Putting things in perspective. Katie Maloney was able to set aside her issues with Kristen Doute after she and Stassi Schroeder were fired from Vanderpump Rules.
“Our friendship throughout the years has definitely gone through fallouts to reuniting to just being kind of like sisters where we get into arguments. We don’t agree all the time,” the Bravo personality, 33, exclusively tells Us Weekly while promoting her “You’re Gonna Love Me” podcast with Dear Media.
The trio’s friendship unraveled during season 8 of Vanderpump Rules over Doute’s relationship with her ex Brian Carter.
Maloney added, “This past year was hard because [Stassi and I] both saw our friend struggling and felt that her behavior was very dysfunctional and we wanted to step in and be like, ‘Hey, I want you to be happy.’ And she kind of thought we were just trying to tell her what to do with her life and all that, so we ended up just kind of being like, ‘You know what? We’re gotta take our space.’”
However, the actress reevaluated her relationship with Doute, 37, after Bravo axed the He’s Making You Crazy author and Schroeder, 32, from the show in June. Their firings came after their former costar Faith Stowers recalled a 2018 incident where the pair falsely called the authorities on her.
“Then, when everything happened in June with them getting fired, I just was like, ‘You know what? Kristen has been someone who has been like a sister to me for so long, I can look past all the drama that happened last year and just be there for my friend right now,’” she recalled. “The [past] stuff just seemed petty in the big picture and wanting just to be there for her and support her and [let her] know that it’s going to be OK and trying to just be supportive.”
Us broke the news in July that the pals are mending their friendship shortly after Schroeder announced she is expecting her first child with her fiancé, Beau Clark.
“Stassi, Kristen and Katie have all been hanging out more and celebrating Stassi being pregnant and mending the friendship between the three of them,” the insider said at the time. “Kristen and Stassi also talk a lot more often and have been there for each other and are re-learning together and working on ways to work together to share their learning and mistakes.”
Another casualty of the scandal was Doute, Maloney and Schroeder’s Witches of WeHo Wine, which was pulled from shelves and online retailers.
Maloney is now focused on her podcast with Dear Media — a platform that she believes is perfect for her project because it “is highlighting and putting out the female voices.”
“When I was first conceptualizing this podcast and what it was going to be about, I just kept thinking, ‘I have to bring this to Dear Media and I hope that they would want to bring me on because I’d be in such good company with so many really smart and talented voices,’” she said.
Episode one of Maloney’s “You’re Gonna Love Me” podcast drops on Friday, August 14, on Dear Media podcast network.
With reporting by Kayley Stumpe
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