For a decade on Vanderpump Rules, Scheana Shay let the world in on every Pumptini-laced detail of her life — at least it seemed that way. Turns out she was holding on to a secret: In 2023, while the world was obsessing over Scandoval (the franchise-shaking Tom Sandoval/Rachel Leviss/Ariana Madix cheating scandal), Shay learned that her husband, Brock Davies, had been unfaithful while she was pregnant with their daughter, Summer, two years prior.

In her new book, My Good Side, Shay, 40, finally shares it all — and yes, she’s aware that some fans will be quick to throw her past affair with a then-married Eddie Cibrian in her face. “It really felt like I got my karma,” Shay tells Us Weekly. “Did I deserve for [Brock to cheat on me]? No, but I told myself that I did.”

With the help of couple’s therapy and solo sessions — Shay had an appointment scheduled right after her chat with Us — the Bravo star is owning her narrative. “I have a voice, and I want to use it. I am extremely proud of the woman I’ve become,” she says. “I am not that 21-year-old girl chasing boys around clubs anymore.”

Now that VPR has wrapped — an entirely new cast premieres later this year — Shay talked to Us ahead of My Good Side’s July 22 debut, opening up about her decision to stay with Davies, what she’d change if she could and more.

What label or misconception about you has hurt the most over the years?I have a new song called “Miss Understood,” where I [list] everything that people have called me: home-wrecker, flip-flopper, disloyal. … So many things are hurtful because they’re not true. I am extremely loyal. I am a girl’s girl. People don’t necessarily see that side of me because the girls I was on the show with weren’t … the girls I would necessarily be loyal to and be a girl’s girl around because they didn’t always treat me in a way that deserved that.

When Bravo fans met you, you were the girl who’d had an affair with Eddie Cibrian during his marriage to Brandi Glanville.
I have worn this scarlet letter for so long. I’m this “home-wrecking whore” every day in the comments. He’s the one who lied. He is the one who cheated. He is the home-wrecker. I don’t want to say I was innocent, but … I was lied to by a 33-year-old man when I was 21, fresh out of college. I feel like people tend to forget that. They see 27-year-old Scheana on season 1 of Vanderpump Rules, and it’s as if the Eddie situation happened the year before. This happened in 2006. We weren’t on air until 2013. Looking back, were there red flags? Absolutely. I was leading with my heart and not my brain.

Do you have any regrets?
There are many things I wish I could change. I don’t like to have regrets in life, but one thing I do regret was opening up to the media about Eddie. … I wasn’t thinking about his wife and toddlers at home. People like to say that I make everything about me — this was an instance where I was only thinking about myself in that situation and that was not OK. It was extremely immature and extremely irresponsible. I am so sorry to Brandi for her having to find out about me the way she did. She didn’t deserve that. And lo and behold, look what my husband did to me.

Eddie also infamously cheated with LeAnn Rimes and went on to marry her. Did you ever run into them in Hollywood?
No, never! LeAnn and I have talked on social media. Brandi and I stay in touch. But Eddie, I have had zero contact and zero run-ins with in 17 years. How insane is that?

In the book, you reveal that Lisa Vanderpump knew about your affair with Eddie but pretended not to when she brought you and Brandi together on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2013.
She low-key used my real-life pain to launch her TV empire — and what an empire she has. She gaslit me about it for a decade instead of just coming to me in the beginning. That’s the thing with Lisa: She doesn’t make mistakes. She makes moves and then calls them coincidences.

When did your relationship change?

On season 6 of VPR, when James Kennedy told Katie Maloney that the outfit she was wearing wasn’t flattering, I got a phone call from Lisa. She didn’t want to fire James, so she needed someone to stand up for him [at a staff meeting]. If you go back and watch, I’m getting a death stare from Lisa, like, “When are you going to speak up? When are you going to stick to the script?” That’s when I stopped following her orders, and I feel like the relationship changed after that.

The cast has been vocal about the show not being scripted, but you write about another moment, in season 9, that was also orchestrated: a confrontation with Lala Kent about you and Brock getting engaged during James and Rachel’s engagement weekend.
We absolutely scripted that finale. [Lala and I] pulled Ariana and Katie aside, and we’re like, “OK, we’re going to show up and do our job, but we’re not going to tell production that we’re going to fake a fight. … Production won’t know we did that until this comes out.” That was a one-off and the only time we faked something. It was desperation over wanting to save our jobs and get another season.

Something left out of that season was your traumatic 2021 delivery, which included preeclampsia treatment with a magnesium drip, which led to Summer being born limp and blue.
That was one of the more challenging parts of the book to write. HELLP [Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes and Low Platelet count] syndrome can be fatal. It’s something most people don’t know about — I certainly didn’t until I was transferred to the high-risk ICU. When Summer was born and not making a sound, I was terrified. I thought she wasn’t going to make it. It was the scariest minute of my entire life.

And as a result, you don’t plan to carry another child, though you and Brock have expressed hopes for baby No. 2?

[Using a surrogate] is something that I’ve not fully come to terms with yet. I felt [Summer] kick, I felt her hiccup, I breastfed her, and it’s going to be a very different experience this time. I worry that I might not have the same connection to the baby, but we are slowly taking steps in that direction.

You were also diagnosed with postpartum OCD. How are you doing now?
I felt like, at any point in time, I was going to make the wrong decision and it could be life-threatening. It’s definitely gotten easier as she’s gotten older — now she can tell me when something hurts. I have an amazing daughter. I am also on 100 milligrams of Sertraline, which is generic for Zoloft. I’ve done extensive EMDR therapy, which really helped reprocess trauma. Now I’m able to do interviews like this and not sob.

You were pregnant when Brock had an affair with a woman from his gym. Tell Us about your decision to include the revelation in the book.
I went back and forth. It started as absolutely not. It was an eight-month conversation [with Brock]. After several therapy sessions and really talking about it, we decided that this book would be inauthentic if we didn’t put it all in.

Was the hesitation yours or Brock’s?
A little bit of both. But I’d rather it come out in my words because, unfortunately, there was another person involved in this situation, and at any point in time, she could come forward.

What was your reaction when you learned about the affair?
A slap across the face and me chucking a Rubik’s cube in his direction. But then I had to take a deep breath [and] remind myself that our daughter is upstairs asleep and it’s not so cut and dry.

Did you consider walking away?
Had there been no kid or, honestly, had I found out when he did it … 100 percent, without a doubt, I would have left. I’ve always been a person who said, “If I’m ever cheated on, I would leave.” My ex-husband [Mike Shay] had an emotional affair, which honestly could be worse than physical, but this was such new territory for me to navigate.

Why do you think he did it — and why did he finally come clean?
[After Scandoval], he was worried something would leak. I was thankful it came from him. It took him a long time to tell me because he was afraid. I can have sympathy now and understand that he felt like he didn’t deserve a second chance at being a father. [Davies has a strained relationship with his two older kids from a previous relationship, who live in Australia with their mother.] That really broke my heart for him, that he felt like he needed to sabotage something so amazing because he didn’t deserve it. We can’t let our past define who we are, and I didn’t want him to wear that for the rest of his life.

Is your relationship fully healed?
It takes work every single day. I will forever have insecurities. Just the other day, I saw him swipe and delete a text, and I’m like, “What was that?” And he’s like, “Seriously, Scheana?” But I genuinely believe he would never do anything like that again. I do trust him. I have forgiven him. … We’ve put in the work in couples therapy. We have a very open line of communication. I want to show people that if you truly love someone, a mistake from their past doesn’t have to define the future of your relationship.

What do you want Summer to know about dating and relationships after your experiences?
I just want her to be with someone who treats her with respect.

Have you thought about telling her about Brock’s affair — or anything else she can read about online?
Thankfully, we have a bit of time to still figure that out. We’ll talk to our individual therapists, do some more sessions together and figure out how we’re going to have those tough conversations with her, especially about her two older siblings. She’s only 4 years old.

After Tom cheated on Ariana, you continued to film with him, even though you and Ariana had been close for years. What nobody knew was that you learned about Brock’s affair at the same time.
I don’t think I gave Ariana as much grace as I should have in those moments. Just because I was willing to forgive Brock — and essentially forgive Sandoval — she wasn’t ready for any of that. I also wasn’t ready to tell that story. I don’t think our marriage would’ve survived if I did. I wasn’t even protecting Brock in those moments, I was protecting Summer.

What would you do differently now?
I wish I supported Ariana more in the way that she needed. I feel like I was put in a position where I had a job to do. I was going through my own personal heartbreak, and I wasn’t the friend that she needed throughout season 11. I genuinely regret that because she deserved more from me. I hope that one day, privately, we can sit on my couch and have that conversation I wanted to have with her two years ago. I miss her; she was my best friend, and I am just over the moon seeing how incredible she’s doing.

You write about being involved with a woman before Brock. Tell Us about that.

With John [Mayer], sometimes there was another girl around, but I never had feelings for another woman like I did [this time]. I was afraid to have the talk to really explore what it could be because I was afraid of what it wouldn’t be. I was afraid of rejection. If we had more time together before I met Brock, maybe we would’ve had those conversations. I’ll always wonder.

Did you talk about opening your marriage?
In the beginning, did Brock think, “Oh, well, maybe the three of us?” — I’m sure. But no, that was never going to be anything I was open to because I had learned my lesson from doing that many times in the past. And when feelings are involved, it does not end well.

You conclude the book by saying you want to be more understood.
There have been a lot of times in my life when I took a backseat to others. I can be a people-pleaser. Whether it was following my mom’s rules as a child or changing my look to fit in at school or taking Lisa’s calls, I’ve let their narratives and that guidance define me. I wanted to finally take the narrative back and tell my story. Writing this book has helped me sift through this mess, trauma and the joys of my life.