Engemann denies any wrongdoing. “I never once lobbied to get Jessi, specifically, out of the show,” she says, claiming that Ngatikaura was the first
Engemann denies any wrongdoing. “I never once lobbied to get Jessi, specifically, out of the show,” she says, claiming that Ngatikaura was the first to “go rogue” and ask to receive more money than the rest of the cast. (Vanity Fair has reached out to Ngatikaura for comment.) Engemann says that when she, in turn, asked for a raise, she was told that bumping her salary could mean other cast members getting cut. “I basically was like, Okay, it’s every man for themselves.”
Money discomfort aside, Ngatikaura forgave Engemann. At first. “Then she talked badly about my business, and it just made me realize, Oh, maybe this friendship isn’t what I think it is,” Ngatikaura says.
Engemann alleges that she was only voicing things that the rest of their costars also believed. “Three of the girls in the group said that they had a terrible color job from Jessi. When Taylor came to me asking for an opinion on how to fix her hair, I had relayed the girls’ experience. I had never even been to Jessi yet,” she says. “I shouldn’t have relayed other people’s opinions, and I own that. However, it is strange to me that I’m taking the fall when I wasn’t the only person involved.”
Engemann believes she’s catching all this heat because of her popularity coming off the show’s first season. “Fame doesn’t matter to me at all. The girls think that it does because I was a fan favorite, and I’m a confident person,” she says. “Knowing what you’re worth does not mean that you’re conceited. That’s going to be threatening to anyone who maybe doesn’t share that same self-confidence.”
But statements like this are precisely what alienate Engemann from her castmates. “Did you cause some drama [in the first season]? Absolutely,” Paul adds. “But you didn’t actually share any of your real struggles. To think you’re the one person that brings it all—that’s delusional.”
In season two, Engemann emotionally details her yearslong infertility struggles during a painfully ill-timed (and, I must say, utterly deranged) game of “pregnancy test roulette” during a girls trip to New Orleans. During the game, Matthews and Neeley reveal their pregnancies to the group—but it leaves Engemann in tears. She and husband Bret, 16 years her senior, also confront rumors of his infidelity. “Trust me: If something happened, I would know. We spend 90% of our time with each other,” says Engemann. “At one point in my life I would’ve freaked out about something like that. But with Bret, I’m so stable and secure.”
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