Fans were right all along! Lala Kent and her former assistant are NOT on good terms!
For those who don’t know about this latest Lala drama, here’s the rundown. Vanderpump Rules fans were introduced to Jessica Walter during Season 9 when Lala hired her as a personal assistant. She continued to work for the reality star for years and later became a co-host on the Give Them Lala podcast. However, Jessica became more than just an employee to Lala. They were best friends! In fact, they were so close that Jessica was even in the delivery room when Lala gave birth to her second daughter, Sosa, in September 2024!
But two months later, Lala announced to her podcast listeners that Jessica had left the podcast. Neither of them explained what happened, and Jessica didn’t even appear on the podcast to say goodbye to fans! One minute she was there, and she was gone the next!
Due to the sudden departure, many started to speculate the two women had a falling out. Jessica fueled the feud rumors when she liked a shady comment on Instagram from a fan that read:
“This was handled so poorly. Not your fault but we listen to a pod with the three of you on the reg and have no answers. No send off or anything.”
Yikes. When asked about the situation on the Skinny But Not Fat podcast last month, Lala kept her lips somewhat sealed. She said:
“It’s so wild because it’s like, ‘Where were you when she was on the podcast?’ Nowhere to be found. All I heard was, ‘Get her off.’ At the end of the day, she was my employee. She wanted to go and move on with her life. And I would be like a crazy person to not say, ‘Go and achieve everything you want to achieve.’ I don’t know how to break this down.”
Hmm. Just an employee moving on? But is that really it? If Jessica just wanted to do something else with her life, why not have her do one final episode and have her say this herself? According to Lala, she never planned to let Jessica have a send-off on the podcast:
“At the end of the day, she was employed by Lala Kent. You’re no longer employed. I wish you the best. Have a great life. I’ve learned a lot in many relationships in my life, from my ex-fiancé, to certain friends that I’ve had, to employees that I’ve had. Every single thing that I’ve experienced in the past two to three years, I have learned something from. I don’t regret anything, but I know how to make things different.”
This was your friend, though! She was someone Lala went on vacation with, had in the delivery room, and more. Not just a random employee at your business. The way Lala is talking makes all of us feel like there’s a lot more to the story here than Jessica wanting to branch out. Mainly that they weren’t friends anymore. And yeah, everyone’s guess was right.
During the first episode of her new podcast Date My on Tuesday, Jessica finally addressed her shocking exit from the Give Me Lala podcast. And yeah, there WAS drama behind the scenes! She started by saying:
“I want to address who I think are a majority of the people tuning in right now, who I’m very grateful for. And those are my loves. Those are my friends who know me from the last podcast I was on. I want to take this moment to address you guys because I seemingly disappeared off that last podcast.”
As for why she was “suddenly gone” from the show? Jessica made it clear her departure was not planned. She expected to be working for Lala quite frankly for the rest of her life! Jessica explained:
“First thing I’ll say is no, I was not at all expecting to leave. That wasn’t the plan. If I’m gonna be honest, I thought I’d be at that last job forever. I was like ready to be a lifer. Maybe not in the role I was in, but I’ll say within the company I was in.”
Whoa! She was that dedicated to the job! Jessica even pointed out that she “invested everything” she had personally and professionally into the gig. However, something happened that made her second-guess everything. Jessica shared:
“I was investing in a future that I thought we were all on the same page about. Basically, what happened is I said how I felt about the way some things were being handled, and the response I got to that was, in my opinion, not good. The responses I got, honestly, I was taken aback.”
Whoa, what was it?! Jessica didn’t say. But the reaction she got from her former boss left her “heartbroken” to the point where she had to quit:
“I found myself in a position where I felt like I had no other option than to choose to leave.”
Wow…
Ultimately, it sounds like Jessica felt Lala didn’t have her back in the same way she always did for the Vanderpump Rules alum:
“I think sometimes we invest all of ourselves into a relationship and we give it our all. And at the end of the day, maybe we don’t get in return what we feel we deserve. What we feel we deserve can be as small as you don’t have my back. And it can be confusing for people who are like me and frustrating because all these times I’ve made you feel safe and I’ve had your back, and in these moments where I should feel the same, I don’t.”
That’s so disappointing. The podcast host continued:
“We can choose to stay on a path in life in this relationship with this person, with these people who maybe it’s not going the way we hope, but we’re like, ‘Let’s see where it takes us.’ And that’s OK. That’s your choice because that’s your life. Other people may choose to take a step back and say, ‘Nothing here is going to change no matter how hard I try.’ Or, ‘Nothing here is going to veer this way, or get on this path, or whatever. No matter how hard I try, it’s not going to.’ I’m a firm believer that if you’re making decisions based on goodness and purpose and future and the betterment of yourself and others and the world, you can only be rewarded in the end. And you may be rewarded immediately or further down the road.”
While Lala and Jessica may have ended on bad terms, she is still “grateful” for all the opportunities she received from her old job. She added:
“That’s not all nothing because of how it ended. I’m so grateful for that. I worked hard to be in a lot of those positions and I won’t take that away from myself. Because I am a hard worker and I will always be a hard worker. That is very important to me. But I’m very grateful for all of that.”
At least she can look on the bright side of the situation now! But whatever happened must have been pretty bad if she decided to not only end her working relationship with Lala but her friendship too! Watch the podcast episode (below):
At this time, Lala hasn’t addressed her former assistant’s comments. But knowing the Bravoleb, we expect a clapback very soon! Stay tuned for more on the drama, Perezcious readers! For now, what are your reactions to her explanation of what happened? Sound OFF (below)!
[Image via Jessica Walter/Instagram, Bravo/YouTube]
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