Janet Caperna, the polarizing standout from Bravo’s The Valley, has fled the United States and locked down her social media accounts following a wave of online harassment and death threats.
The 35-year-old reality star traveled to Switzerland with her husband Jason and their 18-month-old son, Cameron. The move came after what she described as a relentless barrage of hateful messages targeting both her and her child.
Her Instagram account is now private, and the reason is clear. Messages ranged from threats to chilling personal attacks. One person wrote, “I hope you rot like you deserve.” Another sent, “I hope your child grows up absolutely hating you.” Someone even added, “I know where you live. I’ve seen where your son goes when you’re not with him.”
Speaking out, Janet made it clear she is done tolerating this kind of abuse. “I’m sick of threats and slurs being normalized because ‘we signed up for this when we joined reality TV,’” she said. “That’s sick and not normal and I’m not ever going to pretend it’s normal or acceptable to message strangers threats and slurs.”
She admitted the online hate has been overwhelming. “It’s sad to me that people go this far. It’s definitely the worst part about this ‘job,’” she said. “I’m learning how to put boundaries on social media in place and learning as I go.”
Despite the attacks, Janet expressed support for meaningful discussions around reality television. “I support healthy dialogue around reality TV and think some of the best conversations about modern culture stem from shows like ours,” she said. “I’m far from perfect, and people are seeing the best and worst of all of us when we put our lives in front of cameras. My hope is people can have fun conversations about reality TV without going as far as some have recently.”
On her podcast This Side of the Hill, co-host Jared Lipscomb read out several of the most disturbing messages Janet had received. “I hope you die a slow and painful death, you are so ugly. Are you actually a man? You are evil and I wish death upon you, you piece of s**t,” one said. Another included a racial slur directed at her child.
Janet revealed that one particularly persistent troll had even tracked down her family members and began sending her hateful messages about them. “This isn’t constructive criticism,” she said. “I understand that I put my life out there and I’m gonna get comments, good and bad. This isn’t that.”
She and Jared were both stunned to learn that many of these threats came from women who otherwise presented as kind and respectable online. “It makes me wonder, how many people throughout my day am I interacting with that are like this behind closed doors?” she said. “Like, when I’m checking out at the grocery store, is that person messaging someone that they don’t like hate like this?”
Janet also pointed to a former co-star—widely believed to be Kristen Doute—for engaging with the online hate. “This former friend decided to respond with a laughing, jokey emoji and I’m so disappointed in that,” she said. “I had a former friend who responded to someone’s comment questioning the safety of my child, questioning whether I had a drinking problem.”
For now, Janet says she is focused on protecting her family and learning how to manage the toxic side of fame. But she is not backing down from calling out the culture of cruelty that too often surrounds reality TV.
