Britani Bateman made an impact in her first season as a friend of the Housewives on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. Despite being a friend, she landed airtime for her messy relationship with Jared Osmond, her underwhelming announcements, and for filming her castmates on vacation.

In episode 15 of Season 5 of RHOSLC, Britani got into hot water after she was caught filming her co-stars during an argument. During their trip to Puerto Vallarta, Britani was caught filming her fellow Housewives in their sprinter van. In the January 2025 episode, Angie Katsanevas caught her co-star filming the women arguing during their cast trip to Mexico.

The women became very angry when they discovered she was filming their argument, leading to Britani leaving the sprinter sobbing. On The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City After Show, Britani called the “emotional” moment “one of the worst experiences of my entire life.”

Why Britani Bateman Was Filming Her RHOSLC Castmates

The stars of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City were fighting in the back of a sprinter van on the Season 5 cast trip. Angie

Katsanevas stopped the argument when she noticed that Britani Bateman was recording on her phone.

“Britani, why are you recording the conversation?” Angie asked her. “Turn the f****g phone off. With people arguing in the back.”

The Daily Dish reports that the actress was quick to defend herself and her actions. “I swear on my life, I was not trying to record the girls,” Britani promised in a confessional.

When the producer can audibly be heard asking the reality star why she was filming the back of the seat just for the audio, she said. “It wasn’t for a while at all — it was for one second.” She continued, “The back of the seat was literally for like a second and a half.”

Britani claimed she was taking videos of her trip to send to her daughter Olivia, and wasn’t doing anything nefarious. “I mean, if anyone had any proof that I had done anything to hurt anyone on purpose, that would be one thing. But no one did,” she claimed on the RHOSLC After Show. “Everyone was making the worst assumptions about me.”

“We don’t even do that to each other when we’re hating each other,” Whitney said.

According to PEOPLE, Britani’s story changed a few times during filming.

• She initially said she was accidentally filming before later admitting that she was “saving them for later.”
• On the RHOSLC After Show, she backed up her initial excuse that she was texting her daughter videos from her trip.

Why The Real Housewives Of Salt Lake Were So Upset At Being Filmed

Despite already being filmed for the Bravo show, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City were angry that Britani Bateman may have footage of them on her phone. The women all ganged up on Britani, screaming at her for invading their privacy by filming them without their permission. More importantly, they didn’t know why she was filming them.

Fans questioned why this was different from the many other cameras set up in the sprinter van. RHOSLC newbie Bronwyn Newport pointed out on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City After Show that the difference was consent.

Lisa Barlow did defend Britani on the aftershow, admitting she did look through her co-star’s device. “You let us look through your phone, there was nothing on there, so we looked at text messages with you and Jared [Osmond], we looked at messages with you and your kids, and like, nobody could delete [anything] that fast,” Lisa recalled. “For me, I was like, ‘I’m resolved.'”

On the January 2025 episode of RHOSLC, Lisa told Britani—after she was caught filming them—“I will never trust you again. I will be worried every time I’m with you, you’re recording me, and I bet you have already.”

The women were tense about Britani’s behavior, but this was not the first time she had done it. According to The Daily Dish, Whitney Rose explained on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City After Show, “I know she was filming us, because I caught her filming earlier. She was filming us walking through the airport and she sent it off to a group of friends.”

“Britani, love you, [but] she was fully recording,” Heather Gay added, per Reality Blurb. “And she was doing it in a morally superior way, going ‘Look at these crazy b*****s.’ … None of her excuses were landing.”

The Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City Are Still Recovering From Monica Garcia

The shadow of former cast member Monica Garcia loomed over the 5th season of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, despite her not returning. The Utah-based reality stars were shocked in Season 4 to learn Monica was actually Reality Von (Tea)se, a gossip blogger who had been revealing information about their personal lives on social media.

Monica had published hidden videos of disgraced former cast member, Jen Shah, on her secret Instagram account. This may be why the cast of RHOSLC were triggered by Britani’s secret filming of them in the car.

“It’s literally the worst invasion of privacy that we can imagine,” Heather Gay admitted in her confessional, still affected by her feud with Monica. “We are deeply traumatized by friendship betrayals and something like this just brings it all up to the surface.”

In that same episode of RHOSLC, Whitney admitted that she had been in touch with Monica. She said she reached out to her former co-star out of “desperation.”

“After everything we’ve gone through to distance ourselves from her and her memory, there’s no f—ing way you did this,” Heather said in her confessional, per PEOPLE.