Jen Shah has been proactive while serving out her prison sentence by completing anger management classes.
“Through journaling, homework, audio lessons and the two hour weekly group sessions/class, I learned more about what anger is, where it comes from, and healthy ways to respond and react that are safe and beneficial,” the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City alum, 49, said in a statement to Us Weekly shared via her rep on Tuesday, June 27.
Shah noted that she’s feeling “healthy” as she continues to work on herself. “I learned you can have the same activating event but get a different outcome using the tools we learned and implemented each week,” she added while discussing her Rational Self-Analysis technique.
The former Bravo star said “challenging unhelpful beliefs” became her focus during her coursework.
“In reflection, I could have used this on RHOSLC. Even though class has ended, I will be carrying around my RSA worksheet in case I run into conflict while here,” Shah continued. “Ultimately, I can’t control what others will do, but I can control how I choose to respond and react with the tools I learned in class … #ZenJen.”
The Utah native rose to fame after appearing in the hit series from 2020 to 2022. While filming season 2, Shah made headlines when she was arrested for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
After initially pleading not guilty, Shah later changed her plea and admitted that she knew what she was involved in was “wrong and illegal.” The U.S. Attorney’s office dropped the second charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering as a result of the plea change.
Ahead of her sentencing, Bravo executive producer Andy Cohen revealed he wasn’t sure if Shah would return to the network amid her legal woes.
“She’s being sentenced so I don’t know what to say to people who want her on the show,” Cohen, 55, exclusively told Us in November 2022. “I hope that she gets no jail time whatsoever and she can come right back … but I have a feeling that she’s not going to be available to be on the show. Some people on Twitter were saying, ‘We want Jen next season.’ And I’m like, ‘OK, well, talk to the judge.'”
Two months later, Shah was sentenced in January to 78 months with five years of supervised release. She has since remained focused on her personal growth and has not remained in touch with her former RHOSLC costars.
Shah’s assistant and close friend Murilo Bueno revealed to Us in May that only Meredith Marks has reached out. “As far as I know, no [one is contacting Jen]. The only person that has reached out to me asking how she was doing was Meredith,” Bueno shared at the time. “Other than that, no one has reached out — to me at least — and I’m pretty sure no one has with her as well.”
Bueno went on to say that Shah has received support from her family after surrendering herself to FPC Bryan.
“She can have visitations every weekend. We are trying to stay up there as much as we can every weekend and we kind of just all spread out. We have a spreadsheet and everyone signs up so we can see who is going when. They finally changed COVID policy so now she can have more visitations through the month,” he continued. “Before, it was once a month which limited everyone because it was the only Saturday, it was a second Saturday day of the month. So it just made it harder. And now it’s Saturday, Sunday, and then holidays as well. So we get to spend more time with her, which is awesome.”
According to Bueno, it remains unclear whether Shah will return to reality TV after her sentence is over.
“I think she just wants to have a fresh start. She wants to be able to make a difference because she was experiencing and seeing a lot of different stories of women in there,” he told Us. “And I mean, I have always — from 10 years ago — said that Jen is my Kim Kardashian. So I’m like, ‘Can we go fight everyone with Kim?’ I’m gonna jump in of course for that friendship so they can go save some lives and get some people out of prison.”
