Roxanne 
Stassi Schroeder is opening up about the emotional toll of returning to reality television, revealing that criticism of her parenting on House of Stassi affected her far more deeply than she anticipated.
The former Vanderpump Rules star admitted that negative reactions to her new Freeform series left her struggling emotionally, particularly when viewers began questioning her abilities as a mother.
And while fans also expressed concern about her marriage to Beau Clark after watching their explosive disagreements unfold on camera, Stassi insists the couple is doing well.
During an interview with Us Weekly at the Women in Film Honors event on November 5, Stassi, 38, reflected on the backlash she received following the July premiere of House of Stassi.
“There were some things that I saw when the show aired,” Stassi explained. “I was really taken aback by the opinions about me as a mom. That hurt.”
Stassi admitted that the criticism led her to experience what she described as “a mini depression,” something that surprised her considering how accustomed she is to public scrutiny.
After years of appearing on Vanderpump Rules, Schroeder has experienced her fair share of criticism, controversy and negative social media attention.
However, she explained that comments about her parenting felt different from the criticism she had previously endured.
“I feel like I’m pretty good at handling negativity online. You can diagnose my personality and say all the things,” Stassi said.
But when it comes to her children, she admitted that the comments struck a particularly sensitive nerve.
“Being a mother is the most important thing in my life,” she continued. “It’s the thing I care about the most. It is the thing that I worry that I’m good enough the most. So that was really hard.”
Schroeder shares two children, daughter Hartford, 5, and son Messer, 2, with Beau.
Although she has never been afraid to share controversial opinions or acknowledge her shortcomings publicly, Stassi explained that having strangers judge something as personal as motherhood was especially painful.
She also revealed that she didn’t immediately move past the criticism.
Instead, it took time, repeated conversations with loved ones and a conscious effort to remind herself that strangers’ opinions did not define her as a parent.
“Dealing with the reactions took a really long time. It took just word vomiting to everyone that would listen how I was feeling,” Stassi explained.
Eventually, however, she reached a point where she felt she had processed the hurtful comments.
“Then one day I woke up, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m good. I’ve walked through that pain. I’ve walked through that sadness, and I know who I am as a mother. My husband knows who I am. My kids know who I am. Everyone, all my loved ones.’”
Stassi said she eventually realized that the judgments being made about her online weren’t necessarily an accurate reflection of her family life.
“Just because people on the internet are saying that doesn’t mean it’s true,” she explained.
“But it took a lot of just word vomiting it to people to just release it, and then I really did wake up one day, and I felt better. It just took time.”
The comments come after House of Stassi gave viewers an unfiltered look at the challenges within Stassi and Beau’s marriage.
The series premiered on Freeform on July 29, 2026, before becoming available to stream on Hulu the following day.
Unlike Vanderpump Rules, which primarily focused on Schroeder‘s friendships and romantic relationships within Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurant circle, her new series centers on her life as a wife, mother and working woman.
The cast also includes familiar faces such as Katie Maloney and Kristina Kelly, along with Stassi’s sister Georgianna Aubin and several longtime friends.
But one of the biggest storylines throughout the first season involved the tension between Stassi and Beau.
The couple openly discussed their changing relationship dynamic as Stassi focused on her career while Beau took on a larger share of responsibilities at home.
Beau admitted during the season that he had struggled with resentment and feelings of being undervalued, while Stassi became frustrated with how he communicated those feelings.
Their disagreements ultimately escalated into a major confrontation during the season finale, when friends became involved in discussing the problems within their marriage.
The emotional finale left viewers questioning whether the couple’s relationship was in serious trouble.
However, Stassi revealed that the reaction to their marriage became so overwhelming that she and Beau began reassuring people they weren’t getting divorced, even when those people were simply complimenting the show.
“When we did watch it back — and we just saw everyone talking about it — it’s like every time someone came up to us and was like, ‘We love House of Stassi,’ we’re like, ‘We’re not getting a divorce. We’re good,’” Stassi shared.
“That’s, like, all we can say back to people because we’re just assuming that that’s what people have seen.”
The admission suggests that the couple became so accustomed to hearing concerns about their marriage that they started anticipating those questions before anyone even asked.
And while Stassi maintains that their relationship is strong, she acknowledged that watching themselves argue on television was an eye-opening experience.
According to Stassi, Beau realized that certain comments he made during filming came across differently than he had intended.
“It made him aware of just one comment that he could make that turned into something else,” she explained.
“He’s like, ‘I never meant it to be that.’”
But Stassi also admitted that she learned important lessons about her own behavior, particularly how quickly she sometimes reacts when she becomes upset with her husband.
“And then I also learned about myself, like, ‘Oh, wow, you don’t have to have that insane reaction to your husband saying something. You can try to sit and listen and understand before you start seeing red and going straight to anger.’”
She believes watching their disagreements play out ultimately forced both of them to acknowledge patterns in their communication.
“We both learned a lot about how we deal with each other just by living that and watching it back.”
Stassi and Beau began dating in 2017 and married in 2020 before celebrating with a larger wedding in Italy in 2022.
Their relationship was initially documented on Vanderpump Rules, where Beau became a familiar face among Stassi’s friends and castmates.
After Stassi’s departure from Bravo in 2020, the couple continued building their family and careers away from the show.
