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'Real Housewives of Salt Lake City' Alum Jen Shah Seen in Rare Sighting From Prison
Jen Shah had Elizabeth Holmes to lean on during her time in prison.
Months after the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City alum was released from prison, she detailed her nearly three-year stay at Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, which included forming a close bond with the Theranos founder.
“Lizzie and I are good friends,” Jen explained in an interview with People published April 1. “When you come through as a high profile, there are certain things that you are both dealing with naturally and you come together in those instances.”
And while Jen—who served three of her initially six-year sentence for conspiracy to commit wire fraud—noted elsewhere in the interview that her fame at times felt like a “scarlet letter,” it was something else entirely that brought her and Elizabth closer.
“We both got assigned to poop duty together,” Jen continued, “so I feel like when you do poop duty with someone, you’re going to be close.”
“Poop duty,” as Jen referred to it, was a punishment that occurred if the cleanliness of your communal bathroom got “three strikes.” The act itself consisted of pulling a chair into a shared bathroom and watching “everyone come in and use the bathroom,” she explained, noting that after each person went you had to “either clean it if they don’t clean it or let them know to come and clean it.”
It was certainly a low point for Jen, who exited prison in December. As she recalled, “You’re literally just sitting there in the bathroom so you can imagine the smells and everything going on for poop duty.”
Chad Kirkland/Bravo
The experience was certainly bonding for Jen and Elizabeth—who is serving just over 11 years for defrauding investors of her defunct health startup—but it wasn’t the only time they spent together.
“We were both very busy during the day and in the evening, we’d go take a walk,” Jen noted. “That’s when we’d have our time to just talk. Talk about how much we missed our family. Talk about important things that were going on in prison.”
Indeed, the 52-year-old—who shares two adult sons with Sharrieff Shah—said the duo bonded over “deep conversations.”
“There’s a lot of heartache when you’re in prison,” Jen added. “So just being that sounding board for each other where you can be like, ‘Hey, I just need to walk and cry’ and just having someone there who understood you.”
And while Jen and Elizabeth were also in the same facility as Ghislaine Maxwell—who is currently serving 20 years for conspiracy sex trafficking crimes—Jen opted to not get to know her.
“I chose that,” she said. “I chose to have very limited interaction with her.”
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