A life-altering disease and her kids’ important specific request. From Storage Wars to podcasting,
Brandi Passante's life isn’t what it seems.
Around 2019, during a Storage Wars two-year hiatus between Seasons 12 and 13,
Brandi Passante made it clear that things weren't going well for her
and her then-partner Jarrod Schulz — at least indirectly, through social media.
They'd said goodbye to Storage Wars in 2018, but then it was becoming clear that they were
saying goodbye to each other. Picture after picture of her with other guys,
in bikinis, and without her engagement ring were posted, as her Instagram account attests.
At the same time, Starcasm reported that neither one of them were appearing in each other's social
media. Furthermore, TV Shows Ace reported that Schulz was seen hanging around with a
new girlfriend at his Lake Forest, California, establishment, The Rush Bar & Grill. It took
until June 2020 for any official announcement to crop up regarding Passante and Schulz's breakup.
At the time, Passante stated that she and Schulz had been separated for two years.
Since then, Passante has continued using Instagram to keep the public informed of her goings-on.
She's posted lots of photos of her newly single life out with friends,
such as a video of her downing a glass of wine out at Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention.
At the same time, she's been trying to distance herself from her former
partner Schulz, and has called their run-ins "uncomfortable."
Passante has also opened up about her experience with domestic violence since leaving Storage Wars.
On Instagram in October 2021, she posted a photo of a tattoo she has on her index finger that says
"Free" with a bird flying away from the lettering. No, the tattoo wasn't about the Lynyrd Skynyrd
song "Freebird," but rather about her experience escaping domestic violence. Passante wrote:
"To me, it means that somehow, by the grace of god, I managed
to escape a very difficult situation that so many people fall victim to."
It all came to a head in July of 2021 when Schulz showed up while Passante was visiting
some friends. When she insisted he leave, he allegedly refused, pushed her, and yelled at her,
according to PopCulture. Although Schulz denied the claims, he was charged with
domestic violence battery against Passante, per Entertainment Weekly. Meanwhile, Passante helped
the Women's Own Worth Foundation, which assists survivors of domestic abuse, to raise $10,000.
On June 29, 2020, Passante revealed in an
interview with The Dad Diary that she'd contracted the coronavirus.
"I've been on actual quarantine because I got the covid."
She mentioned headaches, congestion, her loss of taste,
but at the time of the interview stated that her symptoms were improving. By July 21, TV Shows
Ace reported that Passante was seen in public, seemingly fully recovered. Earlier in March,
she'd posted a photo on Instagram in which she was holding a bottle of Maker's Mark.
Passante said that she was hunkering down with supplies to ride out the coronavirus, stating,
"The Rona got me loading up on essentials [s]uch as Costco size Makers [...]"
Bear in mind that all this happened around when Passante officially announced to the
public about her breakup with Schulz. It seems that the breakup itself was taking a toll on her
because she later stated in a February 2021 interview with Spirit Talk Hosted by Shavaun
and Sabrina that she'd been, quote, "emotionally dead inside" for a while.
She mentioned her ongoing therapy sessions, continuing,
"So these last couple of years I'm kind of coming into my own and figuring out who I am."
To add insult to injury, in October 2020,
Passante posted on Instagram that her father died. She wrote,
"Fly on, Fly on past the speed of sound. I'd rather see you up than see you down. So leave
me if you need to. I will still remember." In between hanging out with friends, enduring
her breakup, and the death of her father, Brandi Passante has been busy being a single mother.
She's stayed aware of the impact social media and fame might have on her kids,
and aside from the occasional proud mom post on Instagram, Passante's wisely kept her
children out of the spotlight. Her kids agree with her on this. Passante told Dad Diary:
"They don't want me to put them on social media at all. Which I don't. I respect that."
Besides returning to Storage Wars in recent years, Brandi Passante has built up her
presence in another form of media. In June 2021, she appeared on the weekly Newport Beach podcast
Happening Now with Hammer. Regular hosts Hammer and Troy Davis encountered Passante at a bar
and, after striking up a friendship with her, invited her on their show.
Since that first encounter, Passante has become a regular co-host of Happening Now, sitting in with
Hammer and Davis whenever she's in town. Not terribly structured, Happening Now's topics of
conversation range from the best local pizzas and movie reviews to celebrity trials, and marijuana.
Brandi Passante's quick wit helped make her reputation on Storage Wars,
and it's been part of her social media presence.
"Oh, okay. You can parkour in there all you want to. I'll go ahead and move this. Rookies."
She hasn't been shy in publicly responding to trolls, creeps, and silly questions sent
her way through private messages on Instagram. But in 2022, Passante gave an earnest answer
when someone asked why her voice sounded raspy on recently published videos. In an Instagram story,
Passante shared a screenshot of the question with the answer written over it:
"I have Hashimoto's Disease. An auto-immune disease that affects my thyroid.
Sometimes, it makes my throat raspy."
Hashimoto's disease causes inflammation of the thyroid.
It's slow to develop and has no unique symptoms, but can eventually lead to hyperthyroidism,
with fatigue, increased temperature sensitivity, weight gain, and the effect on the voice noticed
by Passante's questioner. Hashimoto's disease is America's leading cause of hyperthyroidism,
but may be mild enough not to require medication and can be managed with levothyroxine otherwise.