From skipping her co-star’s engagement dinner to being labeled a “f**king fan,” Janet Caperna’s reality TV journey has been anything but dull. In Tuesday’s episode of “The Valley: After Show,” she explained why she sat out Kristen Doute’s celebration—only to be blindsided by a brutal on-camera accusation. Meanwhile, Kristen doubled down on claims that Janet started out as a devoted “Vanderpump Rules” watcher before moving to infiltrate the friend group.
Why Janet Caperna Stepped Away from Kristen Doute’s Engagement Bash on The Valley
After Luke Broderick popped the question to Kristen at sunset on a boat in Hawaii, one familiar face was missing from the post-proposal festivities: Janet Caperna. On the July 1 episode of “The Valley: After Show,” Janet, 35, revealed that she and her husband, Jason Caperna, 41, chose to skip the engagement dinner despite being on the same trip.
“As much as Kristen and I are not getting along, she deserves to have a fun, happy engagement,” Janet said. But Kristen’s prior comments—telling Brittany Cartwright she was “not comfortable with Janet even being in my hotel room”—gave Janet pause. “She had just attacked my marriage,” Caperna explained. “I truly felt like the best path forward is to go have a nice, private night with Jason, and send a bottle of champagne her way to let her know I am happy for her.”
Although she initially threatened to leave the trip altogether, Janet admitted she was being a bit “dramatic.” “In the moment, I really felt like the best thing was for me not to be at the party, and I kind of met in the middle—‘I’m gonna remove myself from dinner, but I’ll still stay on the trip,’” she said.
Jason backed her decision. “Your engagement should be one of the happiest things that happens in your life. If I was proposing to Janet, I wouldn’t necessarily want Kristen hanging out at that time,” he noted.
But despite their efforts to keep distance, fate intervened. “Of the 700-passenger plane, it was like multiple rows of people—Kristen and Luke also upgraded and were sitting in the seats behind us,” Janet revealed.
Kristen Doute Calls Janet a ‘F**king Fan of Vanderpump Rules
@deciderdotcom #thevalley star Kristen Doute does not regret calling Janet Caperna a “fan” in the Season 2 trailer. #kristendoute #janetcaperna #bravo #bravotv #vanderpumprules
If Janet hoped the engagement drama would blow over, she was in for another shock. In the Season 2 trailer for “The Valley,” Kristen, 42, explodes at Janet, 35, accusing her: “You’re a f**king fan, bitch.” The outburst referenced online whispers that Janet originally befriended the “Vanderpump Rules” cast as a superfan.
When Decider caught up with Doute, she stood by her words. “I don’t think it’s any surprise to anyone—I’m pretty sure it’s out there on the net—that Janet was introduced to our friend group years and years ago as a fan of the show,” Kristen said. She was quick to clarify that there’s nothing wrong with being a fan: “This is not to say that I don’t love and appreciate fans of our show. That is why we do what we do.”
But Doute argued that Janet changed once the cameras rolled. “For me, it was the Janet that I had been very close to pre-Season 1 who is not the person that I saw when the cameras went up,” she explained. Drawing parallels to “Vanderpump Rules” villains of past seasons, Kristen added, “I felt like I was seeing glimpses of ‘This is how Stassi Schroeder was on Season 1 of Vanderpump Rules,’ or ‘This was like Lala Kent on Season 5.’ So that is what I meant by ‘effing fan.’”
As “The Valley” airs Tuesday nights at 9/8c on Bravo.
