Summary
- Jen Shah gave her first interview since her December release from federal prison, telling People magazine, “I was wrong” and declaring she takes “full responsibility” for her crimes.
- As part of her sentence, Shah was ordered to forfeit 6.5 million, 30 luxury items, and 78 counterfeit luxury goods, and to pay over 6.6 million in restitution.
- Shah also opened up about forming a close friendship with Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes while they were at Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas.
If you were waiting for the Jen Shah redemption interview, congratulations: it’s here. Months after trading her designer wardrobe for a federal prison jumpsuit and back again, the former Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star has officially broken her silence — and yes, she comes bearing remorse.
In a wide-ranging interview with People magazine, Shah — who was released in December after serving nearly three years at a federal prison camp — admitted that she “made wrong decisions.” No hedging, no lawyer-speak preamble. Well, at least not at first.
“I was wrong,” Shah, 52, tells the magazine. “I made wrong decisions. I should have done things differently. I should have been more diligent. And I’m deeply remorseful and sorry for my actions and for my part. I take full responsibility.”
That’s a far cry from the woman who once used “The only thing I’m guilty of is being Shah-mazing” as her Housewives tagline. Growth!
Shah pleaded guilty in 2022 to charges related to a telemarketing scheme that targeted elderly and other individuals, resulting in a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence. The scheme predominantly preyed on vulnerable, often elderly, working-class people — with prosecutors noting that Shah and her co-conspirators “built their publicly lavish lifestyles on the false promises of financial independence offered to their victims.”
So what finally made things click? The evidence, apparently.
“It was like a train hit,” she said of the moment prosecutors delivered a trove of evidence to her legal team. “That was the first time I saw all of it — the communications, the interviews, the witnesses.” She added, “I saw for the first time that there were people who were hurt. That there were actual victims as a result of this conspiracy. I had never seen anything with my own eyes. That changed things for me.”
Jen Shah now speaks of her crimes with a clarity that was conspicuously absent during her seasons on Bravo, where she leaned hard into the narrative that she was being railroaded. Reflecting on her decision to speak out, she tells People, “At that point, that’s when I said, ‘You know what, I have to be accountable.'”
She accepts the consequences, too — at least the financial ones. “I’m sorry,” she tells People. “I’m accepting responsibility, and I’ve made it my mission to make sure that people are paid back.” She added: “These people deserve to be made whole.”
Still, the interview has some, but wait, there’s more energy to it. Shah describes her path to the criminal case as “a long and a very complex journey,” adding that she made “horrible business decisions” and disregarded “huge red flags.” She also says she allowed lines to blur between personal friendships and ethical business practices and that she “trusted the wrong people” during a vulnerable period in her life.
She also invokes some deeply personal context. “My husband and I were separated. We were on the verge of a divorce. I was overwhelmed with immense grief from the death of my grandmother, my father and my aunt, all in a very short period of time. I was spiraling deeper into my previously diagnosed clinical depression,” she said, before adding: “And the reason I say all that is not as an excuse.”
As for prison life itself, Shah doesn’t sugarcoat it. “You hear people say it’s ‘Camp Cupcake’ — it’s not. It’s prison. I just thought, ‘This cannot be where I’m going to be every day,'” she says.
One unexpected silver lining from her time behind bars: a genuine friendship with Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. “Lizzie and I are good friends,” Jen explained. “When you come through as a high profile, there are certain things that you are both dealing with naturally and you come together in those instances.” “There’s a lot of heartache when you’re in prison,” she added. “So just being that sounding board for each other where you can be like, ‘Hey, I just need to walk and cry’ and just having someone there who understood you.”
As for RHOSLC, there’s no word yet on whether Shah will return to the show, though comedian John Oliver said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that he expects her back — and that if she doesn’t return, Andy Cohen is “not the super-producer I think he is.”
Shah appeared on the first three seasons of Bravo’s Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, with her 2021 arrest serving as a major plot point of season two. Cameras were rolling when federal agents stormed the cast’s Sprinter van looking for her. Now, she’s asking the public for something she probably wouldn’t have entertained a few years ago: grace.
“I understand that people have their opinion and their feelings because they are basing it off of what they saw on the media. They’re basing it off of the headlines. What I would hope is they would give me the grace to at least hear me,” she said.
Whether or not the audience — and more importantly, the victims — are willing to extend that grace is another conversation entirely.
MORE POP CULTURE HEADLINES
