The Valley’s Janet Caperna’s Friend Defends Her, Reveals When Jason’s Ring Rumor Began and Slams Kristen, Plus Talks Jax & Brittany, and Claims Zack Can Be a “Monster”

Janet Caperna’s bestie Jared Lipscomb revealed that the wedding ring rumor about her husband Jason Caperna started “three years ago.” He also slammed Kristen Doute, Jax Taylor, and claimed Zack Wickham can be a “monster.”

On the new season of The Valley, the cast addressed a rumor that Jason would go out without his wedding ring, which the couple denied. And throughout the show, Kristen has maintained that Janet was a ‘fan’ who orchestrated her way into the friend group.

On “The Bravo Investigator” podcast, Jared defended his good friend Janet amid fan backlash.

“She’s direct and she knows how to handle situations,” he said, before alluding to Kristen. “When you have OG castmembers leaning into what fans are kind of hinting at or saying – like ‘oh, she’s trying to be like Stassi Schroeder from season one’ – … if you have an OG repeating that in press, then all of a sudden that becomes kind of like ‘oh, you’ve just spoken that into existence.’”

“There’s this expectation that women have to be soft – they have to be a certain way,” he continued. “And if you’re not, you are a b**ch, you’re horrible, you’re this or that.”

Jared then addressed the rumors about Jason.

“This ring thing was allegedly three years ago – Jason not wearing his wedding ring – which is wild because they’re about to celebrate their two-year anniversary,” he said. “So I’m not sure what wedding ring he was not wearing.”

As for Brittany Cartwright’s relationship with her ex Jax, Jared hinted that he worried about her physical safety in the past.

He also said that Zack can be a “monster” in “certain scenarios.”

In an April interview for Decider, Kristen reflected on her comment about Janet being a “fan.”

“There are some things that I do regret saying over the season — In that moment, that is not one of them,” Kristen stated at the time. “I meant what I said in the moment. I don’t think it’s any surprise to anyone, I’m pretty sure it’s out there on the net, that Janet was introduced to our friend group years and years ago as a fan of the show. This is not to say that I don’t love and appreciate fans of our show. That is why we do what we do.”

“[But] the Janet that I had been very close to pre-Season 1 is not the person that I saw when the cameras went up,” she added. “And really, even after the cameras were down, but like over the last two years, there’s just been this, for me personally, just this huge shift in her personality.”