Showing her support. Jen Shah‘s assistant and close friend Murilo Bueno revealed that Meredith Marks has been the only Real Housewife of Salt Lake City to reach out amid her prison sentence.
“As far as I know, no [one is contacting Jen]. The only person that has reached out to me asking how she was doing was Meredith,” Bueno exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, May 31. “Other than that, no one has reached out — to me at least — and I’m pretty sure no one has with her as well.”
Bueno noted that Shah, 49, has received support from her family after surrendering herself to FPC Bryan earlier this year.
“She can have visitations every weekend. We are trying to stay up there as much as we can every weekend and we kind of just all spread out. We have a spreadsheet and everyone signs up so we can see who is going when. They finally changed COVID policy so now she can have more visitations through the month,” he continued. “Before, it was once a month which limited everyone because it was the only Saturday, it was a second Saturday day of the month. So it just made it harder. And now it’s Saturday, Sunday, and then holidays as well. So we get to spend more time with her, which is awesome.”
The Utah native, who rose to fame after appearing in the hit Bravo series, was sentenced in January to 78 months with five years of supervised release. Shah originally made headlines for her legal woes in March 2021.
After initially pleading not guilty, the former Bravo personality later changed her plea. The U.S. Attorney’s office dropped the second charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering as a result of the plea change.
Amid her costar’s legal issues, Marks, 51, admitted she was surprised by how much Shah was willing to film for season 2 of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
“I can’t fathom any attorney advising that she should have [kept filming], which is why I was so surprised. I can understand why she might want to because she might want to get her story out there or profess her innocence or whatever it may be,” the jewelry designer exclusively shared with Us in September 2021. “She may want to have a voice. I just can’t get my head around any lawyer under the sun ever advising a client in the same circumstances.”
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Marks claimed that she heard rumors about Shah’s business before the arrest, adding, “Every single one of the ladies, including me … was DM’d information about Jen. So, knowing that and seeing how I could never understand what she did after all the questions that were asked, not just by me, but by the general public, and not understanding what any of these marketing companies were marketing or whatever. Yes, my eyebrows were raised.”
Before Shah’s sentencing, however, Marks publicly stood by her. “Innocent until proven guilty at the end of the day,” she shared at the time. “My friendship with Jen is a different standard, it’s not held to legal standards, but in terms of a crime, it is innocent till proven guilty and you know, the court of friendships a little bit different.”
After filming season 3 of the hit Bravo series, Marks reacted to Shah’s absence from the reunion — a result of Shah not being able to come to an agreement with the network about a line of questions.
“[I hope] she has a chance to have a voice. Look, she’s been a huge part of not just season 3 but this entire, you know, show and for her to not have a chance to close all of that out?” Marks said on the “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast in December 2022. “You know, obviously, as this season progresses and transpires, she’s hearing things she didn’t know about. That’s what happens to all of us. So for her to not have a chance to address that, to me, would be very sad.”
Bueno, meanwhile, is “not sure” whether Shah has plans to return to reality TV after her sentence is over.
“I think she just wants to have a fresh start. She wants to be able to make a difference because she was experiencing and seeing a lot of different stories of women in there,” he told Us on Wednesday. “And I mean, I have always — from 10 years ago — said that Jen is my Kim Kardashian. So I’m like, ‘Can we go fight everyone with Kim?’ I’m gonna jump in of course for that friendship so they can go save some lives and get some people out of prison.”
Shah is currently focused on making the most of her time by hosting a “Shah-Mazing Abs” workout class in prison.
“Jen just wanted to keep herself busy and find ways that she could help people in this kind of way. Around the end of summer last year, I had been going to this gym and I had a trainer. I eventually motivated her to come with me and I feel like that has to have some part in [her teaching classes] because I feel like she figured that she was so much stronger than she thought,” Bueno explained. “But she’s a lot physically stronger than she knows … She obviously learned that exercise helps with mental, physical, all around [health], so I think it’s also something she’s grasping to, to help others but also for herself.”
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With reporting by Sarah Jones
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