Ex-'Vanderpump Rules' Star Faith Stowers Sues Bravo for Alleged Discrimination Years After Accusations Against Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute
Apr. 5 2024, Published 11:14 a.m. ET
Ex-Vanderpump Rules star Faith Stowers slapped Bravo and NBCUniversal with a bombshell lawsuit over alleged discrimination and retaliation.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, Stowers’ powerhouse lawyers Mark Geragos and Bryan Freedman said, “This case concerns Faith Stowers, a former cast member on Bravo’s popular reality TV show Vanderpump Rules, who appeared on 51 episodes as the show’s only black cast member before being driven out by a vicious campaign of racist harassment and retaliation.”
“Stowers was recruited to the show” by Lisa Vanderpump to “add more “color to the cast.” the lawsuit said, “Although she had never set out to be a reality star, Stowers was excited by the opportunity and accepted the offer. She was paid a total of $5,000 for her first season.”
“Very quickly, however, Stowers realized that she was getting more than she bargained for,” the suit read. “Stowers was subjected to racism, sexual harassment, and physical assault in her first season.”
Stowers claimed after she reported the mistreatment to NBC and show producers, she was “warned in no uncertain terms to keep quiet and play nice. Driven by concern for her career and fear about how she might otherwise be portrayed on air, Stowers reluctantly did so, only to discover that she had been nominally demoted to an unpaid “volunteer” without any actual change in her employment status.”
“Over time, her treatment got even worse. Many cast members embarked on an overtly racist social media harassment campaign, accusing her of having gone AWOL from the military [false], of being a thief [false], and being a career criminal wanted by the LAPD [false],” the suit read. “NBC [ and producers], which tightly control the cast’s public statements and messaging, condoned, ratified and amplified these vicious lies, causing untold harm to Stower’s mental health and reputation. To make matters worse, NBC threatened her with ruinous legal action when she attempted to speak out.”
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Stowers said in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and social protests, producers “belatedly terminated several cast members for behavior they had long known about. At no point did they ever reach out to Stowers herself.”
At the time, Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute were fired over the accusations against Stowers.
In her suit, Stowers said, “Now that the racial reckoning of 2020 has receded, NBC and [show producers] have reverted to their old ways. A Vanderpump Rules spin-off entitled The Valley debuted in March 2024, starting a who’s who of the 2020 chopping block.
Doute was brought back to star in The Valley.
Stowers' lawyers Mark Geragos and Bryan Freedman tell RadarOnline.com, “NBC and Evolution clearly believe that workplace safety rules, employment laws, and basic decency do not apply to those in reality TV. Vicious assaults, racist harassment, and impugning the service of veterans are apparently acceptable to NBC and Evolution for the sake of ratings. Faith did not know what kind of cesspool she had found herself in and reported this unlawful behavior to her superiors. In response, she was demoted to ‘volunteer’ and stripped of her already meager compensation.”
Stowers' lawsuit demanded unspecified damages.