Tamron Hall is holding Stassi Schroeder accountable. The former Vanderpump Rules star broke her silence on the Tamron Hall Show on Thursday, September 17, three months after she was fired from the Bravo series.
“I needed to time to process my feelings. I needed time to process what happened and I feel like one of the most frustrating parts when this all went down was that people expected me to just understand everything immediately and things like that take time,” the 32-year-old reality TV personality began. “And I felt like it would be better for me to take the time to get a greater understanding of everything and the issues before I opened my mouth again.”
Schroeder came under fire in June after Faith Stowers recalled an incident in which the Next Level Basic author and Kristen Doute reported her to the police for a crime she didn’t commit. As other racially insensitive comments from Schroeder’s past resurfaced, Bravo cut ties with her, Doute, Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni.
“I am someone who messed up quite a few times. I am the reason why I am in this situation. And I think a lot of people wanted me to focus on cancel culture and whether I was a victim or not, and it’s not how I feel at all,” Schroeder told Hall on Thursday.
The host then pointed out that many people believe Schroeder is racist.
“That is absolutely the hardest part, just going out to a restaurant or going to the grocery store and wondering if that’s what people think,” she admitted. “And throughout this whole thing I recognize, I never felt like I was a racist, I don’t have hate in my heart, but I recognize that I wasn’t anti-racist. I wasn’t, and that’s something I’ve been learning throughout all of this.”
Us broke the news in June that Schroeder and fiancé Beau Clark are expecting their child together. While Hall questioned the former Bravo star’s motives to own up to her mistakes, Schroeder insisted that she is trying to be a better person for the sake of her unborn daughter.
“I want to be a better person. I’m pregnant and I want my daughter to be proud of me,” she said. “And I want to be part of the solution. I’ve been a part of the problem for years now. And I recognize that and that’s why I say, I don’t feel like I’m a victim of cancel culture. People want me to be mad at it and I’m not. I needed it. I needed that.”
She added that she and Clark, 40, will speak to their child about race.
“That’s something I asked my coach about all the time and how best to talk to a child about this. Because, like I mentioned earlier, when I was learning about everything, I think the weeks that we focused on Black history, a light went off in my head,” Schroeder told Hall. “Just learning about everything for a couple weeks straight all at once just made me, I had never thought about the oppression that Black people face in that way. There was just so much that I didn’t understand. And again, it’s my fault that I didn’t educate myself.”
Scroll through for the biggest takeaways from Schroeder’s first interview post-firing:
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