Kristen Doute Questions Whether Tom Schwartz’s Fling Jo Wenberg ‘Used’ Her to Get on ‘Pump Rules’
Kristen Doute spilled some tea on her history with Jo Wenberg, which fell apart before Tom Schwartz's fling made her Vanderpump Rules debut.
"For you listeners out there that don't know, Jo was one of my best friends. When I say best friend, I don't mean that lightly," Kristen, 40, recalled during the Sunday, December 24, episode of her "Sex, Love and What Else Matters" podcast. "This girl was my everyday ride-or-die, [and] we literally hung out all the time. Like, six days a week."
Kristen provided a timeline for when her connection with Jo, 35, fell apart, adding, "We stopped talking right around the time she started talking to Tom [Schwartz]."
The reality star's boyfriend, Luke Broderick, supported her version of events. "The first time I came to L.A. to see Kristen, Jo was the very first person I met. We went to get lunch and she was talking about moving out of her place [in July 2022]," he noted. "I didn't see her again until we crossed paths at TomTom basically the same night Scandoval happened [in March]."
Luke, 32, said Kristen thought Jo was intentionally not speaking to her. "Kristen was telling me, 'She's not responding and she's ghosting me,'" he shared.
Vanderpump Rules fans learned about Jo when Schwartz, 41, called her his roommate in numerous episodes throughout season 10. His ex-wife, Katie Maloney, offered more context in footage from the hit Bravo series.
"Jo was literally Kristen Doute's crazy friend. If you're Kristen Doute's crazy friend, that says a lot about you," she told cameras in an April episode of Vanderpump Rules.
Off screen, Katie, 36, slammed his past interactions with Jo before Schwartz admitted to hooking up with her.
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“Jo is spooky. I mean none of us could stand to be around her. Her energy is on par with a crack head,” Kate wrote in a March Instagram comment. “But when Tom and I announced our divorce almost a year ago the last thing she text me was ‘Bieber loves you / I love you, and I’m so supporting of your inner thoughts and visions / live in the moment, you’re a gem and I’ve always respected you. I love you. Xo Jo.’ She is a psycho and I will also light her on fire.”
Schwartz subsequently came to Jo's defense while discussing their relationship at the season 10 reunion, saying in May, "No, she wasn't [my girlfriend]. Especially not at that point. It did evolve into a situationship or a friends-with-benefits thing with clearly defined boundaries. We were both coming out of long-term relationships, and for a minute there, we were each other's happy places."
Footage has since surfaced of Jo filming with the season 11 cast of Vanderpump Rules. She recently discussed her time on the show after returning to social media following a lengthy break.
"I'm going public with my Instagram tonight. I hope you guys will all be kind to me. I haven't gotten the nicest stuff on any type of platform. But I wanted just to make sure that you guys could [see] just me with no makeup or filter. This is who I am," she said in an Instagram video in November. “I did film this season of Vanderpump Rules, and it was a very big, eye-opening experience."
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During Kristen's podcast, the former SURver questioned what led to her and Jo falling out of touch.
"There was a text here and there, but she seriously just ghosted me. And then I started finding out that she was hanging out with Schwartz and she was staying with him," she continued. "Our friendship has been over ever since. Not because I broke off our friendship but because she broke off the friendship with me and started lying to me. Now all of a sudden she's on the TV show that canned me."
Kristen isn't the only one who noticed the distance Jo created before joining Vanderpump Rules. "Friends of mine that are still close to Jo and I have said the exact same thing,” Kristen claimed. “Was I being used this whole entire time? Was this like a master plan to be on the show?"
Season 11 of Vanderpump Rules premieres on Bravo Tuesday, January 30, at 8 p.m. ET and will be available to stream on Peacock the next day.
