Nia Booko and her husband, Danny Booko, find themselves at the center of controversy during the third season of The Valley. They suspect that Danny has been unfairly targeted, though not everyone shares their view.
Credit: Michael Simon/startraksphoto.com, Bravo
While castmates Brittany Cartwright, 37, and Lala Kent, 35, suggest that it is actually Janet Caperna who faces constant scrutiny, Nia, 35, and Danny, 42, maintain that they have been unfairly treated by their co-stars. Their stance has found support from fellow cast members Luke Broderick, 35, Jesse Lally, 46, and Kristen Doute, 43, even as Janet denies any intent to sabotage Danny.
On the May 27 episode of The Valley: After Show, Nia expressed her belief that her husband remains a target. “I am 100 percent sure there’s still a target on Daniel’s back. It’s something I’m very aware of,” she stated. Nia emphasized that she and Danny have only tried to maintain friendly relations with everyone, including Lala, questioning why their goodwill has not been reciprocated.
Danny echoed his wife’s sentiments, noting a continuation of last season’s tensions. “With Lala being friends with Janet, it felt like there was a lot of unnecessary attacking,” he reflected. “When others join in, it starts feeling intentional. I really hoped to build a friendship with Lala, but it hasn’t panned out that way.”
“It kind of picked up where it left off with last season,” Danny agreed. “Lala being friends with Janet, it just felt like a lot of unnecessary attacking … And when other people get on board with it, that’s what was happening, so I think it’s intentional, and look, I had high hopes with Lala and getting to know her and wanting to be friends.”
After hearing that the Bookos felt there was a target on their back, Brittany expressed confusion.
“There was a target on Janet’s back if anything,” she declared, as Lala added, “Because she could do no right.”
“Nothing that she did was okay,” Brittany confirmed. “And she would apologize and try to make things better. It just seemed like nothing was working.”
According to Lala, she found it “insulting” that certain cast members felt that Danny didn’t deserve to be treated the way he was.
“This is behavior that people are watching and calling out, so to try to like, push it away and say that it’s everyone else’s problem, without the behavior, there would be nothing to talk about. It’s that simple,” she reasoned.
Meanwhile, Luke suggested that his co-stars had a low emotional quotient (low EQ).
“The people coming for [Danny] hardest are also parents, not giving any of that empathy, especially parents of four, the inability to do that is just, it’s low EQ, and to me, as being a parent, it feels more and more wrong,” he admitted. “[And] I think it’s about as clear as the day is outside [that Danny had a target on his back].”
“100 percent,” Jesse replied. “The constant like regurgitation of the same story, and it’s like, it drives me insane because people are using it as an excuse as repeated behavior.”
Luke then added, “If [Danny] doesn’t have a microscope on him and you take a step back, it’s like oh, Danny kind of has his sh*t together running this little stable he’s got at his house and working his other job and like, doing all this stuff, maybe we should go easier on Danny and look at these guys that don’t have as much going on and drink twice as much.”
As for Kristen, she suspected that those coming for Danny and Nia’s marriage “don’t know what a healthy relationship looks like.”
“It is like the math ain’t mathing in their head. They’re like, ‘No, there’s something else going on.’ It’s crazy to me that there’s this constant, those of us that are close with Nia and Danny, have to be convincing other people that their bullsh*t isn’t correct. It’s just like super weird to me. Like, why is everyone so obsessed?” Kristen asked.
In her own segment, Janet said that she and the Bookos couldn’t move forward since Danny was interpreting “everything as an attack.”
“Danny also keeps, like, saying that [Jax Taylor], [Jason Caperna], and I had a coordinated attack against him as if we like got together at someone’s house and had like a PowerPoint presentation of, like, ‘Here’s how we’re gonna attack and ruin Danny this year.’ It’s like, ‘No, we expressed that we were uncomfortable with things that happened. We wanted to see accountability in many ways, and we didn’t,’” Janet explained.
Jason also spoke out, stating, “Someone who expects a blind eye to be turned to their behaviors is sort of outside of the norm of the regular human experience. If I were to take my clothes off and go streaking, and I put my clothes back on and come back, I wouldn’t expect the conversation to just go normally. I would expect it to be pointed out like, ‘Why were you just naked and running around?’”
The Valley season three airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.