Who gave Heather Gay a black eye was one of Bravo's biggest mysteries until she revealed during season 4 that it wasf rom Jen Shah.
Now, Heather is hoping to put the story "to bed" in her new book, Good Time Girl. She spoke to Us Weekly about her black eye, her tumultuous friendship with Jen Shah, and why she was "embarrassed" to tell anyone about her injury.
Heather Gay opens up about hiding her black eye story
Heather's black eye made its debut during season 3 of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and it was a total mystery where it came from until a season later when Heather Gay finally revealed that it was former co-star Jen Shah that gave her the black eye.
Jen Shah is in prison for wire fraud after being arrested in 2021 and according to Heather Gay, she was afraid to come out with her side of the fight that lead to Jen giving her a black eye.
She told Us Weekly, "I was scared at what might happen if there was evidence that Jen had caused it intentionally. I didn’t want to admit to myself or anyone else that it might’ve been intentional, because it was too humiliating."
She went on to say that Jen Shah was unpredictable and so it could be hard to tell when she was purposely hurting people and when people around her being hurt, be that emotionally or in Heather's case physically, was just an unfortunate thing that came from being close to her. She said that the black eye also left her embarrassed for the way that she had defended Jen Shah for as long as she did.
"But more than anything, I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed that I had drunk so much that I couldn’t remember getting hurt; I was embarrassed that I had ridden so hard for a woman who didn’t deserve it; and I was embarrassed that I had been vulnerable enough to let something like this happen in the first place, much less in front of the cameras," she told the publication.
RHOSLC fans "deserved" the full story of her black eye, Heather Gay says
Even though it took Heather Gay a full season to share the story of her black eye, now that she's got it out in the open that Jen Shah gave it to her, it seems like she's ready to be more open about it.
When speaking to Us Weekly about her new book, she said he feels like RHOSLC fans "deserve" to hear the full story, but she's hoping that telling it now will put the story behind her.
"I’ve just chosen to embrace my failings and try to figure out how they can shape my future. But there’s a part of me that, like, never wants to mention it again," she told Us Weekly and said that her black eye is one of many things in her past that she'd like to be able to "put to bed" and never talk about again. Still, Heather Gay says she's aware that sharing the story in her book is opening herself up to peoples' thoughts on the story again.
"I knew by writing this chapter and opening Pandora’s box that it can go either way. It’s how I feel about it and it’s how I wrote about it. It’s just out there now. I had to take control of the story. I wanna close the chapter on it," she told the publication.
According to Heather Gay, getting her black eye from Jen Shah opened Heather's eyes to what Jen was really like and made her reevaluate their friendship. She cited something that co-star Lisa Barlow said when she told Us Weekly, "Jen Shah gave all of us a black eye every single day. She wounded us with her lies, with her crimes, with her erratic behavior both on and off screen. But we felt stuck with her, and we loved her. As strange as that sounds, Jen sucked all of us in, especially me."
Heather Gay's new book Good Time Girl is out now and is full of stories about her life growing up Mormon and the full details of the black eye Jen Shah gave her.