Former Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah is opening up about bonding with Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes behind bars.
Shah, 52, was arrested in March 2021 for her role in a nationwide telemarketing fraud that targeted elderly people. After initially denying her involvement, Shah pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in July 2022. Holmes, 42, was convicted in January 2022 on four counts of fraud and conspiracy for lying about the capabilities of her biotech company’s blood testing technology and conning investors out of millions of dollars.
Both were housed at Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas — the same prison where Ghislaine Maxwell was held — and, according to Shah, bonded over “poop duty.”
In a new interview with People, Shah said she made some “close friends” at the prison, including “Lizzy.”
“When you come through, I guess as a high-profile, too, there are just certain things where you both are dealing with, and so you naturally kind of come together in those instances,” Shah said of her and Holmes.
“We both got assigned to poop duty together, so I feel like when you do poop duty with someone like you’re going to be close,” Shah continued. She explained that she and Holmes were housed in the same unit for the final 10 months of her prison stay and shared a bathroom.
“Well, if someone in your bathroom does not clean it or something like that, you get a strike,” Shah said. “If your bathroom gets three strikes, you have to do poop duty.”
Shah said she nearly got released before her bathroom hit three strikes and she was forced to take on the task.
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“You have to go sit in the bathroom, pull a metal chair in there, and sit in the bathroom for an hour and watch everybody come in and use the bathroom,” she explained. “And then when they use the bathroom, you have to get up, go inspect the bathroom, either clean it if they don’t clean it or let them know to come and clean it.
“And but you’re literally sitting there in the bathroom. So, if you can imagine, you know, the smells and everything going on for poop duty. And if you get more strikes, you keep doing hours of poop duty.”
Beyond the bathroom, Shah said she and Holmes would walk outside and chat about missing their families and the latest prison-related legislation. She added that it was nice to have Holmes as a “sounding board” who “kind of understood you.”
Shah was released in December after serving less than three years of her six-and-a-half-year sentence. The new interview with People marked the first time she has spoken out following her time in prison.
Holmes is serving a sentence of 11 years and three months, with a current projected release date of 2032.
