Scheana Shay Reveals the Real Reason She Married Mike Shay & What Led to Their Divorce

Scheana Shay Reveals New Details on Mike Shay Marriage & Divorce

Scheana Shay has shared some new details about her relationship with her ex-husband, Mike Shay, in her new memoir, My Good Side.

The Vanderpump Rules alum has not held back from sharing all of the details about her life — from her childhood growing up in Azusa, California, to the inner workings of her marriage with her current husband, Brock Davies. But Scheana also opened up about her first marriage, which was captured on seasons of VPR.

In the memoir, Scheana opened up about what caused her to marry Shay, a high school friend whom she had reconnected with after graduating. "While I didn't realize it at the time, I was kind of going through the motions of life, as I thought I was supposed to," she wrote.

"And I definitely got caught up in the fairytale," The Valley friend admitted. "So, when Shay and I got married in 2014 during [VPR] Season 3, I thought I could live out that fairytale by getting hitched on television."

"It all seemed so right," she noted. "Shay was my best friend. I loved that we grew up in the same area, went to the same high school, were both raised Catholic, and were extremely family-oriented. One thing I remember thinking when we first started dating was that I never got sick of him. I always wanted him around. He was sweet, and talented, and had so much potential. I truly thought the show was a place where his music career could flourish."

Scheana Shay says she felt "pressure" to marry Mike Shay

Scheana, however, admitted that things weren't always perfect between them. "Don't get me wrong, we had a few spats," she explained in the memoir. "We both had a strong love for football, although he was a Raiders fan and I was a Chargers fan. So, we were rivals in that area. But little details like that didn't matter since we shared similar dreams, already had the same friend group, and got along so well."

Scheana also loved that they "rarely disagreed" and she loved seeing him play with his "five nephews." "But our relationship was also about fitting into a certain plan for how I thought my life should be," she added. "We weren't kids anymore. I was 29, and feeling the pressure to settle down."

She did admit to doing pre-marriage counseling with Shay before walking down the aisle, but that did not address all of their issues. "But, typical Scheana, I kept my concerns to myself," she wrote. "I figured we'd work everything out once we'd tied the knot, and I tried to maintain a positive attitude."

Scheana Shay says she got "cold feet" before her wedding with Mike Shay

In the memoir, Scheana also admitted to getting "cold feet" during an outing with her bridesmaids the day before the wedding. But, she did nothing about it. "Regardless, I powered through, putting on a smile and trying to honor the pre-wedding ritual," she continued.

"I couldn't admit it fully at the time, but I knew something was off," she said of her wedding. "I felt helpless, like I knew I was making a big mistake and it was too late to stop it. Whether the mistake was the marriage itself or letting the wedding be filmed, I wasn't so sure. I also felt the pressure of how much money had been spent. Not only by me, but by Shay's parents. There was no way that I could back out on the day of. Doing that wasn't into consideration. I knew I was marrying my best friend, and I had to follow through as planned."

Scheana Shay opens up about her "very full single life" before marrying Mike Shay

Scheana's desire to settle down with Shay was inspired by her single life. "I dated and/or hooked up with a bunch of celebrities and experienced a very full single life, which, ultimately didn't satisfy me," she noted in the book. "I loved that Shay was a seemingly normal guy who I believed would never cheat on me or betray me as others had in the past."

In an earlier chapter of My Good Side, Scheana alleged to "dating (or at least hanging out and hooking up with) all of these celebrities: Jesse Metcalfe, Eddie Cibrian, John Mayer, Shemar Moore, Josh Hopkins, Shane West, Jesse McCartney, JC Chasez, Adrian Grenier, Ricardo Chavira, William Tell, two actors from The Notebook, and a few NFL, NBA, and MLB players."

RELATED: Scheana Shay Reveals Brock Davies Had a "Brief Affair" During Her Pregnancy

But, it hadn't "worked out" for her. "It's time to switch things up and date someone who's under the radar: I didn't want any of the fanfare or complications that came with being linked to someone famous," she wrote. "I wanted to be with someone who was grounded."

Why did Scheana Shay and Mike Shay break up?

Scheana and Shay "split amicably," announcing their divorce in November 2016 after two years of marriage. "It just wasn't working anymore on either end," Scheana told The Daily Dish in 2017. "We just decided instead of going for legal separation or trying to continue therapy, we both agreed it wasn't right. And, hopefully one day we can be friends. You never know what the future holds. But it just was a situation that needed to end before the holidays, before the new year."

Cut to 2025 and Scheana shed more light on the split on her memoir. "Unfortunately, the timing wasn't right for us and we weren't meant to be in the long run," Scheana wrote in her book.

What is Scheana Shay's maiden name?

Before marrying Mike Shay, Scheana Shay's real name was Scheana Marie Jancan. She explained why she decided to keep the last name Shay even after the split and not go back to her maiden name. She opened up about her name on her podcast back in January.

“So, I don’t know how many times I’m going to have to address this, but no matter how many times I do, I feel like it’s still probably one of the things people ask about the most,” she said. “I have built a professional career as Scheana Shay… It was like, do I go back to Scheana Marie? I tried, [but] it wasn’t really sticking. [Scheana Shay] was the name I was going by professionally.”

“I mean, my businesses, my retirement, my will, my trust, my houses, my everything is tied up in this name,” she continued. “So if I could go back in time, I don’t know, maybe I would have never even changed my name to Scheana Shay, professionally, because then I’m altering my professional name around a man who I’m obviously no longer with. But I was young. I believed in forever and the prospect of divorce wasn’t even on my mind. I took my vows seriously, you know, for better or worse.”

She added that she uses her current married name, “Scheana Davies,” in her personal life. “I am Scheana Davies, I am Mrs. Davies. We are the Davies family,” she said on the same podcast episode. “It genuinely does not bother Brock that I use this name. And also, I did recently have lunch with [Mike] and I asked him point blank. And it does not bother him either. So if it doesn’t bother the ex-husband, it doesn’t bother the current husband, again, I don’t know why it bothers all of you.”

Where Scheana Shay stands with Mike Shay today

During a January episode of her podcast, the mom of one admitted to meeting up with Shay to tell him about her memoir. She revealed that she wanted to give him a heads-up about it, in person.

"I didn't want him to find out about it online," she said. "I was very honest. I told him that I do speak about our relationship, and he was like, 'You know what? It's your book. I don't care. It's your story.' And he was genuinely happy for me. He's known me since I was 15 years old. And he knew that this is always something I wanted to do. So he was very happy."

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