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Scheana Shay addressed her secret pay cut in past seasons of Vanderpump Rules, the one scene that was “absolutely scripted,” and why she didn’t tell Ariana Madix about her husband Brock Davies‘ affair during Scandoval.

In 2023, Ariana discovered that her then-boyfriend Tom Sandoval was cheating on her with Rachel Leviss. Recently, Scheana shared that she learned of her own husband’s affair around the same time, but she kept it a secret from friends and family.

In her new memoir, My Good Side, Scheana addresses how she wasn’t a regular cast member on seasons eight and ten.

“They said, ‘The audience is never going to know. You’re still going to be in every episode, you’re still going to be in opening credits. You’re still a main character, you’re not anyone’s ‘friend’ of,’” said Scheana, recalling the story in an interview with Us Weekly. “It was a way to save some money but still have us perform.”

She said this also happened to James Kennedy in season eight and Kristen Doute in season seven.

According to Scheana, “people-pleasing Scheana” continued to go above and beyond in her job, noting how she “gave them a wedding” for season 10, and she “bridged the new people with the OG cast” for season eight.

“My story from watching the show every episode, you would never know that I wasn’t being paid the same,” she added. “It was the same expectations, less pay.”

But in hindsight, Scheana claimed she’s “grateful” she was demoted in season eight.

“It forced me to start my YouTube channel, to be more open on my podcast, to put some more notes in my tab of things I want to talk about in a book one day,” Scheana explained. “I feel like if I had stayed on my same salary, I might not have tried to think outside of the box as much as I did.”

But when they did it again in season 10, it felt like a “kick in the a**.” Following Scandoval, Scheana contacted production.

“I was like, ‘Are you guys going to put me back on my normal salary season 11, seeing how imperative I am?’ And they did, and I feel like I am valued, finally,” said the star. “I feel like I know my worth. The network knows my worth. They see what a big part of everyone’s story I am. I am everyone’s friend and that’s OK. That doesn’t mean I’m disloyal, it just means that I have a lot of friends. I see a lot of perspectives.”

“Tom Sandoval was actually the only person who called Alex Baskin and everyone in charge and was like, ‘This isn’t fair. We’ve got to fight for Scheana,’” she said. “And it was everyone [saying], ‘It’s not my call, it’s not my call, it’s not my call.’ I’m like, ‘Well, whose call is it?’”

Later on, Scheana admitted that she preplanned the scene in the season nine finale when Brock and Scheana were accused of attempting to steal the thunder of James Kennedy and Rachel’s engagement.

“We absolutely scripted that finale without production or anyone knowing. [Lala Kent] and I had made so much headway and didn’t want to fight at the finale, but we also knew we had a job to do and that this story needed to be told for James and Raquel to finish out the narrative,” said Scheana. “[Lala and I] pulled Ariana and Katie Maloney 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.’”

Though Katie agreed to bring up the discussion on camera, she “wasn’t able to play her part” after she visited an open bar.

“So Lala did her job and she went and told them. That’s where you got the iconic line from Ariana, ‘Babe, I was born cool.’ It was a great scene. Production won’t know we did that until this comes out,” she recalled. “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 … We were doing photos of toes that season — and we needed something.”

At one point, Scheana shared why initially she didn’t tell Ariana about Brock’s affair.

“I was waiting for [Ariana] to ask is everything okay … [but] I think it turned into like surface-level conversation, because I didn’t know what to say, because that was weighing so heavy on me,” she explained. “And also at the time, I didn’t want to trauma-dump on her when she had her own trauma she was going through.”

“For people to say I always make everything about myself, this is a prime example of how I actually don’t do that,” she said. “Because I cared more about her well-being and her mental health than my own. As much as I wanted her to be able to be there for me, I also – which is the same reason I didn’t tell my mom – I didn’t want any opinions, I didn’t want anyone saying, well you should leave.”