Ever wonder what it would be like to live with a different family? While the hit "Wife Swap" series
was pure fun for viewers, the show took a toll on some of its participants. Calling all fans;
we're diving into the secrets and stories that you might not know!
"Oh boy." In order to keep the
vibe of the show upbeat and entertaining, some families are given so-called "roles" to play.
Although this isn't the case for every family, different guest stars have confirmed the scenario.
In the very first season, working mom Christy Oeth was portrayed as a woman who was strict
about prioritizing her job over her family. As the orderly household was described on the show,
"They even use spreadsheets to do grocery shopping, and put success before family life."
Christy, who was then working at an investment firm,
told The New York Times she had stayed home for five years to raise her kids.
But she also needed to return to work after her husband Mike left his demanding job in
Manhattan. According to her, the show omitted those important details. After quickly becoming
known on the series as the Type-A mother who is always working, she revealed to the outlet,
"There is a very big element of unreality to the way they pigeonholed me."
According to The New York Times, in order to get "Wife Swap" episodes ready to air,
participants are sometimes tasked with providing additional content. They are also reportedly
asked to rehearse confrontations — and in some cases — reenact scenes that the camera missed.
Playing the chill wife to contrast Christy Oeth's uptight wife in Season One, Nancy Cedarquist once
had to pretend to be asleep, to show viewers that she had overslept and missed her alarm.
While she did accidentally oversleep one day, cameras weren't there to capture it.
Although Nancy agreed to recreate the scene, she was a little surprised by the way reality TV
actually worked. She did live in what the show referred to as a wilderness "treehouse,"
afterall. Disappointed with her experience on the show, she told The New York Times,
"I really thought reality television was more real than it is. […] I'd like to
offer myself up as a support person for people who go on these shows."
Alicia Guastaferro appeared in "Wife Swap" Season 4 and her experience was far from ideal.
Just a teen pageant queen at the time, filming allegedly caused her so much emotional distress
that she left her school and filed a lawsuit, according to the New York Daily News.
If you're a little rusty on her episode, her seemingly unlimited one-liners featured the gems:
"I am the most popular girl in school."
— And —
"I do feel sorry for people that are not gorgeous people."
"I don't care what other people say. Appearance is everything in this world."
While Alicia's attitude wasn't exactly reeling in the fans, she claimed that she was directed
to act that way by producers. This allegedly also included participating in fabricated scenes
like one claiming she got a present from her family every single day.
After abiding by production's wishes, Alicia later revealed that she dealt
with bullying from her classmates. And that led her to transfer schools and ultimately
sue the show. Looking back on life after her reality TV stint, she recalled to Radar Online,
"[I received so much] ridicule, mockery and derision."
One way "Wife Swap" likes to amp up the drama is by switching up the rules halfway
through. On TV, it looks as if the new wives come up with a
list of rules for their newly-swapped families to follow. And, of course,
the rules are typically the opposite of those that were originally set in place.
"You're gonna do the cleaning and the cooking with a full face of makeup on."
"No I won't."
But it turns out that the participants aren't the actual inventors of these
new lists. Instead, it's the producers who reportedly create them. Wendy Roth,
a co-executive producer of the series, told The New York Times,
"The rule changes we always rehearse. It's a major format point."
So it appears it's the producers who are the ones mixing things up
by crafting the most bang for their buck. Although there's a lot going on behind the
scenes on "Wife Swap," this little nugget may just take the cake. It turns out that not every couple
who has appeared on "Wife Swap" was an actual couple in real life. While we let that sink in,
let's look at the rapper Coolio. He appeared on the celebrity
version of the show with his allegedly not-so-real girlfriend Mimi, for Season 2.
"I'm Mimi."
"That's my girlfriend Mimi."
"I'm his girlfriend."
Not long after their episode aired, rumors began to spread that Mimi and Coolio were no
longer dating. Tabloids claimed they broke up due to Coolio's extreme behavior on the show,
which could easily lead fans to believe "Wife Swap" ruined the relationship. However,
the rapper told the Daily Record that he and Mimi were apparently never actually a
real-life couple. Instead, Coolio claimed the producers made it up for the show. He said,
"Listen. It was all a [setup]. I am 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."
Stephen Fowler, who appeared in Season 5 of "Wife Swap," definitely has regrets about his appearance
on the show. That's because he was reportedly nicknamed the "worst husband in the world,"
according to The Noe Valley Voice. Fowler was asked by producers to play an over-the-top,
uptight, hard-to-love type husband. Not long after the show aired, Fowler — who clearly totally
nailed the role — began to receive threatening phone calls and social media messages. Due to the
backlash from the public, Fowler reportedly lost his job. He explained to the outlet,
"They strongly encouraged me to be acerbic. I was playing a character. I was playing a role,
like Simon Cowell on steroids. I overreacted."
"You are undereducated, over-opinionated,
and you’re overweight. It's not a good combination, Gayla."
For a year after the show aired in 2009, Fowler was under contract to
keep his mouth zipped about the episode. But these days, looking back, he says,
"I do regret going on the show. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."
You might recognize "Celebrity Wife Swap" star, Sean Lowe, for his appearance on another hit
series; "The Bachelor." Sean agreed to do "Wife Swap" with his wife, Catherine,
and according to him, he wasn't at all prepared for the lies the show would spin. On his episode,
Molly Mesnick — the fellow "Bachelor" star who traded places with Catherine — woke up
to a to-do list that Sean supposedly expected her to finish. Requests included cleaning the kitchen
and ironing his socks. Of course, fans of "The Bachelor" weren't feeling the demands. So much
so that Sean ultimately came forward to reveal that the to-do list was never created by him.
"This is definitely the most bizarre item on the to-do list."
According to a tweet, he said his wife Catherine would, quote, "scratch my eyes
out" if he ever gave her a to-do list. And not long after that, Sean took to Instagram to post:
"That whole 'Wife Swap' thing made me look like a complete jacka--
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."
After 12 seasons of the series, it appears that not everyone has been pleased with how they were
portrayed on the show. So, with the intention of keeping both their stars and investors happy,
producers let the families involved approve a final cut of the episode,
before it airs. But that alleged final edit might not be what ultimately hits the air.
"When I found out that she was a pirate, I was like someone has issues."
Show participant Ashley Fine shared in a Reddit AMA that her family hosted a viewing party for
family and friends when their episode aired. But while they had ok'd the episode they were sent
for approval, they weren't happy with the version that made it to TV. Ashley explained in her post,
"We were totally confident with having a viewing party for the episode we [approved],
but the final cut that we all watched live was less favorable. That bugged me."
While the aftermath of appearing on the show hasn't always been positive for everyone,
series star, mom, and pirate, Tori Baur,
loved the attention post-show. Especially the fan mail. She told the Gazette-Times,
"We've gotten lots of fan mail. Boys have written saying they
think our daughters are beautiful and could they have our phone number."
"Millie's sassy and full of pirat-itude. If she pleases to live like a pig, we're gonna let her."
Although not all of the feedback has been positive, she says most people have been kind.
When she was asked if she regretted anything about participating on "Wife Swap," she said,
"No, why would I care about anything they showed?"
Still, Baur also said she would not do it all over again.
Some "Wife Swap" stars just can't get enough of that reality TV fame.
A great example of that was the Heene family. They made a huge splash on "Wife Swap" and even now,
they're one of the most notorious families to appear on the series.
"The wild Heene kids are encouraged to live a life of fun, adventure, and excitement."
But after the show, the Heene's managed to earn another 15 minutes of fame.
In 2009, the family claimed that their 6-year-old son,
Falcon, had been playing inside a weather balloon and was then carried away in the wind.
While both the police and the panicked public began to search for the boy — and
the media ran away with the story — Falcon was later found hiding in the family's attic.
"I thought it's gonna be the worst day, but now the best day of my life now."
Reports later confirmed that the family had staged the entire event to try to get their
own reality show, according to CNN. Instead of landing a deal, however, the Heene family
suffered serious consequences. As Deadline reported in 2020, Richard and Mayumi Heene paid
$36,000 in restitution fees after coming clean about the scheme. The couple was also sentenced
to a one-month jail stint for "attempting to influence a public servant." The Heenes then
spent an additional 20 days behind bars for filing a false police report. Initially, the couple
protested their innocence, but ultimately pleaded guilty to prevent Mayumi's possible deportation.
Eleven years after the incident, Colorado governor
Jared Polis confirmed the Heenes would be pardoned. In a statement, Polis reasoned,
"It's time to no longer let a permanent criminal record from the balloon boy saga
follow and drag down the parents for the rest of their lives."
The paycheck that participants earn for appearing on "Wife Swap" generally isn't made public. But,
according to a 2005 post by Reality Blurred, a casting notice from the
show's heyday confirmed successful applicant families could receive $20,000 for an episode.
"I'm getting internet in this house."
A message from producers clarified:
"Families who apply consist of two parents that have at least two children,
over the age of 5, living at home."
When the show was rebooted in 2019, Auditions Free reported that production was offering just
$10,000 for each successfully cast family. There was also an additional "finder's fee"
for anyone who nominated a family that ultimately got cast on the show. A Facebook post from Pitman
Casting clarified that this would be a brand new show, full of modern families. The agency wrote,
"Your family DOESN'T need to be a 'traditional' nuclear family. (For example: LGTBQ+,
Multi-Generational, Polyamorous, [and] Non-Traditional Religions)."
'I believe in old-fashioned family values. Women need to be seen and not heard'?"
There are plenty of reality shows that would never be created today. But while
"Wife Swap" is nowhere near as offensive as some,
there's no denying that the show is a relic of a different time. In fact, when Reddit users were
posed the question "What show has not aged well?" several people pointed straight to "Wife Swap."
Even so, other fans admitted they would love to see another season. While the show
tried to make a comeback on the Paramount Network in 2019, Jezebel noted in 2021,
"[The reboot] failed to recapture the magic of the original. Did America grow out of its love
for swapping wives or did the producers realize that 'Wife Swap's' archaic notion of wifely
duties no longer had a place in the modern reality television landscape? Perhaps both."
No matter what, we'll probably always be able to binge 'Wife
Swap' reruns on some streaming platform somewhere — maybe for the rest of time.
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