Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah reveals that filming the show helped her marriage to husband Sharrieff Shah.
This may come as a surprise to viewers because Jen was of the biggest instigators of conflict on the show and that lead to plenty of drama.
Jen had pent up anger throughout the season because her husband traveled frequently for work and wasn’t around, and that anger was often transferred into her feuds with the other women.
However, during an interview with ET, she explains that the show allowed her to address those issues with her husband.
“It absolutely did strengthen [my marriage],” she says of the show’s effect on her marriage. “It was really hard, but at the end of the day, the whole thing was a blessing in disguise.”
How the show helped her marriage
Jen explains that she wasn’t even aware that she held so much anger toward her husband until the emotional heart-to-heart they had on camera.
“I didn’t really know until he started talking to me, too, and was like, ‘I feel like you’re angry at me,'” she confesses. “I waited to tell him because I tried to be strong for a long time and just fix it on my own.”
She the explains how real that moment was for her. She reiterates that she truly hadn’t processed those emotions until that vulnerable on-camera moment.
“I held it in for almost a year,” she admits. “Is he going to get mad that I didn’t tell him before? He’s very caring and understanding and he knew how difficult it was to process it.”
The conversation has apparently had a lasting and positive impact on their marriage.
Jen’s other relationships on the show
While Jen’s marriage improved throughout the course of the season, some of her other relationships have taken a hit.
Her feud with costar Mary Cosby started before filming. However, their relationship became increasingly more contentious as the season went on.
While Jen says she’s open to repairing her relationship with Mary, they have a long way to go after the numerous fights they had on-camera.
Jen has also had it out with all of her other costars at one point or another during the season.
She got mad at Meredith Marks for hanging out with Mary. She then had it out with Whitney Rose and Heather Gay after they claimed Mary said Meredith and Lisa Barlow were scared of Jen.
Going by the preview for the upcoming episode, it appears Jen has it out with Lisa as well.
However, Jen does admit that she hopped on the “apology train” at the end of the season, so she may have been able to salvage her friendships.
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City airs on Wednesdays at 10/9c on Bravo.