Katie Maloney claims she quit “Vanderpump Rules” months before the reboot — featuring an entirely new cast — was announced.
Speaking directly to her “Disrespectfully” podcast co-host, Dayna Kathan, Maloney said on Wednesday’s episode, “You know — as [well as] many people close to me — I didn’t plan on returning.”
She continued, “Maybe it doesn’t matter at this point, but I had made a decision months ago after this past season. I mean, I just needed to move on with my life. And this is before we knew the show was gonna be put on pause, before any of that.”
Kathan interjected to point out that Maloney, 37, had reached this conclusion after the Season 11 reunion, which aired in May.
“Yeah,” the latter confirmed. “And I had talked to our producers about it, and I told them my decision on that.”
Maloney said she “felt personally ready to move on” from the Bravo reality series, which premiered in January 2013, because her “life was moving in a different direction.”
“Mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, I was prepared,” the Something About Her co-owner told Kathan, who appeared on Season 8 of “Vanderpump Rules.”
Maloney — an original cast member who got married and divorced on the show — noted that cameras followed her for “a long time” and “many seasons” of her life.
“[I] lived many lives [and] went through so much on that show, but I don’t know, I just got to a point where I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can live and grow and be the version of myself I want to be on this show any longer,’” she explained, insisting that she “understand[s]” the network’s decision to replace the original cast with a “new group of close-knit SUR-vers.”
According to the former SURver, the original group’s “dynamic” was “fractured” beyond repair following Scandoval.
“Many of us don’t hang out,” she confessed, adding that the once-“cohesive unit” simply “doesn’t exist anymore.”
Despite her desire to move on from the series, the Utah native admitted that “the finality of it is surreal,” “weird” and “sad no matter what” — though she wasn’t surprised by the news.
Maloney also made sure to shut down rumors that cast members “were demanding tons of money,” as negotiations had apparently “not even been discussed” yet.
Reps for Bravo did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
