Reunion Show Confessions That Shook Us To The Core
If you are a fan of the kind of uncomfortable moments that only reality television can truly deliver, then you are more than familiar with some of the classic reality television reunion tropes. Of course, there is the walk-off, the tried-and-true move where a cast member finds themselves so overwhelmed by a comment that they storm off of the set so they can cool off in their dressing room. There is also the hot mic gossip session, a fun thing that happens when the cast and crew takes five but the cameras continue to roll. The blooper reel is a guarantee. And every now and again, there is a moment when a cast member spills something major. Perhaps they decide to share a surprising piece of news regarding their relationship status. Maybe they open up about something that happened behind the scenes. Or it could be a life update that comes straight out of left field.
Whatever the case may be, when the tea is spilled during these ratings-grabbing get-togethers, it often turns into a bonafide cringe-fest. Fire up your MJ popcorn memes, because these are the most memorable reality television reunion confessions we could find.
The time a Bachelor star had second thoughts
The Bachelor Season 13 reunion was a watershed moment for the franchise. At the After the Final Rose special, Bachelor Jason Mesnick told host Chris Harrison that he did not feel right about proposing to Melissa Rycroft on the season finale, admitting he could not shake his feelings for season runner-up, Molly Malaney. Harrison welcomed Rycroft to the stage, and she and her soon-to-be-ex-fiancé hashed things out. Before she gave back the engagement ring and walked off the set, Rycroft called Mesnick a "bas***d," and told him not to call or text her again.
Then, Malaney joined Mesnick on the reunion couch and put a hand on his knee. He told her he could not stop thinking about her, and she told him that "this was something [she] dreamt of, but never expected to hear." Their reunion was a total 180 from the Mesnick and Rycroft scene, but both conversations were shocking in their own right.
As Mesnick and Malaney smiled at each other, Harrison asked, "So, where do we go from here?" A series of significant life changes, that's where. Mesnick and Malaney have been together ever since, celebrating their 10-year wedding anniversary in February 2020, a milestone they both acknowledged on Instagram. Rycroft also found love after she and Mesnick broke up. She got back together with her pre-Bachelor boyfriend Tye Strickland after the show, and as People reported, they tied the knot in December 2009.
A Real Housewives of Atlanta rumor was put to rest
Kandi Burruss found herself at the center of a damaging piece of gossip in Season 9 of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, and the source of that rumor was finally unveiled at the reunion. In the middle of the season, word got out that someone told castmate Porsha Williams that Burruss and her husband, Todd Tucker, allegedly plotted to drug and take advantage of her when they were all out one night. Williams confronted Burruss about the allegations while the cast was in Hawaii, and Burruss denied the claim and threatened to take legal action. As their colleague Shereé Whitfield said in a confessional segment, "That ain't no surface shade. That is some deep, deep libel."
When the Atlanta Housewives got together for the reunion, it was time to get to the bottom of the allegations. Host Andy Cohen asked Williams to share what led her to believe Burruss and Tucker wanted to drug and take advantage of her, and she revealed that Phaedra Parks was the person who tipped her off. Parks admitted to repeating the rumor, but would not share her source. Burruss erupted at this revelation, and Williams said she felt like Parks "used [her] as a pawn against ]Burruss]."
Spreading this rumor put a nail in Parks' friendship with Burruss — and her role on the show. Following the reunion, TMZ reported RHOA fired Parks from the reality series.
A love triangle emerged on The Challenge
The Challenge is not a reality dating show, but that does not mean the long-running competition series is devoid of relationship drama. The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30 contestants Tori Deal and Derrick Henry entered the season as a couple, but by the time the reunion rolled around, their courtship was a thing of the past. One of the reasons? Deal hit it off with another competitor.
As Deal revealed in 2017 at the Dirty 30 reunion, she and Jordan Wiseley developed a bond over the course of the season. It also became clear at the post-season sit-down that Deal and Henry's split was not amicable. Deal shared that she believed Henry hacked her phone and took screengrabs of text message conversations with Wiseley, an accusation Henry denied up and down. Henry claimed Deal hooked up with Wiseley before their split, and Deal told Henry the hookup happened after they were done filming the season. Deal and Henry reunited in 2018 when they were reluctant partners on The Challenge: Final Reckoning, which they did not win.
Deal and Wiseley began dating after Dirty 30, and in 2018, Deal announced on her YouTube channel that they moved in together. The following year, they got engaged while filming The Challenge: War of the Worlds 2.
Hannah Brown's windmill romp was the gift that kept on giving
Thanks to The Bachelorette Season 15, Bachelor Nation will never look at a windmill the same way. During the reunion special for Hannah Brown's season, Chris Harrison invited second runner-up Peter Weber to the stage so they could chat about the infamous fantasy suite date that took place in a windmill in Greece. Prior to the reunion, the world was under the impression that Brown and Weber were intimate not once, but twice when they were in that windmill. This piece of information first came up when Brown was discussing one of her many heated conversations with soon-to-be-eliminated contestant Luke Parker. In a confessional segment, she told the viewers that she and Weber hooked up two times during their overnight, and she refused to be shamed for it.
Turns out, that was not the full truth. At the reunion, Brown shared that she "was a little dishonest" when she spoke about their evening in the windmill. She continued, "Since it's out there, and I did say that there's something that Peter and I did twice, um, it was actually four times." The reunion crowd, which included Weber's thoroughly entertained parents, went wild.
Brown went on to win Dancing with the Stars, and Weber went on to be the star of the next season of The Bachelor. Naturally, his season was up to its eyeballs in windmill references.
That split fake-out on RuPaul's Drag Race was not planned
Monét X Change delivered dozens of iconic lip sync moments on RuPaul's Drag Race and RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, and one of the most memorable happened when she lip synced to Nicki Minaj's "Pound the Alarm" against Dusty Ray Bottoms on Season 10. As the song's pre-chorus pulsated, X Change crossed herself, signaling to the judges and audience that she was about to attempt a death-defying stunt. However, when the chorus hit, she gave a little hop, landed on her feet, and waved her hand as if to say, "Not yet." RuPaul and the rest of the judges doubled over in laughter. When she actually jumped into the splits later on in the song, it was all the more satisfying.
Both X Change and Bottoms left it all on the stage that week, making RuPaul's decision all the more difficult. Before declaring who would be going home that week, the show's host declared, "That is what we call a lip sync for your life." Bottoms's lip sync was great, but it could not trounce X Change's, a performance that included a costume change, gas mask comedy, and, of course, the split fake-out.
At the Season 10 reunion, X Change revealed the "Pound the Alarm" stunt was not planned. Rather, that brilliant bait-and-switch was just a little something that popped in the future All Stars champion's head as she was performing. Shut it down, indeed.
When a Vanderpump Rules star shared his scheme
After Kristen Doute and James Kennedy's relationship imploded on the third and fourth seasons of Vanderpump Rules, there were rumblings that the DJ only pursued the series veteran because he wanted to be on the reality show. Doute herself suspected this was the case, telling Bravo's The Daily Dish in 2015 that she believed he used her to get on Pump Rules. She said, "He just did his homework and he knew exactly what he was doing. And he played me right until the point that he got through one whole season, became a primary and then dropped me." A few days after Bravo's The Daily Dish released that interview, Kennedy told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live that the idea that he dated Doute just to secure his place in the cast was "preposterous."
However, he sure seemed to change his tune when it was time to film the Season 5 reunion in 2017. When castmate Jax Taylor remarked that Kennedy's relationship with Doute is what got him on the series, Kennedy gave him a high-five and said, "F*** yeah it did, mate." The rest of the cast laughed — Doute included. Kennedy went on to say that he knew he would wind up on the show no matter what because he planned to "move in with [castmate Tom Sandoval] or start banging his ex-girlfriend." Well, at least everyone can chuckle about this now.
Truth came out on The Real Housewives of Orange County
Vicki Gunvalson's daughter, Briana Wolfsmith-Culberson, dropped a chilling allegation at The Real Housewives of Orange County Season 8 reunion. Wolfsmith-Culberson claimed Gunvalson's on-again, off-again boyfriend Brooks Ayers advised her husband, Ryan Culberson, to "start hitting Briana to get her to fall in line." The RHOC cast sat in stunned silence as Ayers attempted to deny Wolfsmith-Culberson's claims, before eventually apologizing. Gunvalson's co-stars did double-takes and asked Ayers if he really uttered those words to Culberson. Ayers said he was "drunk and angry" when he had that conversation with Culberson, adding, "And yes, I'm sorry I said that."
This was only allegedly one of the many horrible things Ayers apparently said to Wolfsmith-Culberson when he was a part of her mom's life, but fortunately, that chapter is over. In August 2015, E! News confirmed Gunvalson and Ayers went their separate ways once and for all.
A Love Is Blind contestant considered ending her marriage
One of Love Is Blind's married couples divulged at the reunion that their relationship hit a significant snag after the season wrapped. When the cast of the Netflix dating show got back together for the reunion, Amber Pike got candid about her relationship with Matt Barnett, admitting that they struggled with adjusting to married life after they tied the knot in November 2018 — so much so that Pike "called about potentially getting a divorce lawyer." She ultimately did not file, and the two are still together, as of this writing. Pike said, "Seeing how we both are so stubborn and strong-minded, bullheaded, when we butt heads, it could be bad. It could be intense. So figuring out how to handle that — it made a huge difference for us."
Barnett added, "We stopped trying to force what we expected on each other. Once that happened ... nothing but really good things since then."
A fan favorite on RuPaul's Drag Race expressed regret
RuPaul's Drag Race Season 6 alum Adore Delano returned to the Werk Room for All Stars Season 2, but her homecoming did not last long. In the middle of the second episode, Delano bowed out of the competition right before the Snatch Game. It was a decision that caught RuPaul and fans off guard.
At the RPDR All Stars Season 2 reunion, Delano expressed embarrassment and regret. She said, "Nobody goes on All Stars 2 and is, like, peacing out. That's, like, whack. That's not even my style." Delano added that her insecurities got the better of her, noting that she felt as though she was not on the same level as her competitors. "I didn't prepare myself to bring myself back to the whole elimination process, the critiquing process, the god***n runway," she said. Delano also noted that she and Michelle Visage were on tour together just before the season, but Delano was "not prepared" to go back to their judge/contestant dynamic.
Ahead of the reunion, Delano opened up about her time on the series on Periscope (via YouTube). She shared that when she was on All Stars, it was during "a dark time" that included the death of her father and an abrupt breakup via text message. "I was just constantly working to try to, like, fill the void of ... not dealing with family issues and what was really happening with myself and my self-esteem," Delano said.
Shahs of Sunset delivered a twist no one saw coming
It took some time and a lot of tears, but Shahs of Sunset couple Mercedes "MJ" Javid and Tommy Feight eventually won over their biggest critic. MJ's mom, Vida Javid, revealed at the Season 6 reunion that she was finally starting to warm up to her daughter's then-fiancé, future husband. Andy Cohen could not contain his surprise, and MJ's co-stars, several of whom she grew up with, were in a state of disbelief.
Feight kept the twists coming when he added, "I like Vida more than MJ. She's hilarious! There's no funnier person on the planet than Vida Javid." And just as the rest of cast thought their jaws could not be more on the floor, Vida said, "I told Mercedes, 'If you don't marry him, I'll marry him."
A mere two years before the Shahs of Sunset cast got together for the Season 6 reunion, Vida so disapproved of her daughter's significant other that she stormed out of MJ and Feight's engagement event. However, Vida and Feight's dynamic changed when MJ's father, Shams Javid, fell ill, and they have been a relatively strong unit ever since.
A Bachelor In Paradise contestant confessed his feelings
Bachelor In Paradise Season 5 pair Annaliese Puccini and Kamil Nicalek left Sayulita, Mexico in a relationship, but the same could not be said after the reunion. As the After Paradise cameras rolled (via Entertainment Tonight), Nicalek admitted to Puccini that he did not think he was the right person for her, adding that he believed he "lost that spark" they had before. Suffice to say, she was blindsided by their onstage breakup.
After the After Paradise episode aired, Nicalek admitted to Us Weekly that it "wasn't the right place to have a breakup, but there's no right place to have a breakup." He went on to tell the outlet that they are "still best friends" and went hiking together the day after viewers saw them split up on television. Puccini told Extra that "it was hard" to watch the scene, but she "of course, wants the best for him." She also expressed a desire to "go back in time" and "be friends and continue to work on things and see if they could be better," but acknowledged that this may not be the best thing for her emotional well-being. Puccini even went so far as to ask "America" to forgive Nicalek and be "kind" to him, because there was a lot more to their story that happened behind-the-scenes.
Andy Cohen confirms a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills no-show
When The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 9 reunion filmed in June 2019, host Andy Cohen took a moment during their lunch break to hop on Instagram Live (via E! News) to spill to friend Anderson Cooper (as well as the fans watching the stream) that series stalwart Lisa Vanderpump was not in attendance. Cooper asked if Vanderpump had been there at all for the shoot, and Cohen only offered up a cryptic smile. This piping hot scoop arrived just days after DailyMailTV released an interview in which Vanderpump said she most likely would not appear on the reunion or return to the series.
Even so, it was tempting to hope that Vanderpump would make a surprise reunion cameo and resolve the Puppygate fiasco that ended her friendships with the rest of the cast. Alas, when the reunion episodes premiered the following month, the restaurateur really was nowhere to be found. So, Cohen took to social media to confess that Vanderpump no-call, no-showed. Viewers heard the reunion confession happen while it was happening.