You can't always blame it on the edit. Some reality stars learn this the hard way and are now doing hard time. So if you're thinking of joining the reality squad, consider these cringeworthy cautionary tales.
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00:00You can't always blame it on the edit.
00:02Some reality stars learned this the hard way and are now doing hard time.
00:06So if you're thinking of joining the reality squad, consider these cringeworthy cautionary
00:11tales.
00:12In 2022, Todd and Julie Chrisley were found guilty of federal fraud, tax evasion, and
00:17conspiracy charges after allegedly hiding earnings from the IRS and taking out $36 million
00:23in fraudulent loans.
00:24Todd was sentenced to 12 years in prison, Julie got seven, and that was the end of ten
00:29seasons of Chrisley Knows Best.
00:31But the older Chrisleys tanked more than just their own careers when they decided to, allegedly,
00:36lie to the IRS.
00:37So therefore, I have to ride around with shame and guilt.
00:41It's the cross that I bear.
00:43It's the letter that's on my chest.
00:45Growing up Chrisley, the spinoff featuring Chrisley kids Chase and Savannah also got
00:50the network axe.
00:51While Todd and Julie headed off to federal prison, their kids suddenly had to figure
00:55out how to pay the bills without the reality show income.
00:58Savannah and Chase were looking at a serious lifestyle adjustment.
01:01Well, to me, it's worse than them dying, because they're here, but they're not here.
01:05On a 2024 episode of her podcast, Unlocked, Savannah explained,
01:09"...People have this misconception that I'm sitting on millions of dollars, and I'm like,
01:13if you know where it is, please walk me to it.
01:15I would love to see it."
01:16So would the U.S. Department of Justice.
01:19Abby Lee Miller was the alpha dog on her super-popular Lifetime show, Dance Moms.
01:24But after seven seasons, the Justice Department came calling with a warrant Miller couldn't
01:28bully her way out of.
01:29Pro tip, don't claim to be dead broke when the whole world, FBI included, is watching
01:34you on TV.
01:35In May 2017, Miller was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for bankruptcy
01:40fraud and illegally bringing foreign currency into the country.
01:44Along with her prison time, Miller was fined $40,000 and ordered to pay a $120,000 judgment.
01:50That's a lot of tap lessons.
01:52But prison didn't destroy Abby Lee's career.
01:54Dance Moms waited for her.
01:55And when she'd served her time, with a little shaved off her good behavior, she went right
01:59back to work in front of the cameras.
02:01That was 2019.
02:02But in a weird twist for a dancer, Miller couldn't resist shooting herself in the foot.
02:07"...We're going for sheer talent, I'm sure we'll be embarrassed and humiliated there."
02:12In June 2020, Lifetime fired Miller after two former Dance Moms accused her of racism.
02:18The network insisted that Miller wouldn't participate if Dance Moms returned and canceled
02:22a planned spinoff called Abby's Virtual Dance-Off.
02:25"...Nobody is gonna talk to me that way, no one!"
02:29Miller insists her Dance Moms career isn't dead.
02:31As late as 2022, she gave an interview to Pop Crave, teasing,
02:35"'Dance Moms' season 9 won't be on the same network.
02:38It will be on a different streaming service.
02:40It's separate, so it's shot a little bit differently.
02:42I can't give it away yet, but it's gonna be different.
02:45It's a little bit different."
02:46Farrah Abraham first became reality TV famous as a pregnant teen on MTV's 16 & Pregnant.
02:52After she had her baby, she moved on to Teen Mom, which was later retitled Teen Mom OG.
02:58However, the network parted ways with Abraham after producers became uncomfortable with
03:02her continued work in the adult entertainment industry.
03:05"...You would argue with a fence post.
03:07You're telling me you shouldn't."
03:10"...No, I just think it would be really negative."
03:14Beginning in 2013, Abraham starred in two adult films, but it was her subsequent work
03:19as a webcam model that was the last straw for MTV.
03:22Producers gave her an ultimatum, and she chose to leave.
03:25Since then, Abraham's career hasn't bounced back.
03:28She attempted a comeback on 2018's Ex on the Beach and appeared in an episode of 2022's
03:34Teen Mom Family Reunion.
03:35All the same, in a 2017 statement on Facebook, Abraham seemed undaunted, saying,
03:40"...I'm proud of myself not giving in to be sex-shamed by Viacom Network.
03:45Proud to be an advocate for a healthy sex life, safe sex, teen pregnancy prevention
03:50and so much more."
03:52Josh Duggar had already tarnished his family's reality TV fame when in 2015, TLC dumped his
03:57parents' long-running series 19 Kids and Counting.
04:00"...Josh has done some very bad things."
04:04The final straw was the revelation of a 2006 police report alleging that Josh had molested
04:09five girls when he was a teenager, including two of his sisters.
04:12"...He had apparently been doing it since he was 12, but we found out about it when
04:16he was 15."
04:17Jim Bobb, Michelle, and the rest of the Duggar clan returned to reality TV later in 2015
04:22with Counting On, but without Josh, in a bid for celebrity redemption.
04:26"...Ah, the things that children will do when their parents are not around."
04:31But Josh, a married father of seven by that point, dashed those hopes when he was arrested
04:35in 2021 for possession of child sex abuse material.
04:39TLC canceled Counting On and likely the whole Duggar family.
04:43"...That is an awfully tearful smile for a man who's looking at as much as 20 years in
04:47prison."
04:48In 2022, Josh was sentenced to 12 and a half years in federal prison, which has since been
04:53extended because he was caught in possession of a cell phone.
04:56When he's released in 2032, he will be banned from unsupervised contact with minors, including
05:01his own children.
05:03Jen Shaw was living large as one of Bravo's Real Housewives of Salt Lake City before she
05:07was arrested in 2021, with Bravo cameras rolling while filming season two.
05:12"...People are wondering, like, how'd you get so rich?"
05:15Shaw was charged with running a nationwide telemarketing scam that preyed on the elderly
05:20and vulnerable, and Real Housewives fans got to watch her deny, deny, deny, while the other
05:25housewives blissfully overdosed on, pun intended, schadenfreude.
05:29"...No, I do not know what schadenfreude is."
05:32"...It's a German term for shameful joy, taking pleasure in the suffering of others."
05:37In 2022, Shaw pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was
05:42sentenced to six and a half years in prison, but she was still clawing her way onto our
05:46screens.
05:47Hulu covered the time leading up to her sentencing in the doc Housewife and the Shaw Shocker,
05:51and in 2023, just before checking into federal prison in Bryan, Texas, Shaw released a video
05:56interview with her lawyer, where she came clean-ish.
05:59"...I was lying to myself, um, because I didn't want to accept that I had done these things
06:05or that I had hurt anybody."
06:08Thomas Ravenel has made a career out of ruining his careers.
06:12He started out in politics with an unsuccessful 2004 Senate run, then became South Carolina
06:17state treasurer two years later.
06:19But oops, in June 2007, he was indicted on federal cocaine distribution charges.
06:24A month later, he resigned, perhaps after a visit from the disappointed ghost of his
06:29father, late Republican Congressman Arthur Ravenel Jr.
06:32Oh, and he was also forced to resign as state chairman of fellow disappointment Rudy Giuliani's
06:382008 presidential campaign.
06:40Remember that?
06:41Neither do we.
06:42But like many disgraced politicians before him, Ravenel refused to go away.
06:46"...Are you going to say sorry, or?"
06:49"...I'm going to hang on."
06:51In 2014, he was cast in Bravo's reality saga of South Carolina socialites, Southern Charm,
06:57and he had a good run until his nature caught up with him.
07:00In 2018, after five seasons, Ravenel left the show amid a series of sexual assault allegations.
07:07In April 2018, real estate agent Ashley Perkins accused Ravenel of sexually assaulting her
07:12mom, Debbie Holloway Perkins, after they met through a dating app in 2015.
07:16And a month later, Dawn Ledwell, former nanny to Ravenel's children, followed up with her
07:21own claim of sexual assault.
07:23Ravenel pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and battery charges in relation to Ledwell's
07:27claim.
07:28Ever the politician, Ravenel managed not to serve time for the sex assault charges, and
07:32he even made a guest appearance on season seven of Southern Charm.
07:36But his reality TV career appears to be over.
07:39It remains to be seen where he'll pop up next.
07:41Navarro College cheerleader Jerry Harris became a reality TV breakout star thanks to the Netflix
07:47docuseries Cheer, which followed him and the rest of the Navarro cheer team from Corsicana,
07:51Texas, as they prepared to compete in the national cheerleading championship.
07:55If I didn't have Cheer, I would probably be upset at the world, and I'll be hurting others.
08:04Harris guested on The Ellen Show and even scored an invite to Vanity Fair's Oscar party,
08:09but by Cheer season two, it was as if he never existed.
08:13In 2022, Harris pleaded guilty to two federal counts of sex crimes, including minors, and
08:18was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
08:20According to the charges, Harris solicited sexually explicit images and messages from
08:25at least 10 to 15 minors, had sex with a 15-year-old at a cheer competition, and more.
08:30Coincidentally, he's serving his time at FMC Lexington in Kentucky, along with Julie Chrisley.
08:37After the 2020 murder of George Floyd, civil rights protests swept across the country.
08:42That's when news broke that reality stars Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doughty of Bravo's
08:46Vanderpump Rules had previously reported their black co-star, Faith Stowers, to the police
08:51for a crime she didn't commit.
08:53Stassi and Kristen falsely attempted to identify her as a woman police were looking for in
08:58a string of robberies.
08:59While Doughty returned to the show in 2023, Schroeder's career looks to be dead in the
09:04water.
09:05How soon before the next NATO gets here?
09:07Five minutes, top!
09:08Schroeder has made a career bouncing from one reality show to the next, but when the
09:12scandal hit, her management dropped her, her sponsors abandoned ship, and she even lost
09:16her podcast Stassi.
09:18But only temporarily, because anyone can podcast.
09:21Schroeder has been working on a comeback, appearing in Hulu's Vanderpump Villa, and
09:25she's reportedly working on a new solo show called Stassi Says.
09:29Looking back on the incident in 2023, she told Forbes,
09:32"...I'm kind of thankful that things happened the way that they did, because my life is
09:35so different now.
09:36And I know what I care about.
09:37And I know what matters.
09:39Everything has just shifted."
09:41Tim Norman was a frequent cast member on the own reality series Welcome to Sweetie Pies.
09:45My son Tim tackles everything from supplies to managing our employees.
09:51But in 2023, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on charges of murder for
09:55hire, conspiracy to commit murder for hire, and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud
10:00in the 2016 shooting death of his nephew, 20-year-old Andre Montgomery Jr.
10:05"...Andre is like one of the beats in my heart, and it's gone."
10:09From 2011 to 2018, Welcome to Sweetie Pies chronicled the family life of singer Robbie
10:15Montgomery, one of Ike and Tina Turner's original backup singers, the Ikettes.
10:19Later in life, Montgomery moved on to another dream, opening a series of soul food restaurants
10:24called Sweetie Pies.
10:25Tim Norman is Montgomery's son, Andre Montgomery Jr. was her grandson, and both made frequent
10:30appearances on the show.
10:32But reality sardom wasn't enough for Norman, who first took out a $450,000 insurance policy
10:37on his nephew, then took out a hit on him.
10:40And although the reality series had finished shooting before the tragic incident took place,
10:44the murder devastated the Montgomery family and, of course, cast a dark shadow over Welcome
10:49to Sweetie Pies that's impossible to avoid.
10:52In October 2021, Jeffrey Paschel was found guilty of the June 2019 kidnapping and assault
10:58of his ex-fiancée, Kristen Wilson.
11:00The next thing I remember, he was beating me.
11:04He was sentenced to 18 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
11:07The charges included aggravated kidnapping, domestic assault, and interference with emergency
11:12calls.
11:13Justice prevailed, but viewers who'd watched Paschel on season four of 90 Day Fiancé before
11:17the 90 Days weren't satisfied.
11:19To be clear, the 90 Day Fiancé was a different woman, Paschel's long-distance showmance varia,
11:25and at least as of October 2024, she's sticking by him.
11:29But the fans are far less understanding.
11:31After Paschel's arrest, over 5,000 90 Day Fiancé viewers signed an online petition
11:36to have him removed from his episodes due to current allegations and criminal charges
11:41made against him.
11:42And charges notwithstanding, Paschel's past was littered with additional accusations and
11:47charges, including drug dealing, to the point where he was barred from entering Canada for
11:51life.
11:52Paschel took to Instagram in March 2020 to answer the obvious question, writing,
11:55I have been repeatedly asked why I would ever want to be on a show, the best show fyi, where
12:01my life would be put in front of everyone to pick apart, especially with my checkered
12:05past.
12:06Well guys, it is my past, it is my life, it is my choice.
12:09Sure, but let's circle back in 18 years.
12:13If you or anyone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, contact the National Domestic
12:17Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
12:21You can also find more information, resources and support at their website.