hear you're you're now here and you know, and I I'm a very honest person. I was like this in my head, is now the third person I have reached out to in forty eight hours. You're probably not gonna be around much longer either, because this just seems and I mean that with like love, like in the sense that like it's so like I said, it is a beast, and this story was blowing up and more was coming out and like to your point, right, like it was an affair, and so I think people didn't really think it was going to like have this kind of magnitude that that ended up having. So when I say that, I just mean like it's like, Okay, this is a headache, Like this is more than I can deal with. I have so many other clients, I'm so successful, Like this isn't like a break that I need. So like then it's going to be somebody else. But I just remember, like I was, like I hadn't thoughts many times, and like I mean this with so much respect, like Julia, it's like really hanging on here, because because this is a this is a job, right, Like you guys have people on your roster that maybe you'll get one email a month for because the person's just having a slow month or their on hiatus. But this was constant, like stipid night, like did you get sweep? Well, I think right there at the beginning, there wasn't a lot of sleep and it was you know, and you have to remember, besides the fact that this is the television show and a scandal at the base of it, our people, right, and her parents who were watched this happen to their daughter, and look, think of Pam and Tommy, right, like what could have happened? And so that's why I say on Sunday we were on the phone all afternoon with the lawyers and that's when they sent out the season desists and to destroy the video and not send it out a bublah, which they needed to do that quickly because and also in perspective of everything from that timeline where the argument happened, the assault happened, getting on a plane back to la and finding out that it's bad enough that this affair just came public, but then finding out the person that you trusted had recorded you without your permission, and now that's out there, right and that's our only So now there, you know, her television friend group has blown up her like it all blew up in one minute. So for her family, you know, it was horrible. So yeah, they were on the phone with me all the time. What should we do? How do we fix this? Because they certainly didn't want to see their daughter on orn, you know, so everybody was trying to jump up and do what they could do. And then let's not forget Rachel was already from this previous season quite fragile, and you saw her have her breakdowns. I mean, and if you talk with like she had the anxiety attack in the car, I think it was from the Girl's trip. She was crying on Peter's shoulder as a friend because she just I think for Rachel, she wasn't sure which parts were reality and which parts were reality TV. So when it came to me, there was already these issues of her breaking down and getting counseling and figuring out if she was going to go into this facility. So all that happened like in a week, and then the reunion was coming right. So yeah, it wasn't a lot of sleep. It wasn't a lot of rest. It was a lot of and the media, with all the respect all of them, I have very religious, we're relentless, but they're all trying to get the story. They're all trying to get the bottom line and why so I respect that, But yes, I it was. It was a wild time. I think like it got to a point for me because you know, as a senior reporter, I just remember that I got to a point where like I was like copy and pasting, like, Hi, Juliette, I hope this email finds you quite well. Reaching out because like it got repetitive, but we had to reach out any single time, you know, another outlet was bringing something or like, you know, my phone was like I am very intertwined in this community. I am a fan and I've covered the beat, and so like my phone, like even if I wasn't out there sniffing, was blowing up, like hey, you know, she had dinner at this establishment. We saw like her and Tom We're still meeting up and hanging out. So everyone's like, oh my god, what actually is going on here? So you know, your guys's job, right is to work with us either have us get the story straight or again, like if it's a journalist you really trust, like you might come to and be like, hey, I really want to put this out there. Can we work together, you know on getting the story straight? How are you deciding what to comment on and like when to make those calls to like, you know, get the story out there, get the story straight, things like that. Well, I think so, in full disclosure, one of the things that I did do is I didn't publicly put my name out right most of the time. You don't as a polosist, right, like, it's not my job to be out there. But you know a lot of times I have to thank my journalists and my relationships for keeping me hidden, if you will, for a while, because I with the viitual and the hate and the intensity of it all. I've got three little kids, right, and I just didn't want that. But I was also because I had the relationships with the journalists I had, and they knew and I'm very proud of this because I worked at it for twenty four years. I don't lie to the journalists. I don't need to lie. I can say, look, I can't tell you that right now. I'll tell you when I can. I'll clarify when I can. So a lot of it is is thinking like a chess game, right, So what I do is thinking what's going to happen three steps out right and trying to because I don't everyone to lie. I also don't want to rush to answer something so that it's wrong later. This very well could have gone that way. A lot of the theories were kind of right, right. We find that out as it all kind of goes. But I didn't want to misspeak. I also wanted to give Rachel space to make decisions because if I said we were going to do something and something went in a different direction, then they would come and say we lie. So if you really look back at everything we did from a pr perspective, it was less, not more. It was and that was very purposeful. And we can dig into some of those because some of them were very challenging. Like you know, the initial part it was fasteful, right, there was an affair, but I think the part that was frustrating. And I know you're a huge job of fans, but the pr that came from this was driven. This wasn't not accidental. This was not just a swirl of interest, because that would have lasted a week, right, Like how many no offense to Kyle and Maurice, who love them, but they keep trying to get that scandal to stick and it just doesn't really stick. This one went above and beyond, And then you have to look at all the tentacles because you've got all of the Ginas and Laalas that have their own podcasts too, So you know, the PR is working overtime, and the Bravo blogs are working over time, and the fans are working over time, and the fans are searching for truths and whys. But then the narratives were pushed out pretty hard, and I believe to my core, for many reasons which we can get into, that this was very much driven for ratings. I was I want to ask you about that a little bit more, because you know, I don't think that's something Rachel's like really come out and said. And you know, I guess, like the I wondered, like, why how did this come out? Now and you know, we know that, like they were at the show together at Tom's Tom's concert, and like the phone came out of the pocket and like that's when Ariana found it, and like you know, as if you were, like I've kind of thought too, and like that, Like I've known these players for over a decade now, eleven seasons. I have literally covered the show since season one at my first job. Right, what took so long? I wonder, Like it happened on this stage just as October of twenty twenty two, this picture right behind me. Okay, it came out March of twenty twenty three, and I have to, like my job is to like sniff what's going on. And I am still mad at myself to the day that I did not pick up on anything going on when it was literally happening right in front of my face, under my nose next to me. So like how this was kept quiet was is one thing, but like two, like, how do you think it came out when it didn't? Why if that is your theory, why do you think it came out when it did? So my theory is not going to be a popular one, but I stand by it and I will go to my grave believing it is that. So the Bramo salutes are super salute. But women as a whole pretty good at smoothing. If I think my husband is cheating, and I can walk right over to the side of the bed when he's asleep and check his phone, because clearly she has password. Right when you drop your phone, it doesn't unlock, so she had to unlock it. She unlocked it. If the story is true to check it at that moment. Why why would you if you suspect anything at any time and we already know because Sheena and on her podcast they came out and said something about oh. Arianna said, oh, this is suss behavior right and and in the lawsuit that Rachel filed, she also said that she believes, you know, this was known beforehand. So I don't believe that. I don't believe that's how it's happened. I believe that was propped and sent and I don't know. Maybe she saw the day before and she told production and off they went. But if you want to if you think that some of your partner is cheating, you have access to their phone twenty four hours a day, wait till they're asleep. Wait till they go the bathroom. But look at the phone the password, So I don't buy that it fell out of his pocket and I looked at it and blah blah blah blah. I think that was set up for the whole thing. Why do we think it came out? You know? You can also tell in the in the final five minutes of the reunion when they pulled Rachel in, So just so everybody knows, that was like four or five hours condensed into five minutes. So they were pushing and pushing for her to express things. So they were fishing. They knew, they knew, they knew. There's no way they didn't know my opinion, and why the show was bludgling And look at the ratings it got. It got readings it beat Original Bachelor ratings.
Wow.
So that's my opinion. I know people aren't going to love that, and but I stick to it, and I feel that something else that you'll look at and people forget. Is that all? If all? Except maybe I don't know if James is or not. I mean, he's a DJ, but all of them are actors. They are all trying to be actors. They're all actors. Rachel wasn't. And I think we find Joe in the same position that Rachel was in. And you know, people want to say she was the super fan. She wasn't. She had never seen the show before until she started dating James. Then she's watched the show because you know she's dating James. And people like to say, oh, they all know what they're getting into. They don't. They think they do. They think they can control it. They think they are smarter than the network. They're not. It's like, I compare the network to Las Vegas. The house always wins. So when you did this all imploded, This all came out Rachel and you were having to navigate it very quickly, and like obviously then she you know, checks into the facility. And from the media perspective when said celebrity, you know, let's I don't want to like compare, it's not the same. But like if a celebrity gets in, you know, get to DUI like a high profile at least like well back in the day, maybe not as much as work. Their wrath is gonna be like, hey, maybe she's got to rehab for two weeks, right, clean up your image, show people you're sorry. Whatever, So again, like from my perspective, this happened, and I was like, Okay, she's doing that, you know, like clean up the image, like I get the pr behind it. Little did I ever think it would turn into ninety days? Right? It was, And that's that's when I was like, oh my gosh, she's not going to come back to fander pumpa roles like this is this is you know, And that's like I believe she was in the facility when the reunion aired. Is that correct? No, right after she filled it, she went in, Yeah, we had been watching it on TV, so we're watching it knowing that she's now in this facility. You know, people really came for her and like La La, I'm sure she's not watching it or probably not watching, but like La La love La La. She actually took it upon herself to apologize and send Rachel a message while she was in the facility, and I remember on the episode, La La said she read Rachel read the message, and she never heard from her, Like do you think that Rachel felt the apology just like wasn't genuine? Are there certain people that you think that you know, she wishes she would hear from or like talk to me a little bit about that. Yeah, so let's let's talk about that. Rachel was in the facility, and Okay, first of all, the minute you step in there, you hand up your phone. She has nothing. I took over her phone so that I could be aware for anything that was interesting, exciting or whatever. I saw that come in across my phone. And because I didn't have her phone, I had her social media's on my phone, and so I saw that message come across and so I clicked on it. So that was my TV debut, I'm kidding. So what a debut. Yeah, let's first put it in perspective. Lala did that because she was told to do that on the television show. She was scripted to call Rachel because that was it, and there wasn't an apology. Maybe she showed a second of oh, you know, she's in a facility, right, So then she calls I or you left the message. I saw it and I'm not going to answer it, right, it's not my place. I just making sure whatever anything is. And then you see and then she comes out afterwards and said that she wish she hadn't done it. So Lala, I like Lala's personality, don't get me wrong. I think she's dynamic. I think she's super strong for what she's doing. But you know what, those girls were very very ladies, are very very mean to Rachel, their mean girls, and they used her for the storyline. They used her for that moment of empathy, only to retract that. But yeah, I was the one that saw that she had no knowledge that had happened until she came out and to that point that you made. First of all, Rachel was also already going through counseling, and it was quite funny when we did into the Tom of it all. Tom was trying so heavily to influence everything she did, including me, you know, try to get me fired so that she would work with his rep, trying to get her to come out of this facility. She needed to get away from that, so, you know, the thirty days, it was a big commitment. And I don't think there's a celebrity out there that you can say that had that level of impatient three months assistance. I mean, it's unheard of, and she's so great for it. I will say too, Yeah, well, obviously she took it seriously. And you know, I will say, like when she came out and said I'm walking away from the show. I think that was her in my opinion, It was herd a way of like really saying like, no, I don't want this, I don't need this, I don't need to be famous. Like she gave up a job, you know, and a lot of money and a lot of money, and it was really out there that they wanted her to come back. And I've watched several times this year, and I'm sure a lot of fans and people the same thing, like of, well, what if Rachel were here, Like what would be happening? Like, you know, things like that will never We'll never know. And you know, I kind of like had the vibes to I'm like, maybe it'll be like the Housewive moment where they take a season off and then they you know, come back and like, hey guys, I'm here. Obviously that seems to not be the case in this situation, but you know, I really do want to get into the tum of it all. Actually, one question that I really have for you is Brock, on a recent episode acute Sandival's team of planting a room or that Brock and Rachel hooked up right. He thinks that Sandival's team or former team planted that. What do you have to say about that? Have you heard anything? Do you agree with Brock? I don't have the fact, but I would It wouldn't surprise me in a hot second. There's another thing that was out there when Rachel was coming out of the nail salon and she she answered some questions. I've always set things up directly with the outlets. I tell you and say, hey, so and so, it is going to be here, be there. Somebody had to give that that, and it wasn't us, and somebody got paid for that, and it wasn't her for me, So I am of the belief that he one hundred percent set things up in whatever way to make him look good. And then there's another example I'll just mention it. You know, there was when she was in the facility, and there was then the video where he was at the spot and then you hear the girl laugh. That was done intentionally to cast doubt that she was in a facility. Yeah, I mean, I've got to wonder, like I had this thought too of Like you know, usually when you have two celebrities, two public figures that are having this affair together, you know, again, for people who don't know both public maybe they're not telling their whole roleodex, but like they're gonna tell their publicist, I'm sleeping with so and so, right, I'm having an affair with I'm having an affair. I'm having an affair with like, because you guys are gonna have to feel the call, and if it comes in at three in the morning, hey, I'm going to press if I don't hear from you, like, That's why they tell you, and that's why you always tell your like tell me everything. I've always got to have your back. I'm on your team, and that's why having a publicist you trust and a journalist in your pocket that you trust is so important. So you know, I do wonder, like, especially because you were brought into this and you know Tom's former publicist or former team member you know, was helping Rachel as well before all this happened with like certain things. So you know this person knew Rachel a little bit and probably how to you know, work around her, work with her, work alongside her whatnot. So you know, how did you feel when this was all coming to a head, and like stories are coming to you about both of you and like, again, you would usually call this person and be like, hey, how should we handle this together? What are you going to talk address? It sounds like you couldn't really do that in this situation. So were you guys talking constantly? Were you not on the same being? Like what was going on behind the scenes? So I think from the very beginning. So, because when something is such a a huge experience, you'd come close quite quickly. So in this situation, I had to get to know her very quickly, and we had to make some moves very quickly. We spoke a lot. Her parents were concerned, and let me make this very clear, Rachel hired me. Rachel paid me, not her parents. Her parents or typical parents that are like, oh my gosh, my daughter's business is now everywhere right, and they're worried and they're scared because of the death threats. So when she went into the facility, I thought, the thing that was the most important is that she really needed to heal, She needed to get away because as an outsider, to me, the whole thing looked like a cult. The whole thing looked like she was so sucked in that she couldn't see the difference between what was real, and she was torn up. She was torn up when she found out that this tape happened. She was torn up that it got it, you know, that it came out the way that it did, and she lost the one person that she thought she had and then everybody was going to be so upset with her. And she was remorse from from day one. And she was confused because he was telling her they were broken up and they were this, that and the other thing right, So, you know, all of that was very hard on her at that time. So I had to give her the respect of letting her be in there and heal because she needed to not talk about this show. She needed to not think about business. So a lot of why there wasn't I mean not still probably would have been my strategy to is that we didn't just jump to answer things. We didn't just respond to things. We didn't you know, if things I thought were unfair, I could call somebody like you and say, well, you know, that's not really quite accurate, or and or remind people that at the end of the story is a person in pain and problematic mental health and in a facility doing it. So you know, maybe it would be to kind of keep it great. But in twenty four years, I've never had a situation where I couldn't talk to my client. Somewhere around the middle is when we started to talk maybe once a week, because you know, the other thing you don't want to do is I want to go, oh, my gosh, this headline happened, Gosh, this night thing. Right, she's in there getting treatment. So then I would only try to tell her the things that I needed to tell her or thought I needed to respond to or get an answer to. Oh.
You know.
The worst part about it was when everyone started saying she was at a spa and Mirvall posted something to imply that she was there, and I immediately they did it on a Friday night, So me trying to get a hold of corporate at that time not easy but right. But then the cast members their podcasts, everybody started jumping on it, saying, oh, she use to me, but she said, oh, I heard she's at the spa. Then there was a video that Tom posted where he was at a spa, and then you hear this girl laugh in the background that is meant to be implied that that's possibly Rachel. So then I get bombarded by the media saying there's sightings of her, she's out, she's not in, and there's and there are people that like you that I have a relationship with, a trusted relationship, right, And I'm like, they all know, Juliet. The sources are legit, sources are great, she's out, she's out, and companee, oh my gosh. So I at one point called the facility, spoke to the nurse and I'm like, you know, can you see Rachel. Oh yeah, she's her Aaron front of great. And I went back to my friends and said, no, this is for my colleagues and said, no, this is she's You can post whatever you want, but it's not accurate, right, And and now I do remember that, and I remember us all being like, well, there's no way because like again, there's it's all happening so fast. And I'm not saying this at you directly, but like, you really know, there are publicists in this industry who lie on a daily basis to protect our clients. Totally. We are used to it. Yes, I usually can sniff them out, like I get it, you don't want me breaking this big news, And then I don't want to get scooped like I lose sleep over. So of course it's like we have this video, we hear a girl, there's a mirror ball, which is a legit plate. Right, things were moving like a million miles Again, were you talking and were there ever times that you talked to Tom directly? Did you ever oh, yeah, you know, and correct me if I'm wrong, But it sounds like you were having issues communicating or getting on the same page with his side of the ball and his team. Did you ever try to go around that and go to him directly? And then was there a point that you just kind of said, you know what, we're going to do it our way. I can't work with you guys, you're not in her corner. Because I really did think, at least in that moment when we were all living it, while like Tom and Rachel may end up together again outside looking in at that moment, so for me, I would consider myself a good juke of character and pretty good intuition. And the very first conversation that I had was with myself and Rachel and Tom and his then representative, and even the way it came to me at that point, I could hear she was broken. She was a broken person. You could hear it in her voice. You know, she was shaky, was I don't even know how to describe it. She was sort of not all in her in herself at that moment. And she when she said to me, Tom wants to get on the phone. Tom's representative and me and you, and I'm like, okay, what do you want? You know, I pick up on those things. I'm a mom of daughters too, and I'm very much about empowering them. And when I hear that, I think, okay. So we get on the phone and immediately listening to him. Now remember I haven't seen an episode of the show at this time, listening to Tom, right, yes, this is Tom. Immediately talking to him and listening to him, and all he kept saying is my brand, our brand. And I was like, excuse me, you're thinking about a brand. I'm thinking about a human that is about to go into a mental health facility. But you do you And Rachel actually had said to me previously, I need to have some time alone. But he won't give me the time alone and he won't give me a minute's rest. I told her, let me be the bad guy. I'm the back guy. Then let me be the voice. And so I said to him, I said, look, you know what I mean, get the flu. You still love your family, but you don't feel well, and all you want to do is lay in the bed with the covers over your head and just drown it out. I said, can you give her twenty four hours where you don't call her, leave her alone for twenty four hours, Let her have the flu, Let her pull the covers over her head and just relax. He could not do it. The minute we hung up, he was on the phone for again, and he's in her ear. And at the point she was not strong enough to hang up. She was not strong enough to walk away. People can blame that all they want. They can say, oh, she's an adult, Oh she knew, Oh blah blah blah whatever. When you are manipulated, when you are down, you don't have the strength. And if that wasn't a thing, we wouldn't have the domestic violence and abuse situations we have, because how many people say, why does she stay with him? Because we don't understand the power dynamics, We don't understand the threats, We don't understand where that person is mentally, and we don't understand what the other person is doing to them. So it's very easy to be the couch coach and say why didn't she just hang up? She couldn't. She wasn't strong enough, and so part of her going to the facilla to improve herself and learn about why she was codependent, why she couldn't break away, and why she didn't have the strength. He gave her the space and hence the clarity to walk away, But in the moment she didn't have it. She was Okay, I'm coming, Okay, I'm leaving, Okay, this is great. He loves me, he doesn't love me. It was a tornado in her head. So from that moment on, as he told me, he was worried about his brand with Arianna he had built, They had built a brand together, they had appearances. Then he was like, but Rachel and I we're going to be the new brand. And I was like, ew, this is this is dick, this is a person. This isn't about a brand. And then it takes me back to one of the earlier points I made with you. There's people that are on reality television that get it, and they're great at it, and they work it and they manipulate it and they benefit from it. Rachel was one of those people. She just wasn't So did it get to a point then, like after that phone call that you guys started to herself from soy, yeah, pretty much from that moment, I knew what I was dealing with, and I was like, I'm not doing this one thing in particular, or actually two things. Rachel was still torn with the Tom issue, right. She was starting to see he was manipulating her, but she wasn't strong enough to just break it off at that point or walk away from it. And so we had this call about how we were going to break was I think it was the apology to public apology. So she had apologized to Ariana twice on via email and tried to call her, and Ariana had blocked her. Understandy, So just because you want to apologize, says it me, and somebody is there to receive it. So she apologized to her twice, and then she told her that she was going to make a public apology because she didn't want it to be fake or whatever. So she let her know. She didn't answer, that's fine, we put out the public apology. I was very transparent I hit the journalist at People magazine first set it up, and then we were on the phone with Tom and his wrap and I read it to him, and the minute he said he was good with it, I hit sent to the journalist. Well did I get from his rep? Oh, you lied to us? You went around and says no, I just beat you. I went faster, so I got it out there because I did. I'm not playing the games that they're playing. I needed to take care of a human. I needed to get that apology out for hers, she wrote, and then we needed to be able to take care of her health. And then there was another time, and this was again where I start questioning the motive. In the reunion, Tom says how he was on the speaker phone right and heard it all, and then Ariana says, all you have to do is keep your mouth shut. Right. They told me that that happened beforehand. And I said to Tom, if you love her and you support her and you want what's best for her, why would you not say that now because this is on the early side, right. He said, yes, I will, and then he backtracked. That to me was a real sign of his selfishness, because that would have changed the narrative along the way because we didn't have Rachel speaking, and because I wasn't willing to just feed into headlines for just no purpose. There wasn't a lot on our side, so all those headlines that were going out were very one sided. And that one article at the beginning, because this was before she went into the facility, would have changed the trajectory of the conversation, but he wouldn't do it. Yeah, and remember they were in the trailer at the reunion together filming, and like, like I said, I really thought like these two were going to go the distance. But it sounds like all of these issues that were happening behind the scenes. It sounds like to me like there were all these issues your mom, so you also have that you know, maternal piece of view. It sounds like you really were able to like come in see what was going on, see that you know, your word broken girl who just needed guidance. Maybe you were probably thinking, if she goes into this facility, clears her head, comes out and says, I'm so in love with this man. We're going to go to therapy together when we're through this. Like everybody, we've probably had to support her on her side, right, but you you saw what was going on, you got her out of it with her parents, you got her into this place. But it sounds like all these things that were happening behind the scenes that we didn't hear or see about, because I was wondering too, I'm like, okay, so wait, what's going on? Because when she went in, they seemed to be a unit happy given the situation and love. You know they're going to come out of this together, and like she's just going in for a pr again outside looking at of course, of course, and then she came out and you know, we're watching on the show now he's like, oh, she won't talk to me. And I remember thinking, well, how did we get here? Because there's a lot of things that we're not hearing, like how did we get here? And this is where I was like watching, being like I wish we had Rachel's like commentary, like her side of it as well. Right, Yes, but it sounds like you were having all of these you know, butting heads conflicts, like you're seeing that like they wanted to to take the story in a direction that you did not agree with and want and you were able to get Rachel to see. Oh wait a minute, this is not someone who has somebody best and trusted heart, I feel right. So it really sounds like it was all these behind the scenes working that led to their you know, blocking him and their one thing actually in particular is so now remember she goes in this facility and he's calling me right, and the whole first part of it, he's just like bashing her going in there. Oh you know they're going to brainwash her. Oh, she needs to come out. And I said, if you support her and you care about her, let her have this journey. Is she feels that this is helping her, why are you bucking it? Let her be Let her get the help she needs. Well, it's because he didn't want to help, you know, like he's told her and hence the name of the podcast. He didn't want her to go road. Thankfully it clicked for her and she said no more. And then he was frustrated and then he would call me out of frustration. And then the last phone call I had with him that was very funny, he said, she needs to get on the phone. You need to get her on the phone, even if she doesn't want to talk to me. She just needs to be on the phone. I've got critical information for her. I've got critical information for her. I'm like, okay, you know, I said, I'm sorry, she doesn't want to talk to you. She has instructed she's not gonna call you. And he got so frustrated and he blew a gasket and was like, I'm not going to protect her anymore. I'm out here by myself. It's them against me. I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm going to do what I have to do. And then hung up the phone. And I don't know if it was the same day or the next day. I called her Rachel and I said, oh, I think Tom just broke up with us. You guys never heard him again, and now he's dating somebody. I mean, what do you guys, what do you guys think of you? Never stop dating? He's never stopped dating. He's dating. I don't know. There was some influencer, then there was the music girl, and then he's never stopped dating. So you know, booh, I haven't been single in fifteen years. You don't need to be single to date. You're still dating, never stopped. Does Rachel seem bothered like at all? Or did she is she able to like tune that stuff out because you know what, this is the thing that I don't care what anybody says and all the haters that hate that girl has put in so much work and she is continuing to do the work. You know. I look at her and in the way that where she started to where she is now, she's like a different person the confidence and happy space. Like the broken girl that I met that was so sad and confused and hurt. You know, she's she's on the other side of that. She's still got a ways to go. She's a work in progress, and she will be the first one to say that she is still learning on a daily basis, but at the end of the day, she is she's living her life again. She also when Rachel got out, I was like, Okay, in my head again, I was like, it's probably now time for her. Andy Cohen Sindo. Andy gets Teresa and Joe Judace before they went to jail, you know, like he gets a big Bravo celebrity sit downs obviously before he gets first before any other journals. So I'd love to know when she came out, Like, did Andy approach you guys I'm assuming he did. Did other journalists, you know, because she still hasn't done like one big journalist sit down right yet when she went in, I didn't want to tell people where she went to begin with, right, like again, I wanted to give her privacy and whatever. But it was leaked. Somebody from the Meadows leaked They I think they were leaving when she came in, and they leaked it and put it out there and then everybody sort of picked up on it. So that was the next statement that I put out right. I was like, well, I better do this because I want to control I don't want people making stuff up. So I asked the network to post what I wrote on their platforms because I feel that would have also changed the trajectory of the narrative. They wouldn't do it, and I thought that was pretty suspect, because if you have an employee that's going in for mental health care help, don't you want to support them? So then I did say, you know what I think, don't you guys want to be on the right side of this, Like this is somebody that's committed to her mental health. Nobody knows what it's like to go to an in house facility, what if when she comes out, if it works for her and she's healthy. And at that time, I didn't know she was going for one month, two month, three months either, right, We just knew she was going in for We knew it was a thirty day stay to begin with. And so I said, well, if we did do something to highlight what her journey was like, right, and what it was like in that facility, you guys, meaning the network will come off looking great too, because you're supporting somebody that just, you know, the stigmas along not only mental health but treatment are big and real. Wouldn't it be great to be the people that talk about this and bring it out, you know, and they kind of yeah, yeah, I mean, we'll consider reperd it. And it didn't. One of the things she pointed out to me, and I wouldn't have known this if she didn't say it is the scene that we see where they go back to filming in her apartment and they're talking on the couch. She asked, Tom, why did you fiel me without my consent? And he answered her and they cut that out. And so then I spoke to the powers of being the producers and said why would you do that. You're trying to tell her that she can trust you, But who benefited from that? So only one person that benefited from that put out And at that point, it was right around the same moment, it was still the first half of the stay that negotiations were taking place, and they wanted to know what she was going to do, and she said, no, this is a toxic environment. I'm past this, I'm beyond this. I'm not doing this anymore. It's not good from a mental health I'm not coming, and she decided to go. Hence why the Bethany interview happened. And it happened, And I don't care what anybody says about Bethany. Bethany didn't watch the show. But Bethany was fair and Bethany gave her unlimited time, uninterrupted time to talk about what happened. And I think it was still today. It was the best movie we had because even a network that would have been supportive couldn't have given her the time right And so this way she got to tell her story freely. Whether she did it perfectly or not, you know what, it was her first time. Maybe she made some mistakes or whatever, But I thought it was good. I'm so good we got to chat. Like I said, I could ask you so many more questions, but you know, maybe we'll have another part two at some point. And I feel like, like I said, I think this conversation was so insightful for journalists, publicists, fans who have had a lot of questions. So thank you so much. And from our conversation you can tell like you are invested in your client. You are invested in Rachel. You do have her best interests at heart, and she's very lucky to have you in her corner. Well, thank you. I appreciate your time. And one thing that I asked of all the haters, if you will just be objective. No one's going to change your mind, nobody's going to condone what happened, but just try to give her the grace that everybody's trying to give Tom on the news storyline, extend that to Rachel. We have had so many supporters, I will say that really seeing her growth. So I just hope that continues. And I think the podcast is helping to shine a lot of light there, so people should tune in and just give it a chance totally, and just to piggyback off of that. If anybody is still on the fence a good journalist and a good person who is like a fanatic, you're going to be Smith Thurlin. I always try to keep an open mind because there's your side, there's their side, and then there's the truth. And I think, you know, especially in this situation, so much has changed in the last year since his story broke. We have learned so much. I've now learned even more things that I didn't know. Like I'm still like, oh my god, that's how the method about rand. So I do hope that people will maybe, especially now that we're like a year into this, that people will just kind of start to chill a little bit about yeah, handle of it all and let these people live their lives. So thank you for time, and you know, I wish Rachel the best on her mental health journey. I appreciate that and it was great to talk to you. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much for listening to Rachel Goes Grogue.
Follow us on Instagram and TikTok for exclusive video content at Rachel Goes Rogue Podcast.