Stassi Schroeder spills on all things season eight, from her 'breakup' with Kristen Doute to her exciting engagement to Beau Clark.
"Witches of WeHo, dunzo."
And with that phrase, Stassi Schroeder sent shock waves through the Bravo universe, announcing her "breakup" from Kristen Doute. The Vanderpump Rules star makes the proclamation in the trailer for season eight of the hit reality show, which returns to TV screens on Tuesday night, seven years to the date of its series premiere. But, this time, Stassi says it feels really, really different.
"You know what? I am excited and I am terrified at the same time, I mean this is like a whole different type of season than we have ever had before," Stassi admits to ET. "There is a lot of breakups, not, like, romantic breakups, but just, it's sad."
"We all, in the last year, have been going through major life changes," she continues. "So many things happened, and we have all kind of grown, and sometimes you grow apart and you start thinking differently and wanting to live your life differently, and that doesn’t always match up with some of the people you have been friends with for a really long time."
While Stassi and Kristen have had their ups and downs over the years (see season two, episode 13, "Slap"), they’ve always made their way back to each other before a season wraps. That’s not the case for season eight. Stassi says it's going to "suck a**" having to watch their friendship, literally, unfold.
"This is the first time I feel I am going to have to really watch and see what [Kristen] says," she shares. "I think you can tell based on our social media that we are still on a break, and that’s not to say we hate each other. We don’t hate each other, we don’t dislike each other even, it’s just this thing where we are not getting along and hopefully that changes at some point. I guess only time will tell. I am going to have to watch this season and see what Kristen has to say. I am looking forward to seeing her side of things because I truly don’t understand right now."
Viewers also might not understand, as Stassi and Kristen’s relationship -- which also includes Katie Maloney-Schwartz -- really began its downward spiral between seasons seven and eight, after the trio's tear-filled back-and-forth at the season seven reunion. Kristen confronted her fellow "witches" at the all-cast special, saying she no longer feels like she can talk to them about what's going on in her life, especially when it comes to her on-again, off-again romance with Brian Carter, who simply goes by "Carter."
"That was a toxic relationship that Katie and I were there for, for so many years," Stassi declares. "There are only so many times that you can sit with someone crying over the same thing and then, the next day, she says, 'But can he come over for a pool party? You have to be nice to him.' Like, that weighs on me and I don’t want to be around him then, and then it turned into something that it’s not even about Carter, Carter may be innocent in this whole thing. Now it’s about how you’re handling this with us."
Kristen is currently writing a book about her relationship with Carter and the men who came before him, called He's Making You Crazy: How to Get the Guy, Get Even, and Get Over It, which Stassi -- a New York Times best-seller in her own right -- praises, noting that Kristen has wanted to write a book for a long time. Now, as for the contents of the book, Stassi hopes it's not advice-based; she notes people probably should not take dating advice from any of her co-stars. Still, she says she wants nothing but "good things" for both Carter and Kristen, but she could no longer handle the way Kristen was operating within their friend circle.
"It wasn't just one thing that brought us to this point, it was a couple years of going through some toxic situations with each other, where we kind of just got to the point -- or at least where I got to the point of, OK, I need to take a step back, this is affecting my life, this is affecting my own relationship," she says. "I find myself talking about this s**t all the time and I just need to take a break, and that is kind of all I can say, I guess."
Stassi confesses that the whole ordeal makes her "really sad," and she hopes to reconcile at some point, though cautions that "none of us know how to do it." Kristen, on the other hand, previously told ET she’s not sure that she, Katie and Stassi can ever get back to where they were.
"I just think we're changing. We're growing in different directions at certain points," Kristen shared at BravoCon in November. "I don’t think we'll never be, have any sort of relationship again, personally.”
So, it's all TBD for now, as for how the audience will react to the brood of new SUR-vers joining the mix for season eight, which introduces a whopping seven new cast members. Some fans already know, others are totally fresh faces. Three of them -- Dayna Kathan, Brett Caprioni and Max Boyens -- got Stassi’s stamp of approval, but she admits it's weird watching back the episodes and seeing scenes that don't involve the "OGs."
"It felt like I was watching a little bit of season one, but with new people," she says. "It was just kind of trippy … but, when they were around me, it felt very organic."
Stassi, however, didn't spend much time with the newbies. The 31-year-old was busy with the career she's built thanks to the show, celebrating the success of her first book, Next Level Basic (a follow-up is in the works), and planning her sold-out podcast tour. Oh, and she got engaged to longtime boyfriend Beau Clark. So, come season nine, the "descendant of a Swedish princess" might be trading in her signature, "It's my f**king birthday" cry for, "It’s my f**king wedding." When asked if the "wedding card" was in play when it came to making excuses for herself, Stassi quips, "Oh, you bet your a**."
"It hasn’t gotten to the point where I need to [use it a lot] yet, but you know what, my birthdays were bad enough, this is my one and only wedding so, like, I am going to make sure I torture people a little bit," she says, not joking.
Stassi and Beau, who just bought their first house together -- and not in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley with the rest of the Vanderpump cast -- are still in the early stages of wedding planning, but have set a date for the fall, in Italy. The No. 1 must-have for the big day was the time of year, so as to not sweat. An issue, though, is that fall is outside the normal window of filming for Vanderpump Rules, so that might mean a spinoff show for the nuptials, though Stassi would seemingly rather Bravo figure out how to incorporate it into a regular season.
"Oh, I don’t know [about a spinoff], because then your family has to get all involved," she notes. "At least on Vanderpump Rules I can rely on my friends to act up, you know what I mean, if it’s wedding special."
When the day comes, it will be a small affair -- also a reason behind the destination choice. Not all her co-stars will get invites (James Kennedy and Kristen, of course, are not currently on the guest list), so those who do make it on there better make sure to RSVP appropriately.
"On my invitations, I am going to write a handwritten letter that is like, 'Listen, I seriously f**king mean it, if you can’t come or you think this is a pain in the a**, I totally f**king agree and there are no hard feelings, and we can celebrate at, like, The Belmont when I get back,'" she jokes. "Like, I won’t care if you can’t come. It won’t hurt my feelings, I want everyone to know that. The smaller, the better."
Vanderpump Rules airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
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