Tamron Hall denies she ‘ambushed’ Stassi Schroeder during tell-all interview

Tamron Hall has hit back at allegations she ‘went rogue’ while interviewing fired Vanderpump Rules star Stassi Schroeder last week.

The host of The Tamron Hall Show, 50, spoke about claims Schroeder wasn’t happy with the interview during Tuesday’s episode.

‘She knew the subject matter. She knew what I was going to ask her,’ said Hall of her exchange with Schroeder. 

‘The other day I was told that there was a report that Stassi felt “unprepared” and that it was “awkward.” Even that I had gone rogue – whatever that means,’ began Tamron, referring to an UsWeekly article in which a source claimed Schroeder ‘felt like she was put on the spot.’

Hall continued: ‘Let me just be open because I’m expecting everybody who’s participating in this show today, I want them to be open, so I have to do the same. It’s why I wanted this show to be honest with you.’ 

‘So I’m going to take you behind the scenes of TV. Now, I don’t tell people the specific questions I’m going to ask them. How they answer, that’s up to them. But the topic and everything that we discussed, Stassi knew.’

‘She knew the subject matter. She knew what I was going to ask her. Not the questions.’

The talk show host also claimed Schroeder’s team asked her not to raise the former reality TV star’s controversial comments on the #MeToo movement, a request with which Hall says she complied.

‘It hit me to my gut that I didn’t ask her,’ said Hall. ‘Given that she was five months pregnant, the issue of race was hard enough for her and for me and it was a lot to unpack, including that Nazi comment, so I said we were not going to go down that road but we would have this difficult conversation that we all should have to provide a better platform for our children.’

However Stassi then raised the topic of her own accord, telling Tamron, ‘I look back at that podcast and I’m so embarrassed that I even had those thoughts, much less put it out there.’

‘I was a Karen who basically said, but what about All Lives Matter?’ she added. 

Schroeder sat down for her first interview since her Vanderpump Rules firing for the Tamron Hall Show last Thursday.

The 32-year-old, whose past racially insensitive actions resurfaced last summer leading to her firing, admitted she ‘was a Karen’ after Hall asked her about why she reported her black co-star Faith Stowers to the police in 2018 for a crime she did not commit.

Hall said she was ‘shocked’ at her ‘level of ignorance as it relates to race,’ specifically because she is from New Orleans and lives in Los Angeles, both of which are highly populated, diverse cities.

During the interview, Hall point blank asked her: ‘You saw a grainy photo. Why did you think that that was Faith Stowers? Or did you really?’ 

‘Yes I did. And it wasn’t just the photo. Kristen [Doute] and I had received texts from multiple people about this,’ Schroeder claimed.

The star added that ‘there were people that Kristen knew who were texting her’ about a women who stole ‘from us and we think its this person in the article and she’s saying she’s on your television show and her name is Faith.’

Schroeder said: ‘And when you’re on a show like Vanderpump Rules, your existence on that show is kinda dependent on sticking your nose in other people’s conflict or creating conflict.’ 

‘I look back at that podcast and I’m so embarrassed that I even had those thoughts, much less put it out there. Because I was that…’ Schroeder said, looking visibly nervous.

Tamron interjected ‘And so strongly,’ before Stassi admitted: ‘I was that Karen. I was a Karen. I was a Karen who basically said, but what about All Lives Matter?’ 

In March 2017, Stassi went on an offensive rant about black people and the #OscarsSoWhite controversy on her now-cancelled podcast Straight Up With Stassi.

The #OscarsSoWhite is a hashtag that was used to call out the lack of diversity at the ceremony. 

The star had announced on her podcast she was ‘really sick of everyone making everything about race,’ and that she was ‘kind of over it.’ 

‘But like, everyone giving their impassioned speeches about race and all that stuff, I’m like, “Why is it always just about African Americans?”‘

Stassi went on to ask why Asians, Native American and Latinos weren’t asking why they were not represented: ‘Why is is always just “that?”‘

Stassi said that she was ‘not allowed to say that’ as her opinion was marginalized as ‘a white, privileged, blonde 28-year old.’ 

The star added: ‘And then when they get upset, everybody has to go above and beyond to then make them happy,’ clarifying that she hated saying the word ‘”them”  because I’m not… not everybody’s the same’ but that she is referring to ‘the ones that are out there b****ing about things.’ 

She also wondered out loud if black people weren’t getting nominated because maybe ‘you didn’t do that great of a job in your movie.’

‘Like it’s not about race. It’s literally like not about what you look like at all. It’s like your acting ability, so like, what the actual f**k.’ 

Schroeder who was upset that Moonlight won Best Picture instead of LaLa Land, didn’t think the former deserved it, despite not seeing the movie. 

She claimed that she knew it won ‘because it was like “the message”‘ and that ‘it’s groundbreaking because of “the message.” Winning Best Picture to me isn’t about the f****g message. Like it’s not church.’ 

The former TV star claimed that ‘politics’ like that need to kept out of the Oscars, noting that the show is there ‘so I don’t have to think about any of that s**t and I can just focus on those f*****g dresses.’ 

On Thursday’s show, Hall questioned Schroeder’s judgment on making insensitive jokes about Jewish people in addition to the ones directed toward the black community.

The talk show host asked Schroeder why she had used the phrasing ‘Nazi chic’ to describe an outfit, to which the star said: ‘I was so used to making jokes’ at other people’s expenses. 

The daytime host did not hold back as she said: ‘Going back to your history, being in a big city like New Orleans and Los Angeles, I am shocked – and don’t take this as an insult – at your level of ignorance as it relates to race and what it means to say Nazi chic to Jewish people and what it could have done to Faith’s life.”

During the interview, Schroeder mentioned that she’s working with a diversity coach, adding that she now knows ‘how to speak for black lives matter’ to which Hall called it an ‘overreach’ that she could speak on the movement.

The star corrected herself and said: ‘Not to speak on it, but to defend it.’ 

‘People expected me to just understand everything immediately and things like that take time. And I felt like it would be better for me to take the time to get a greater understanding of everything and the issues before I opened my mouth again,’ Schroeder, who is five months pregnant with her first child, a girl, with fiance Beau Clark, explained on the show.

Schroeder revealed that she learned she was fired from VR after her producer and lawyer called her and that she ‘understands why I didn’t have a chance to explain myself. I’ve messed up a lot.’

Hall asked her if she thinks co-star Jax Taylor should get the axe too because of racially insensitive comments he has made in the past well including also falsely accusing Stowers too, to which Schroeder said: ‘I don’t want to see any of my friends fired honestly. And I don’t want to speak to that.’

The host said: ‘What I know you want to speak to is this apology that you’re offering up to people. As you know people have said to me why are you giving her your platform and I think that we can all learn something. If a young woman your age is able to admit that you know nothing, even though you live in a diverse cities about the black experience and you can be so reckless so say, “Why do black people make it about them” or the Nazi chic, if you can curve correct, perhaps others can learn that this is a battle that we’re all in together.’

Hall asked how much of this – referring to her apologies – is because she needs an income and needs to work and can’t ‘if this is hovering over your head.’ 

Schroeder said: ‘I just want to be a better person. I’m pregnant and I want my daughter to proud of me and I want to be a part of the solution. I’ve been a part of the problem for years now and I’ve recognized that. And that’s why I say I don’t feel like I’m a victim of cancel culture. People want me to be mad at it and I’m not. I needed it. I needed that.’

‘I am the reason why I am in this situation. I think a lot of people wanted me to focus on cancel culture and whether I was a victim or not but it’s not how I feel at all.’

‘[People thinking I’m racist] has been the hardest part of all. Just going out to a restaurant and going to the grocery store and wondering if that’s what people think… I don’t have hate in my heart. But I recognize that I wasn’t anti-racist. I wasn’t And that’s something I’ve been learning throughout all of this,’ the pregnant star said.  

Schroeder was fired from Vanderpump Rules along with Kristen Doute, when it was revealed that they filed a false police report against former Vanderpump Rules co-star Faith Stowers, the only black woman to appear on the hit reality show.

Schroeder and Doute told police that Stowers fit the description of a black woman who was robbing men in Los Angeles, and Schroeder and Doute even admitted to calling the cops on Stowers. 

Schroeder and Doute’s dangerous stunt against Stowers came to light during an Instagram live with Floribama Shore star Candace Rice, where the former SUR employee talked about her time on the show and the incidents that followed.

Stowers recalled how Schroeder and Doute called the authorities after seeing a report about an African American woman who was drugging and robbing men around LA.

‘There was this article where there was an African-American lady. It was a weird photo, so she looked very light-skinned and had these different, weird tattoos. I guess this woman was robbing people,’ Stowers explained.

‘And they called the cops and said it was me. This is like, a true story. I heard this from, actually, Stassi during an interview.’

Schroeder was happy to brag about wrongfully accusing Stowers in 2018, telling the B**** Bible podcast how she and Doute ‘solved a crime.’

After comparing a grainy surveillance image of the suspected criminal to Faith, they decided they had enough evidence to go to the police. 

‘We are like, we just solved a f**king crime,’ she reportedly said on the now-deleted episode, reported by People. ‘We start calling the police. The police don’t give a f***.’

Doute had tweeted about the situation, all but naming Stowers – who also appeared on MTV’s The Challenge and Ex On The Beach – as she wrote: ‘Hey tweeties, doesn’t this ex #pumprules thief look familiar?’ 

Doute continued to malign her former castmate, saying: ‘Someone put her on mtv & gave her a platform for press. I didn’t wanna go there but I’m going there.’ 

On June 7, days after Stowers brought up the incidence, Schroeder apologized for her ‘racially insensitive comments from’ her past as well as directly apologize to Stowers. 

‘I have grown significantly from the person I was then, and I am still filled with remorse and regret for the hurt I caused. … What I did to Faith was wrong. I apologize and I do not expect forgiveness.’ 

Schroeder’s publicist and agent let her go and her popular podcast had been removed from all streaming platforms. 

‘We recently learned of racially charged and inappropriate actions by Stassi Schroeder during one of her previous projects,’ wrote the show’s broadcaster Radio.com in an Instagram post days after Stowers candid interview.

The statement continued: ‘In light of this, Radio.com has made the decision to part ways with her. We take these matters very seriously and condemn these actions.’

‘‘Straight Up with Stassi’ has been removed from our portfolio.’

Two days after her apology, Bravo fired Schroeder and Doute, as well as Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni, after their past racist comments resurfaced as well.   

‘Bravo and Evolution Media confirmed today that Stassi Schroeder, Kristen Doute, Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni will not be returning to Vanderpump Rules,’ the network said in a statement. 

Schroeder, one of the more popular personalities on Vanderpump Rules, started working at Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurants Sur and Blanca Villa in 2010; she had been on Vanderpump Rules since it debuted in 2013.