‘Vanderpump Rules’ Season 8 Reunion: Stassi Schroeder Snaps Over Max Boyens and Kristen Doute’s Surprising Hookup and More Revelations

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‘Vanderpump Rules’ Season 8 Reunion: Stassi Schroeder Snaps Over Max Boyens and Kristen Doute’s Surprising Hookup and More Revelations

It’s safe to say the cast of Vanderpump Rules delivered at their first virtual reunion. During part one of the season 8 reunion, which aired on June 2, Max Boyens’ dating life was a major topic of conversation. While viewers watched the TomTom general manager’s romance with Dayna Kathan crash and burn on the show, he addressed his offscreen relationship with Scheana Shay, which went down in between seasons 7 and 8, at the reunion. “I think it was hard because I worked a lot, but when we were together, we tried to do things. She took me to a Chargers game and she took me to activities … things that she does,” Max said as he attempted to describe his dynamic with the “Good As Gold” singer. When asked about his short-lived “exclusive” relationship with Dayna, the manager admitted that he “downplayed” their romance. “I will be the first to admit it. I was really f—king obsessed with Max,” Dayna replied. “I was so into him. I fully thought we were going to be together and it was going to be a thing.” Max then fired back at both Scheana and Danya: “It’s the same with all of you girls. I hang out with you guys for two f—king weeks and you run with your emotions with me.” The major shocker, however, came when Max revealed he slept with Kristen Doute after they stopped filming (and after he and Dayna nearly got back together in the fall). This revelation prompted Stassi Schroeder to snap, comparing the situation to the James Mae designer hooking up with Jax Taylor during season 2. (ICYMI: When Kristen and Jax had an affair, she was dating Tom Sandoval and Jax was trying to win back Stassi.) [jwplayer n6EUK6BF-l3ahXupL] “She pretended to be friends with Dayna. … I’m f—kng shook right now because I thought that Dayna and Kristen were friends, and this is f—king weird,” Stassi quipped. “And I thought that Kristen ‘has been in a relationship’ the whole time. When were you single, Kristen?” After Max stepped in to clarify that the hookups went down “a while ago,” Kristen added it was “in the fall.” Stassi, however, argued it was a betrayal to Dayna. “It is so f—king on brand for you to act like you are so close to Dayna and then go and f—k the dude that she’s talking about,” the “Straight Up With Stassi” podcast host insisted. “You were born shady, you remain shady, you will always be shady. And you’re a liar and you have no remorse. … This is about you hooking up with another one of your friends’ ex-boyfriends ‘cause you always need to do that, Kristen.” Hours before part two of the reunion aired on Tuesday, June 9, news broke that Stassi, Kristen, Max and Brett Caprioni were fired due to their past racially insensitive remarks. The reunion, which was taped on April 30, did not address the situation. The season 8 reunion concludes on Bravo Tuesday, June 16, at 9 p.m. ET. Scroll through for the biggest revelations:

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How Do You Solve a Problem Like Jax Taylor?

During part three of the reunion, which aired on June 16, Lala called out Jax for missing a therapy appointment that her fiancé arranged for him.

"He did not just recommend a therapist," Lala said. "Randall paid for this session, and Jax didn't show up. And Jax, you're my boy. I love you so much …”

Sandoval then interrupted. ”Because he doesn't give a s—t! He doesn't care!” he said. “He doesn't want to get better. He doesn't want to change. I don't want to hear you're a 'work in progress' anymore."

Andy Cohen agreed, “I’ve watched you apologize a million times and not mean it at reunions,” the host said. “I’m not trying to be an a—hole, but this is our eighth reunion, and this is the same conversation we’ve had.”

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LVP’s Issues With Danica

SUR manager Danica Dow was in the hot seat during part three of the reunion after Lisa confronted her for joking about the boss having an affair with Brett.

“When she's going on television saying I'm having an affair with Brett, that really pisses me off, because in all the years, with all my staff, I've never put a finger on any of them,” Lisa said. “I have children. I have a marriage.”

While Danica apologized, Lisa wasn’t having it. “It definitely ‘came out the wrong way.’ Thank you very much,” she replied. “Been married 37 years. Have two children. I don't need to hear that.”

Kristen then stepped in and told Danica she was “lucky” she still had a job at SUR as she was fired during season 3 for acting up in the restaurant. (The reunion taped nearly two months before Kristen was fired from Bravo.)

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Stassi and Katie vs. Kristen

The Witches of Weho continued to rehash their beef during part two. While Kristen insisted that she felt abandoned by Stassi and Katie, they revealed that the T-shirt designer asked them to help her address her breakup with Carter more “honestly” on the series. When Stassi and Katie tried to do that, however, Kristen shut down.

“I was, very selfishly, like ‘F—k filming. F—k you guys. F—k everyone, I'm gone,’” Kristen recalled about her state of mind filming season 8.

Stassi then accused Kristen of making her and Katie look like “a—holes” over the Carter drama since season 7.

“And then the [season 7] reunion rolls around, and I thought, ‘OK, she's gonna recognize what she did, and that she made us look like awful friends,' and you didn't. You doubled down on it. And then I was like, ‘F—k you,’” Stassi explained.

Katie then chimed in. “You aggressively defended him to us, and then acted like we were crazy. And that was when our friendship, and my trust in you, started deteriorating,” she said. “We weren't acting like sisters anymore. … I still loved and cared about you so much, but our friendship wasn't what it had been, and I didn't know how to get back to that with you.”

Credit: Courtesy of Kristen Doute/Instagram

Kristen Debuts New Man Alex

Us broke the news in April that Kristen had a new boyfriend, Alex Menache. During part two of the reunion, he made a brief appearance as the cast recapped their quarantine experience. Kristen was spotted with Alex on June 9 hours after Bravo cut ties with the reality TV personality. 

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Lala Apologizes to Scheana for Aftershow Comments

During an episode of the Vanderpump Rules aftershow, Lala declared it wasn’t “interesting to watch a 34-year-old woman in a crop top and a slutty Jojo Siwa pony doing the same thing over and over again.” She apologized to an emotional Scheana for her remarks during part two of the reunion.

“I need to do better, and I need to be better,” Lala said through tears.

During the segment, Stassi could be heard whispering to Beau, “I think Lala might be bipolar,” which prompted some backlash from social media users.

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Lala Addresses 50 Cent Feud

Vanderpump Rules viewers watched Lala and 50 Cent exchange nasty insults via Instagram after the rapper accused her fiancé, Randall Emmett, of owing him $1 million. Since the drama went down in April 2019, it didn’t air on the show, but James did bring it up during season 8 — much to Lala's dismay.

“I mean, I won’t say more than I can. There was a very public beef between myself and a pretty famous rapper, and it got very bad,” Lala said during part two. 

She then addressed James mocking the situation via an Instagram caption: “I felt like James and I had moved so beyond doing petty s—t to each other that when I saw that it was just like a knife in my heart.” 

Andy Cohen later asked why the incident didn’t air on the show.

“Well, number one, when this all happened, we were not filming. I think we would have had a much harder time if it was happening during filming. But there was also a lot of legal stuff going on,” Lala said, noting that she and “Randall and this rapper, we just don’t speak about each other.”

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James Is Nearly 11 Months Sober

“This girl right here saved my life, and I love her so, so much,” James said, referring to Raquel, after revealing he was nearly 11 months sober.

While the majority of the cast got visibly emotional watching the DJ’s sobriety journey, his ex Kristen wasn’t impressed. And after Scheana suggested that James apologize to Kristen for the way he treated her in the past, he refused and insisted that they already moved on.

Lala, for her part, defended James and pointed out it’s hard to hold him accountable for things he did when he wasn’t sober.

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Max and Scheana Hooked Up in Palm Springs

During part two of the reunion, Max and Scheana admitted that they hooked up in Palm Springs while filming the season.

Max claimed he stopped Scheana as she began to perform oral sex, recalling, “I was like, ‘Hey, this can't happen, I'm seeing Dayna.’”

Dayna, for her part, was noticeably upset by the confession.

Scheana, meanwhile, argued that she was just “comfortable” with Max.

“There were a lot of things I did last year that I was embarrassed by,” Scheana said during part two. “But Max was someone that I was very comfortable with, and he slept in my bed, we cuddled. I, yeah, felt something that yeah, I put my mouth … whatever. Whatever. It meant nothing.”

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Max's Status With Dayna — and Kristen

While TomTom and SUR have been closed amid the coronavirus pandemic, Dayna revealed during the reunion that she had been working at both of Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurants post-filming, which means Max is her supervisor again. After the Kristen hookup reveal, however, Dayna declared that she was “disgusted”  by the situation.

“I’m literally shocked right now,” the comedian said after Kristen referred to Max as one of her former “friend with benefits.”  

Max subsequently denied being a sex addict.

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Charli vs. Jax

Charli Burnett referred to Jax as an “old man,” a “bully” and “retired” during part one of the reunion. As a result, the bartender insisted the newcomer learn “her role.”

“You are the most disrespectful person,” Jax said.

During part two, Charli claimed she almost quit the show several times because she felt bullied by her costars. Jax and Lala dismissed her concerns. "Welcome to Vanderpump Rules," the bartender quipped. 

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Why Schwartz Snapped at Katie

During the March 31 episode, Schwartz argued with wife Katie Maloney after she didn’t approve of Jax and Randall Emmett’s prank on Sandoval, which included fake cops pretending to arrest him.

“Randall had put so much time and effort into this prank. … I just wasn’t even talking to my wife. I just lost it. That’s not me by the way,” he said at during the reunion part one. “If I talk that way to Katie or if if I acted like that on a regular basis, I would have myself committed.”

Katie added, “I’m not going to sit here and try to normalize this kind of behavior.”

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Jax (Kind of) Apologizes to Ariana

Jax made headlines in January for saying that Ariana Madix, who is openly bisexual, was a lesbian. After he apologized at the reunion, he doubled down during part one.

“I apologize … that was just garbage coming out of my mouth,” Jax said before going off. “She just bothers me. Not bisexuality, she bothers me. … We’ve never gotten along. We don’t like each other. That’s fine.”

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Why Lala Went Off on Tom and Ariana on IG

In March, Lala Kent took to Instagram Live to slam Sandoval and Ariana, alleging they weren’t a “safe place.” The Give Them Lala Beauty CEO got emotional while discussing the situation at the reunion as both Lala and Ariana lost their fathers in recent years. 

“I almost feel like once I became friends with everybody else, they didn’t really give a s—t about me,” Lala said during part one.

The couple revealed that they felt the same, noting that Lala and Randall hosted several vacations that they didn’t get invited to.

“I felt like last year that I was very much floundering and you saying behind my back that I needed to ‘toughen the f—k up.’ … I should have gotten over it this season, but I carried that comment with me,” Lala said through tears. “I was really hard on you.”

Ariana then apologized, admitting she was “bitter” over how the cast treated her in the past when she was going through a similar hardship.

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Max and Brett’s Racist Tweets

Just before season 8 started airing, Max and Brett came under fire when their old racially insensitive tweets resurfaced.

"If I fired every one of you that have made mistakes, it doesn't matter to what degree, probably none of you would have a job,” Lisa said after the topic came up at the reunion. "I have never seen any inkling of anything that would make me believe that that's the beliefs they're holding now. And if I had, they wouldn't be working for me."

Max, whose mother is biracial, added there’s “no excuse” for his past remarks.

"I'm an adult now, and I cringe even thinking that I said those things,” he said. “We live in a generation now where saying some things, even if you are of that culture, is just frowned upon. I just want to say I'm just really, sincerely sorry.”

Brett also apologized: "It wasn't OK then, it's not OK now. It's something I regret deeply, and it was just kind of making jokes with each other, like we'd literally be in the same room and just say stupid s—t to each other, and it was a dumb f—king thing to do. I'm doing my best to move forward and be the best person I can be.”

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Jax and Brittany’s Pastor Drama

Sandoval and Jax’s falling out hit its breaking point during the season when the TomTom co-owner brought up past homophobic remarks made by Jax and Brittany Cartwright’s initial wedding pastor.

During part one of the reunion, Stassi admitted that she thinks the couple weren’t paying close enough attention. “I think they have a habit of sticking their heads in the sand and that’s what happened,” the Next Level Basic author said.

Brittany then got visibly emotional. “I promise you guys. I did not see anything more than the one tweet. … He promised me that he [wasn’t homophobic] so I believed him,” she said.

While Schwartz tried to step in and play the peacemaker when the conversation shifted back to Jax and Sandoval, the Fancy AF Cocktails author snapped. “I have been a way better friend than that mother—ker has ever had in his entire life,” Sandoval said. “And I have never had anyone do more f—ked up things to me in my entire f—king life, friend or foe, than Jax mother—king Taylor.”

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Sandoval Brings Up Jax’s Mom

Jax has said repeatedly that he regrets having Sandoval as part of his wedding, and he reiterated this point at the reunion. As a result, Sandoval mentioned the fact that Jax’s mother, Marie Cauchi, wasn’t invited to the nuptials. (Jax and his mother have been on the outs following the death of his father, Ronald Cauchi, as the reality star alleged Marie didn't inform him of how serious his dad's condition was.)

“You expected your mom to f—king, like, hit you up after all the stuff you’ve said about her,” he said.

Jax fired back that Sandoval was an “awful person.”