Bravo star Scheana Shay has been on TV screens for more than a decade, starring on all 11 seasons of Vanderpump Rules and appearing on the current season of its spin off series, The Valley.
She’s been married on television (twice), given birth to a daughter, got caught in the chaos of a Scandoval and a Real Housewife’s marital saga, and so much more. Yet, while fans may think they know her, she says that her upcoming memoir, My Good Side, reveals the secrets she’d feared sharing previously.
Sporting a fresh haircut and impeccable glam, Shay, 40, wore an all-pink ensemble and bubbled with her infamous energy when she spoke to The Independent a few days ahead of the book’s official release. On a white piano behind her sat the memoir, its unmistakable cover featuring Shay smiling at herself in the mirror, though her reflection isn’t beaming back.
“This is me at my most authentic you're ever going to see me and moving forward, this is the version of me you'll see,” Shay said, before adding, seemingly without irony: “At least it's the version I'll give.”
The memoir is being released hot on the heels of her Vanderpump Rules tenure coming to an end, as Shay settles fully into her roles as wife to Brock Davies and mom to their daughter, Summer Moon. She’s intent to own her truth, despite the potential costs.
“Every skeleton in my closet is now just fully out in the living room for the world to watch and see and read about,” Shay said. “So it is cathartic writing this book. It's exciting, but it's also scary to completely be vulnerable and to put myself out there in a way that I never have before.”
One of those skeletons was the revelation that Davies cheated on Shay in 2021 while she was pregnant with their daughter, news which emerged in an early excerpt in Glamour last week. Shay said that while it’s “been a lot” with the news just coming out now — as she kept it under wraps for four years and during multiple seasons of filming VPR — she’s “sticking with therapy” and doing well.
“I was just at the International OCD Foundation Conference in Chicago and just sitting through a bunch of those seminars and whatnot, it was really good for my mental health,” Shay shared.
Even though cameras didn’t catch the aftermath of her learning of her husband’s infidelity, they certainly did capture moments of Shay’s mental health struggles, which were heightened after the birth of her daughter. In the memoir, Shay dives deeper into her lifelong journey with OCD and intrusive thoughts — diagnoses she didn’t receive until much later in life.
“That's probably the biggest secret I've ever kept my whole life, my intrusive thoughts,” Shay revealed. She didn’t tell anyone about her experience with them — which can commonly occur as disturbing or upsetting thoughts, images, or urges that enter your mind without warning — until she was 37 years old.
A proper diagnosis led to Shay figuring out what treatments worked best for her; ultimately, after trial and error, that was medication. “I fought it for so long, but I know I feel better when I'm on it,” Shay said of deciding to start Sertraline, the generic version of Zoloft. “I feel mentally stronger and when I'm the best version of myself, I'm the best mother for Summer. So if that means I'm on Sertraline daily, then so be it.
“Having this diagnosis, getting on the right medication, going to the right therapy has been so amazing for me,” she added. “It's been so freeing to feel comfortable talking about something that I kept secret for so long.”
That is one aspect of Shay’s story she’s hoping others can learn from, just as she aims to enlighten fans about the realities of reality TV. Shay details several instances in the memoir where she acted as restaurateur and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum Lisa Vanderpump’s pawn. And when she didn’t do what Vanderpump asked, there were consequences. She wrote about one particular incident when Vanderpump wanted Shay to stick up for DJ James Kennedy after he body-shamed Katie Maloney — but Shay wouldn’t budge.
She got the “death stare” from Vanderpump, and their relationship took a turn after that.
“Whatever Lisa [Vanderpump] said, I wanted to make her happy,” Shay told The Independent. “And sometimes — a lot of times — I maybe said or did things that weren't my original thought. It was more to appease my producer or my boss.”
But that’s now become one of Shay’s biggest regrets. “I don't feel like I always lived my authentic self on the show,” she said. “I was who other people wanted me to be. And I think that's probably also why you have the people who have been a Scheana fan since day one, but you have a lot of people who have never been able to get behind me because I'm a people pleaser. And I think this book gives more insight into those parts of me.”
“I'm now 40 years old and I've lived a lot of life. I see a lot of things differently. I'm not the girl who's going to be walked all over anymore,” Shay vowed.
“I may still be a people pleaser at times, but I'm also going to be better at standing my ground and taking a stand when one needs to be taken.”
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