See 'Pioneer Woman' As 'Snobby Socialite Teen' in Never-Before-Seen Yearbook Photos!
Dec. 13 2017, Updated 12:44 p.m. ET
Ree Drummond wasn’t always a woman with responsibilities inside and outside of the home as portrayed on her hit show The Pioneer Woman, RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal. A source who knew Drummond during her high school days in Bartlesville, Oklahoma revealed she was a snobby socialite with little to no morals. Click through to see exclusive photos of Drummond from her high school yearbook and to learn more about her not-so-humble reputation.
“She was definitely what you would call a socialite in high school,” the insider dished to RadarOnline.com. Seen here front-and-center photographed with Bartlesville High School’s Spanish Club. The source added that Ree’s social life was all she seemed to care about.
“Dating and boys were far more important to Ree than anything else,” the insider dished. Before her hit show on The Food Network made her a household name, Drummond was known to Bartlesville residents in the 1980s as Ann-Marie Smith. Here is her junior year class photo.
The source, whose daughter knew Drummond from her early days until high school graduation, said the now-chef wasn’t friendly to classmates outside of her high-and-mighty circle. “My daughter was a nerd and Ree was popular. By the time they got to high school they tried to ignore each other.”
While Drummond often boasts about her pastoral life on the ranch with her cowboy husband Ladd and their four kids, she confessed on her own website that she wasn’t always the wholesome person we see on TV.
“I was a teen angel. Not” Drummond, who was at the heart of a racist scandal in October 2017, told fans on ThePioneerWoman.com. “After high school, I thought my horizons needed broadening. I attended college in California, then got a job and wore black pumps to work every day.”
The insider agreed. “She definitely was not well-rounded back then as she appears to be now.” The 1986 Bartlesville High yearbook showcases Drummond surrounded by friends. Here she is photographed with a friend showing off their “casual hairstyles.”
The source added that Drummond’s former neighbors never imagined she would end up a TV chef known for living on a ranch and homeschooling her four children. “Ree never impressed me as the type of kid able to take responsibility and be involved in the sort of things that her life demands now. Ranch life and homeschooling require serious working abilities and she always seemed much more interested in the social side of life.”
The source continued Ladd is not the type of man Drummond’s high school self would have married. “I would have expected her to marry or work in an urban setting and marry a businessman because that’s basically what she came from not this old world farm-type life she’s living in now.”
What’s more is the source reveals Drummond had never tried the star’s cooking when she was growing up. In fact, she didn’t even know that was a hobby of hers. “I didn’t even know she liked to cook!” the insider added. “If there was a potluck at our church, I never saw her bring in food.”
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Drummond was a member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, seen here in the yearbook photo. According to the source, Drummond didn’t contribute much else to the community, though she was “rather talented” at ballet.
And while Drummond seems to be right at home on the ranch, she admitted in her memoir "The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels – A Love Story" that what we see on TV doesn’t exactly mirror reality. We pay for juicy info! Do you have a story for RadarOnline.com? Email us at tips@radaronline.com, or call us at (866) ON-RADAR (667-2327) any time, day or night.
