Fans have watched Kristen Doute’s messy romances play out on Vanderpump Rules for eight seasons, but now, she’s taking back ownership of “Crazy Kristen.”
“A lot of this book is very self-deprecating. And again, it’s called He’s Making You Crazy, but we’re not literally blaming men for everything that we do,” the 37-year-old Bravo star told Us Weekly exclusively. “We’re just saying … you need to take [ownership] in your actions that make women feel the way that you claim that we are. When we’re called crazy or psycho because we’re feeling emotional, or, you know, we’re feeling untrusting because of past relationship or that current relationship.”
In He’s Making You Crazy, Doute reveals she was once sexually assaulted. The reality star told Us that that didn’t even plan on including the story until her coauthor, Michele Alexander, brought up the topic.
“Michele and I were in a writing session one day, she just, honestly, she just came to me and said, ‘Have you ever been a victim of sexual assault?’ And it caught me off guard because Michele knows everything about me. And I said, ‘Well, yes, actually,’” Doute recalled to Us. “And she was like, ‘We have to include it.’ She knew too many friends of her own and, you know, different women that she knew that have gone through something like that. And she was like, ‘We’re not telling the full truth to the reader if we don’t include sort of the darker parts as well.’ … It was really important to include everything.”
While the James Mae CEO worked closely with the How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days author on the book, she penned the “heavier hitting chapters” on her own.
“When it came to those chapters, she really would say, ‘OK, you need to either write this overnight or go sit over there and write this all on your own and you need to get all of your feelings out on paper and your truth and your honesty,’” Doute told Us, noting that Alexander would help her with restructuring the chapter during the editing process.
While Doute doesn’t name names in the book, she knows Bravo fans will know when she’s talking about her relationships with Tom Sandoval,James Kennedy, Jax Taylor and Brian Carter.
“[Keeping the names out] had nothing to do with, like, protecting the innocent. I don’t think anyone is innocent in this book,” she told Us. “But I thought truly that it would be so much grander for the reader to read if it was just left as a simple key or like a pseudonym as we use often because I want women to be reading the story and not about the who.”
Doute has since moved on with Alex Menache. Us broke the news that they were dating last month.
“He and I started hanging out toward the end of [writing] the book. So he is actually in a few of the chapters,” she told Us. “He is very, very aware of every single thing in this book and I thought that was really important going into this relationship because I hold this relationship so sacred. I really took my time with Alex and I really had to just lay it all out there and say this is who I am. This is what I’ve been through. You have a choice to make and either way it’s cool.”
He’s Making You Crazy hits stores June 2, but is available for preorder now.
