Joel Kim Booster issued a public apology to Shannon Storms Beador on Friday, Oct. 11, nearly two weeks after he shamed the Real Housewives of Orange County star on social media for allegedly mistreating the crew on their upcoming Real Housewives dating show “like they are subhuman.”
The actor, comedian and Fire Island creator — who is hosting the series, dubbed Love Hotel, set to air next year on Peacock — shared a lengthy statement on his Instagram Stories.
“I’ve had a lot of time to think and process about this and I wish I could say that I was not the guy who posted those statements on Instagram, but the fact is that I am,” he wrote. “I let an onset conflict cloud my judgement and accessed the darkest, ugliest part of myself and said things I don’t stand by or even believe, and I am deeply sorry that allowed my worst self to cloud my judgement.”
Joel Kim Booster/Instagram
Booster went on to apologize to Beador, noting the troubles she’s had in the wake of her arrest last September for an alleged DUI and hit-and-run.
“I know Shannon has had an extraordinarily hard year as she has bravely shared and as someone who has struggles of their own that have spilled over into work, I should have had more grace for her in that moment,” he said. “I am deeply sorry for the way in which I’ve mad Shannon’s road toward stability more difficult, and hope that she makes it out the other side of this stronger, healthier and with the love that she deserves in her life.”
He concluded his statement by expressing his sorrow again for the incident tainting the series.
“I regret making this a part of the story of our show, as I’m deeply proud of the work, the ladies and the crew put into making it,” Booster wrote. “Love our incredible crew and production staff so much and I would go to war for each and every single one of them.”
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PEOPLE first broke the news about Love Hotel back in July. In addition to Storms Beador, the show will star Luann de Lesseps (The Real Housewives of New York City) and Real Housewives of Potomac O.G.’s Gizelle Bryant and Ashley Darby. Filming took take place in September in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Not much is known what transpired behind-the-scenes to prompt Booster’s claims about Storms Beador. But on Sept. 29, he went live on instagram and blasted her, alleging that she had been a terror to work with, humiliated the crew and was rude to someone at the wrap party.
“Just because you’re a pathetic drunk on a reality show best known for a string of failed relationship and a DUI does not make you a star and does not give you license to treat the people you work with like they are subhuman. Period,” he wrote in a follow-up post on Instagram Stories.
Within a few minutes, Booster took down the post — though not before members of the media, including PEOPLE, saw the text. “Don’t regret it,” Booster later wrote. “Hope you screenshot it. Hope she suffers.”
“Let’s just say I can’t imagine what John Janssen went through. Poor guy,” Booster added, mentioning Storm Beador’s ex-boyfriend who is now engaged to her costar, Alexis Bellino.
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Representatives for Peacock did not have a comment when reached by PEOPLE, but Storms Beador spoke out about the incident on Oct. 3 during the Shannon & Vicki Live! show at the Irvine Improv in Irvine, California.
“I really don’t know what it’s about because the night before the wrap party, he had tears in his eyes and said ‘I’m so happy for you.’ … [So] It’s really going to look silly for him because he had nothing but love for me the entire show,” Storms Beador, 60, said, in video shared by BravoBreaking News.
“It’s very unprofessional,” she continued. “What I’m sad about is I did do some kind things on the show and people said I’m kind, so it’s hard for me to walk away from an experience that I really enjoyed and to have that damper on it. We’ll see what happens. I don’t know where it came from. I really don’t.”
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De Lesseps, 59, also defended Storms Beador during a visit to Melissa Gorga’s On Display podcast, saying she “didn’t notice” any bad behavior at all.
“I didn’t see Shannon treating anybody illy,” she said. “So, you know, it was, obviously, something very personal to Joel that he got offended.”
She went on to note that Booster had apologized privately to everyone for the outburst. “He apologized to all of us, because it affects all of us,” the Countess said. ” And, you know, listen, he made a mistake for sure. People make mistakes. He acted out, you know, and then it was too late to take it back, and God knows we’ve all done that.”
“So I think that this will be forgotten,” de Lesseps said. “And Joel was a good host. People are really gonna love the show.”
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