RHOSLC’s Heather Gay Finally Admits to Thinking Jen Shah Is Guilty: ‘I Am Overwhelmed with Grief’ – Yahoo Entertainment
Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’s Heather Gay didn’t think “ride or die” BFF Jen Shah was innocent in her telemarketing fraud case after all.
In Wednesday’s season 3 finale of the Bravo series, the Bad Mormon author sat down for lunch with co-star Lisa Barlow after Shah pleaded guilty — and the two didn’t hold back on their feelings on the surprising news.
“I am overwhelmed with grief,” Heather told Lisa two days after returning from New York, where she and Meredith Marks were supporting Jen in her federal court case. “Grief that we are in this situation, that there are victims, our friend is going away for a decade and she has a 16-year-old.”
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“That made me bawl my eyes out yesterday,” Lisa added as the two held back tears. “All I could think about was her in the van, saying, ‘I’m not going to see Reefie [Jen’s son, Sharrieff Jr.] get married.'”
Jen Shah Instagram
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The 49-year-old was arrested in March 2021 for her role in orchestrating a fraudulent telemarketing scheme. She maintained her innocence up until entering her guilty plea in July 2022. On Jan. 6, she was sentenced to 6.5 years behind bars in Texas, where she is due to surrender on Feb. 17.
“What she pled guilty to is so bad,” Heather continued. “And the fact that she’s taken it this far and gone on for this long and proclaimed her innocence, and now, I can only think she did it and she thought she was going to get away with it, and when she realized she wasn’t going to get away with it, her story changed.”
“It was the last thing I expected, was for her to plead guilty,” Heather added.
Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty, Chris Haston/Bravo via Getty Heather Gay and Jen Shah
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Heather went on to tell Lisa her theory as to why Jen changed her story — and it involves her husband, Coach Sharrieff Sr.
“I think that Coach discovered what Jen was doing and that it was impossible to explain,” Heather said. “With all the witness statements and all the witnesses, there was something that they couldn’t get out of.”
“And it was a smoking gun that said, ‘OK, the gig is up.’ You have to walk in there, you have to say you did these things and you have to go to prison for a decade,” she continued. “And I’ll tell you right now, if my husband knew about it and I knew he was involved?”
Lisa chimed in to say she’d be “losing my mind,” before Heather finally said, “There you go, sis. I’ll take care of the boys, I’ll see you in 15 years. That to me, is a whole ‘nother tragedy. I think she did it.”
Fred Hayes/Bravo
RELATED: RHOSLC‘s Jen Shah Says She Was Hospitalized After Suicide Attempt amid Legal Troubles: ‘I Was Done’
Jen’s case wasn’t the only hot topic in the episode. Heather’s mysterious black eye finally healed up from the ladies’ cast trip to San Diego, but they weren’t done talking about it.
“It’s totally gone, just like the memory of it — I hope,” Heather told Lisa at a party to celebrate the reveal of her memoir.
“The memory’s not going away, Heather. I think it’s going to be the topic of many conversations,” Lisa responded.
Bravo
And the conversations did, in fact, continue as Angie Katsenevas told Lisa and Whitney Rose that rumors were circling about Jen telling mutual friends of theirs that Angie caused the black and blue mark to Heather’s face — something Angie admittedly denied.
“She’s trying to put rumors out there and ruin my good name because hers is in the toilet?” Angie asked Whitney and Lisa. “That is not something I am even capable of doing.”
In return, Angie noted how she’s been hearing Jen and Heather may have had too much fun and it was actually Jen who caused the damage to her best pal.
“Guess what? Everyone’s been saying that her and Heather were in the room doing Barbie scissor kicks and then Shah beat the s— out of her,” Angie speculated. “They’re in the room, having a sexual relationship and then ‘romping, bomping and giving each other a black eye after because maybe someone wasn’t good in bed afterwards — Who knows?”
Nicole Weinagart/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
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The two ladies eventually confronted one another and denied their respective rumors before Jen took off early hand-in-hand with Coach Shah.
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The women will all confront one another (aside from Jen, who did not attend) when part one of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City reunion airs Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.