Former Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah has spoken for the first time about her release from jail.
The 52-year-old opened up in an interview with People and admitted “I was wrong” while reflecting on her arrest and what it was really like during her first day locked up.
“I made wrong decisions. I should have done things differently. I should have been more diligent. And I’m deeply remorseful and sorry for my actions and for my part. I take full responsibility,” she told the outlet.
Shah was arrested in March 2021 and later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was sentenced to jail for her role in a years-long telemarketing scheme that the government said defrauded innocent people across the country.
She served two years and nine months in a federal prison in Texas and was released in December 2025. Shah is now serving the rest of her sentence through home detention.
Recalling her first day in jail, the former reality star was stunned when she arrived.
“When I walked in, it took my breath away,” she said.
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“You hear people say it’s ‘Camp Cupcake’ – it’s not. It’s prison. I just thought, ‘This cannot be where I’m going to be every day’,” she added.
Shah’s arrest made headlines when it was captured during filming for a Season 2 episode of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
But looking back on what led to her arrest, she believes that she “trusted the wrong people at a very vulnerable time in her life.
“I thought I was doing the right thing for the majority of the time,” she adds, describing her work in direct response marketing.
“I was working under people who were running these companies.”
Shah believes that the companies that she worked for were operating legitimately.
But she does acknowledge that she does have some responsibility for what happened.
During the long-ranging interview with People she explained that there were external factors in her life that “clouded my judgement” in the lead up to her arrest.
“My husband [Sharrieff “Coach” Shah] and I were separated. We were on the verge of a divorce. I was overwhelmed with immense grief from the death of my grandmother, my father and my aunt, all in a very short period of time. I was spiralling deeper into my previously diagnosed clinical depression,” she explained.
“And the reason I say all that is not as an excuse. Because it’s not like I was making good business decisions and then I woke up one morning and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Oh, I made a bad business decision.’ This is the totality of everything that was going on and the overlapping of what I was dealing with personally. And I tried to avoid and numb all of that with alcohol and just avoid it.”
Shah said she was vulnerable and trusted the wrong people.
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The former reality star is focused on making amends, including paying back over USD$6.6 million in restitution that she owes.
“I’m accepting responsibility, and I’ve made it my mission to make sure that people are paid back,” she said.
Shah understands that people have opinions on her, based on what they saw throughout her time on RHOSLC and as her arrest and sentencing played out.
“But I would hope they would give me the grace to at least hear me and understand that I’m more than just the headline,” she said.
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