From 2004 through 2015, Wife Swap and its spinoff series, Celebrity Wife Swap, entertained
viewers with dramatic stories of very different families experiencing life in each other's
shoes.
But was any of it real?
Or was it all just another "reality" TV hoax?
Here are some of the stories the Wife Swap producers don't want you to hear.
Manufactured drama
Former contestant Stephen Fowler earned national media attention for how badly he treated his
replacement wife, eventually getting fired from his job due to the controversy.
But he explained to The Noe Valley Voice that, after the first few days of filming were deemed
too boring, the producers told him he had to be more dramatic on screen.
"They strongly encouraged me to be acerbic.
I was playing a character.
I was playing a role… like Simon Cowell on steroids.
I overreacted."
Nancy Cedarquist, who appeared on Wife Swap in 2005, told The Barre Montpelier Times Argus
that producers manipulated every interaction on the show.
"The director and the producer, they get you into these confrontations.
They take you aside and say 'He said this, this and this about you.
You're stronger than that, don't put up with that.'
They train you for two days in how to answer their questions on-camera so it doesn't sound
prompted."
In fact, some contestants claim the producers have whole storylines written before filming
even starts.
Former contestant Karen Martel told The Hartford Courant that her episode "was a one-sided
view of [my husband] and the boys that is not the whole picture.
They plugged us into what they wanted their storyline to be."
And once the footage is shot, the producers allegedly use clever editing to manipulate
reality.
Contestant Eric Schroeder told The Herald Bulletin that he actually threw his replacement
wife out of the house, but producers cut the entire sequence.
"She was saying horrible things about our family and about the kids in front of my kids.
A lot of the worst things she said were cut out."
A contestant sued the show
Alicia Guastaferro, who appeared on Wife Swap in 2008 as the 15-year-old daughter of one
of the couples, sued the show in 2010 for "purposefully, intentionally and knowingly
caus[ing] severe emotional and psychological harm to a fragile 15-year-old" for their own
financial gain.
Guastaferro, a former pageant queen, claimed she was directed to play up the spoiled brat
persona and was even fed lines like "I am the most popular girl in school," and "I do
feel sorry for people that are not gorgeous people."
She alleged that once the show aired, she was subjected to "incessant verbal and physical
assaults from her peers," and that the "ridicule, mockery and derision" forced her to drop out
of school.
The suit was settled under undisclosed terms in 2011.
Guastaferro later found herself in the news again after being charged with prostitution,
before becoming a professional rapper.
So there's an interesting career arc.
Those manuals
At the beginning of each episode, wives craft a manual they leave for their replacement
explaining the rules of the household, which the replacement wife is supposed to follow
for the first week.
One problem, though: according to contestants, those manuals were actually written by the
producers.
Ashley Fine, who appeared on Wife Swap when she was 13 in 2006, said in a Reddit AMA that
"the rules the moms come up with are not their own, the producers create the rules."
As an example, producers wanted to add a rule that the other family's dog had to be kept
in a tiny cage, and only backed off when Ashley's mom threatened to quit the show in protest.
Fame chasers
Most Wife Swap contestants say they're in it to provide a more accurate representation
of their community — or to earn the $20,000 paycheck that comes with appearing on the
show.
But some contestants are only there to get famous.
"This is how I handle this.
Hey baby! Come on in and get my jackhammer!
Know what I'm gonna do? Hey! Wanna hear a little story? I got a broken jackhammer.
Yes, it's the Heene family, who appeared twice on Wife Swap and later tried to parlay that
fame into their own reality series with Lifetime.
When things didn't progress as fast as they hoped, the Heenes staged a hoax where they
pretended their six-year-old son Falcon had floated off into the sky in an experimental
balloon.
Somehow the six-year-old ends up going through the door in the thing and he's in there according to authorities!
I mean, I can't confirm that."
The "Balloon Boy," as the media called him, was later found hiding in the attic — and
that his parents knew he was there the whole time.
Falcon's folks, Richard and Miyumi Heene, both served jail time and were required to
pay $36,000 in damages for wasting the time and resources of emergency workers responding
to their phony call.
Celebrity shenanigans
Regular people aren't the only ones who've had issues with the producers of Wife Swap.
Celebrities have had their share of problems as well.
After appearing on Celebrity Wife Swap, Coolio told The Daily Record that the entire premise
of his episode was a total sham, because he wasn't even in a relationship with the woman
the show presented as his partner.
"It was all set up.
I'm nothing like that.
I'm not even with Mimi.
I never was.
She's a friend of mine.
They tried to make me look bad.
I don't want to do that stuff again.
I'm going to concentrate on my music and food shows from now on."
And former Bachelor star Sean Lowe was also angry about how he was portrayed on Celebrity
Wife Swap.
Lowe and his wife Catherine appeared with fellow Bachelor Jason Mesnick and his wife
Molly.
But Lowe took exception to a sequence where Molly woke up to find a daily to-do list of
household chores left by Lowe.
"I put together a to-do list."
"A list?!"
"Do you normally leave Catherine a to-do list?"
"When I go to work."
"... the laundry. Cleaning up, of course, the dogs.
Lowe tweeted after the show that his wife would scratch his eyes out if he ever actually
left her a to-do list.
He later aired his displeasure with the show on Instagram, posting "Yeah… so that whole
Wife Swap thing made me look like a complete jackass but I guess that's the risk you run
when you agree to take part in something like that.
Thanks to those who saw through it all and offered words of support."
Considering Lowe is a seasoned reality show veteran and never complained about how he
was portrayed on The Bachelor, his criticism of the Wife Swap producers is especially damning.
Even though, you know… he definitely just left that list.
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