It was a juxtaposition that felt cinematic to Vanderpump Rules fans. Kristen Doute—the show’s iconic yet at times controversial former star—announced her pregnancy mere hours before news broke that Bravo would be replacing the entire cast for its twelfth season.
VPR fans went positively feral over the way the two announcements aligned, with many crowing that Doute either masterminded the whole thing or had, essentially, become the Surver to rule them all, playing the show’s Game of Thrones-like politics to come out on top.
But Doute, 41, says she doesn’t see it that way. She had no idea what was coming when she announced—via a People exclusive, natch—that she and fiance Luke Broderick are expecting their first child.
“It was a complete coincidence,” she tells Glamour.
It’s been a long and winding road for Doute ever since the show premiered in 2013, back when she was still an aspiring actor and model. Doute soon became one of the show’s stars and main driver of plot lines, from her bid to prove her ex, Tom Sandoval, was a cheater, to her precarious employment at SUR, and off and on friendships with co-stars Stassi Schroeder and Katie Maloney. After her contract for VPR was not renewed in June 2020 after she received criticism for calling a police tip line on a Black coworker, Doute spent a year or two away from television. She returned for an episode of VPR in season 10 following Scandoval, then returned to Bravo full-time in March on the spin-off show, The Valley. The series, which also features Broderick, will return for season two sometime next year.
After it was announced that Bravo would be recasting VPR entirely, many fans began to share memories of the past decade of the show. For Doute, the news was “bittersweet.”
“So much of my adult life has been centered around VPR, and it truly feels like an end to an era,” she said. “I’m curious to see who they bring in, and where they take the show from here, but I’m grateful for the experience.”
