Faith Stowers filed a lawsuit on Friday, April 5, against Bravo and its parent company NBCUniversal for charges that include discrimination, retaliation and enabling a hostile work environment.
In court documents obtained by PEOPLE, the former Vanderpump Rules star claims she was subjected to “racism, sexual harassment and physical assault” during season 4 of the reality show when she joined the cast.
Stowers, who appeared on seasons 4 and 5 of Vanderpump Rules, specifically calls out several former castmembers in her lawsuit. She claims that, during a tense verbal and physical argument, Lala Kent held a knife to Stowers’ neck and threatened to “cut a bitch.”
She also alleges that Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute claimed that Stowers went “AWOL” from the United States Army and was a “serial criminal” who drugged and robbed men in Los Angeles. In addition, the reality star claims the pair filed a “false” police report listing Stowers as the assailant.
“The only similarities between Stowers and the assailant were their gender and skin color,” the lawsuit states.
Stowers, who is Black, alleges these efforts amounted to a “brazen and defamatory campaign” of “racial harassment” intended to “harm” her and her credibility. And when she expressed her concerns to NBC and Vanderpump Rules’ production company Evolution Media, Stowers claims she was “warned” to “keep quiet and play nice.” The reality star claims she was eventually demoted to an unpaid “volunteer.”
Reps for Bravo, NBC, Kent, Doute and Schroeder did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
One insider close to Kent denied Stowers’ allegations. “There’s no basis to any of these allegations,” the insider told PEOPLE. “It’s convenient she has a podcast coming out this Sunday and she’s doing a new movie with [Kent’s ex] Randall Emmett, so [it] feel like this is no accident.”
Schroeder and Doute, for their part, previously weighed in on past racially insensitive behavior days after being fired from Vanderpump Rules in June 2020. Schroeder confirmed in 2018 she called police about Stowers during an appearance on the Bitch Bible podcast.
At the time, Doute also weighed in a now-deleted tweet that included a link to a news story about then-at-large female suspect, writing, “hey tweeties, doesn’t this ex #pumprules thief look familiar? someone put her on mtv & gave her a platform for press. I didn’t wanna go there but I’m going there.”
“Stassi and Kristen acknowledged what they did was wrong, have apologized and been punished,” Schroeder and Doute’s rep, Steve Honig, told PEOPLE at the time. “Without casting aside their actions or the impact of those actions, they want to move forward as part of the solution in ways that are productive, meaningful and sincere. Both of them recognize actions speak louder than words and that is what will guide them as they move forward.”
Doute recently returned to Bravo in a new reality show, The Valley, alongside other Vanderpump Rules alum, including Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright. Schroeder, who has not been back on the network since being fired, runs her introspective podcast Stassi.
Stowers plans on debuting her own podcast The Frequency with Marcus Millions on April 7. The reality star told Variety on Thursday she would be candid there about her time on Vanderpump Rules.
“I’m going to be saying everything I didn’t say to be politically correct,” Stowers told the outlet. “I wanted to be a voice for my Black community. I wanted to make sure that people who were going through what I was going through had a blueprint so they didn’t make the same mistakes I made or feel powerful enough to speak out immediately instead of having to be scared like I was.”
Season 11 of Vanderpump Rules is currently airing on Bravo.