There are many perks to being on reality TV, but all too often, the stress and drama of
having your life chronicled for an audience supersedes the benefits.
Who needs cash and fame when your life is falling apart for someone's entertainment?
Here are a few reality TV shows that ruined people's lives.
Keeping up with the Kardashians
When Keeping Up with the Kardashians started in 2007, none of the cast knew the significance
of what they were starting.
Unfortunately, for Kourtney Kardashian's on-again, off-again boozy baby-daddy, Scott Disick,
it would lead him down a dark and difficult path.
Over the years, reality TV cameras have captured Disick's alcoholism spiral out of control.
As the reality cameras continued to record, the money continued to flow in, pushing Disick's
behavior from bad to worse.
According to E! News, Disick has been to rehab four times, and his most recent attempt to
get sober was in October 2015.
In May 2017, Disick reportedly went on another crazy bender – this time in Cannes, France
with a harem of women.
Bella Thorne, who joined him for a short spell, confessed he parties way too hard, telling
Complex UK,
"He drinks a lot.
I just don't party hardcore like that and it was way too much for me."
Jersey Shore
It's the show that made average New Jersey kids super famous during its four-year run
on MTV.
But while Jersey Shore's Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino was becoming a household name,
he was also battling a nasty addiction to prescription medication.
When the series ended in 2012, he went to rehab to fix his life.
In 2014, he told People Magazine,
"When I had gotten out of Jersey Shore, I had a year to settle down and find out who
I was, and I wasn't in the best shape.
I had to rebuild myself inside and out."
He spent a year in recovery, but his fame seemingly only made the journey more difficult.
"It was extremely hard and it took every ounce of effort for me, and I just put my head down
and kept moving forward."
Fast forward several years and the show that gave him star status still plagues him.
According to Forbes, Sorrentino was slapped with tax-related and conspiracy charges in
both 2014 and 2017.
The reports claim that Sorrentino and his brother used two companies they own to dodge
paying taxes.
If convicted, Sorrentino faces at least 10 years in prison for his crimes.
"Listen! Listen!
I don't lie!
Everybody in this house knows I don't lie!
Okay?"
Newlyweds
Shortly after tying the knot, Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson thought it was a good
idea to let MTV reality cameras into their home as they handled being a new couple.
The 2003 show, Newlyweds, lasted just as long as their marriage.
By the final season, it was obvious the couple was hitting a rough patch.
Years later, Lachey appeared indifferent when he spoke to Jenny McCarthy on her SiriusXM
radio show.
"I wouldn't say it's friends, I wouldn't say it's enemies, there's just no contact.
We both, you know, We've just moved on.
We both moved on with our lives."
"It's not animosity, it's not friendship, it's just kinda nothing."
Simpson had a much different response, confessing to Page Six that she "would have a panic attack"
whenever she saw reruns of the show on TV.
To add more salt to the wound, Simpson confessed that marrying Lachey wasn't a good idea moneywise.
"The biggest money mistakes?
I don't know.
For some reason I thought of my first marriage."
Ouch!
The Hills
Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt's lives were ruined by The Hills because the success simply
went to their heads, which Pratt confessed to Entertainment Tonight.
"I got way too into my character, that's a problem.
I didn't separate, like, the audience people."
When the show ended in 2010, they were at the top of their game financially.
Now they're in financial ruin.
As of 2016, they'd spent all their cash and were living for free in his parent's rental
property, walking dogs and eating burritos, according to Pratt.
And Montag regretted her countless plastic surgeries.
"Is that vanity worth harming, potentially harming yourself.
And to me the answer is no."
Bachelor Pad
Chris Bukowski rose to fame in the 2012 season of The Bachelorette, and subsequently appeared
on Bachelor Pad and Bachelor in Paradise.
But just a handful of years later, he would announce his retirement.
"So, I am formally retiring from reality TV."
He went on to say that the experience nearly ruined his life and his relationship with
his family.
Bukowski blogged,
"It almost completely ruined me, my family, and my career."
"That show ruined my relationship with my father at the time and created distance between
me and my mother."
"I went months without talking to my dad because he simply didn't want to talk to me."
Looking back, he said working in reality TV had driven him down some terrible places,
which included an addiction to anxiety medication and an inability to repair his reputation.
Dance Moms
Reality TV can be a place to make a quick, big buck.
Just ask Dance Moms former star Abby Miller, who pled guilty to bankruptcy fraud after
she was charged for hiding upwards of $775,000 earned from various shows and projects.
Miller was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison, and upon her release, she'll
have two years of supervision.
She also has to pay a $40,000 fine and a $120,000 judgement.
"I regret everything."
In her online Dance Moms resignation letter, posted to Instagram, Miller also accused the
show of treating her like dirt, saying,
"I just have a problem with being manipulated disrespected, and used – day in and day
out by men who never took a dance lesson in their lives and treat women like dirt."
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo
Jealousy and matters of money have torn apart Mama June's relationship with her eldest daughter
Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell.
In an E! News interview, Cardwell claims her mother famously lost all the weight and underwent
plastic surgery just for fame, saying,
"I don't think she did it just for her because she never mentioned anything ever before about
getting plastic surgery."
Cardwell also says her famous mother owes both her and her daughter, Kaitlyn, nearly
"half a million dollars" from making appearances on Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
Mama June has her own thoughts on their strained relationship, which she explained to Life
& Style.
"I think like for her, it's more of 'Okay, mama is on TV and I'm not part of it, I'm
not getting any money off of it.
So it's more like a jealousy thing."
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