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Last year, Whitney Rose’s primary business goal was to achieve even “bigger success” with her jewelry line. Jumping ahead to The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City‘s Season 6 premiere, however, she revealed a bleak career update.
The sensitive subject arose during an argument with Britani Bateman while the cast (minus Lisa Barlow) was en route to an unexpected RV camping trip in Provo, Utah. When Whitney began “questioning” Lisa’s excuse for skipping the mini getaway, Britani defended her new “close” friend’s decision to honor a prior work commitment, before calling out that Whitney’s “business is getting dragged like crazy right now.”
As onscreen headlines referenced accusations about her company flying around TikTok, Whitney clapped back, “You know nothing about my business.”
But while sitting around a campfire later, the women’s drama reignited, leading a “hurt” Whitney to come clean to Britani, Mary Cosby, Heather Gay, Angie Katsanevas, Meredith Marks, and Bronwyn Newport. “I have a business that failed. That’s it,” she explained, noting that husband Justin Rose had gone “all in” with her on the venture. “And now we have nothing.”
RELATED: Whitney Rose and Husband Justin Are Facing a “Devastating Misstep” With Their Finances
Clarifying that there were no “pending lawsuits” or “legal turmoil,” Whitney continued, “I had to fire 30 employees. Do you think that was fun? No. I failed at something I was really excited about that started as a massive success, Britani.”
In a confessional, Whitney admitted that, despite being “no stranger to the ebbs and flows of business,” she had never had a professional endeavor “that just flat-out tanked.” She further cited “millions” in losses and her “thousands” of customers.
“And it’s so emotionally hard for me because I didn’t just fail myself,” Whitney added. “I failed all my employees, I failed my customers, I failed my family. Like, I just feel, like, the weight of everyone that this has affected.”
What are Whitney Rose’s businesses?
In addition to co-founding the jewelry line, PRISM, Whitney is also the founder and owner of Wild Rose Beauty, a direct-to-consumer skincare brand, according to her Instagram bio. Viewers may recall that she documented the latter’s rebrand from Iris + Beau on RHOSLC Season 2.
RELATED: You Have To See the First RHOSLC Season 6 Cast Trip To Believe It: “Is This a Joke?” (VIDEO)
How the RHOSLC cast reacted to Whitney Rose’s news about her business’ failure
“I made a bad choice and I’m cleaning up all the s–t from it,” Whitney added on RHOSLC‘s Sept. 16 episode. “So, I don’t need my friends bringing this s–t on a girls’ trip and rubbing it in my face.”
After that, Britani backtracked a bit and said she was sorry, but as Whitney shot back, “I don’t think you are, ’cause why would you sling mud at me today? Why would you bring it up?”
Britani insisted she was “just defending Lisa,” but Whitney urged her to “maybe learn the lesson that unless you know facts, don’t go there.” As far as she was concerned, the rumors were only circulating in the first place because of “TikTokers that want to get famous off of my failure.”
Regardless, Whitney insisted that she was “not scared to admit” what had happened. That’s because being “a little more open” — unlike Lisa, according to her — is how you find friends to “lean on” through difficult times.
That’s when Heather chimed in to share her own “many, many business failures” prior to opening Beauty Lab + Laser: “We don’t talk about the failures, you know, ever. Everyone talks about the wins,” she said, prompting Bronwyn to offer, “But the losses is where you learn something. You should talk about the loss.”
Angie, for her part, comforted Whitney by saying, “I have to say, too, like, it takes a lot of courage to be an entrepreneur or to take a risk or to start your own business. And thanks for being vulnerable and real, because I think any of us that are in business or have had our own business know how hard it is.”
Even Britani apologized for a second (and third) time, before going in for an embrace. Whitney rebuffed her show of affection, though.
“I’m not ready for a hug, Brit,” Whitney told her. “We gotta get all the way through this first.”
The drama’s just getting started though, so take a sneak peek at what else is ahead for Whitney and her RHOSLC castmates on Season 6.
