Faith Stowers sues Bravo, NBCU for alleged racist harassment and retaliation on ‘Vanderpump Rules’
The reality TV personality appeared on the fourth and fifth seasons of the popular 'Real Housewives' spin-off series.
Faith Stowers has sued NBCUniversal for alleged racial harassment and retaliation that included racial slurs and other mistreatment while on “Vanderpump Rules.”
According to Variety, Stowers alleges that “Rules” castmember Lala Kent, “brandished a knife at her during an argument in Season 4, held it to her neck and threatened to ‘cut a b**ch’.” Stowers alleges in the suit that the executive producer of the series discouraged her from reporting the incident with Kent to the police and that Lisa Vanderpump, the show’s creator and star, warned her that she would be fired if she did not “find a way to get along” with Kent.
The lawsuit was filed on April 5 in the state Superior Court of California in Los Angeles.
Reps for NBCU did not immediately respond to theGrio’s request for comment.
Stowers also alleges that she was mocked for her “nappy hair” while on the show and was subjected to racial slurs. Stowers claims that former “Rules” stars Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute “maligned” her and accused her of being a “serial criminal who had been drugging and robbing men throughout Los Angeles.”
As theGrio previously reported, Stowers first spoke of the alleged racist incidents between her, Schroeder, and Doute back in 2020. Both Schroeder and Doute were fired shortly after Stowers’ comments on an Instagram Live. In the lawsuit, however, Stowers calls the firings “an astonishingly cynical act of performative allyship,” Variety reported.
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In the lawsuit, Stowers says she was demoted to an unpaid “volunteer” after Season 4 of the series, claiming the move was “retaliation for speaking up about her mistreatment.” She also alleges that NBC “warned her,” saying that going public with her claims would “violate” her contract.
“NBC and Evolution [the production company] clearly believe that workplace safety rules, employment laws, and basic decency do not apply to those in reality TV,” Stowers’ attorneys said in a statement obtained by Variety. “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.”
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