Fired Cast Member Kristen Doute Re-Hired Amid ‘Scandoval’ Drama

A Bravolebrity is coming back to TV, but fans might not be so Vanderpump-ed to see her.

Bravo announced on Twitter on March 10 that Kristen Doute will be returning to Vanderpump Rules in the reality show’s current, tenth season, in the midst of Tom Sandoval’s cheating scandal.

In June 2020, Doute and former costar Stassi Schroeder were fired from Vanderpump Rules after cast member Faith Stowers said that the duo reported her to the cops in 2018 for a crime in which she wasn’t involved.

“There was this article on Daily Mail where there was an African American lady,” Stowers said on Instagram Live, per Variety. “I guess this woman was robbing people. They called the cops and said it was me. This is, like, a true story. I heard this from actually Stassi during an interview.”

Doute, who was dropped by book agency Fuse Literary amid that scandal, expressed remorse for the racist prank in a now-deleted Instagram post. “Although my actions were not racially driven, I am now completely aware of how my privilege blinded me from the reality of law enforcement’s treatment of the black community, and how dangerous my actions could have been to [Faith],” she wrote.

Now the 40-year-old is returning to the show as cast members reel from what fans have dubbed “Scandoval,” the revelation that Sandoval cheated on costar and longtime girlfriend Ariana Madix with fellow Vanderpump Rules personality Raquel Leviss.

Sandoval apologized to Madix, with whom he’d been in a relationship for more than nine years when the scandal broke, in a March 7 Instagram post.

“I want to first and foremost apologize to everyone I’ve hurt through this process. Most of all, I want to apologize to Ariana,” he wrote, in part. “I made mistakes, I was selfish, and made reckless decisions that hurt somebody I love. No one deserves to feel that pain so traumatically and publicly.”

The following day, Leviss posted an Instagram statement of her own: “I want to apologize for my actions and my choices to Ariana, my friends, and the fans so invested in our relationships,” she began. “There is no excuse, I am not a victim and must own my actions. I deeply regret hurting Ariana.”

Vanderpump Rules, Wednesdays, 9/8c, Bravo