Meredith Marks is happy that former Real Housewives of Salt Lake City costar Jen Shah has a newly shortened prison sentence.
“I mean, you know, that’s not my call. That’s someone else’s call,” Marks, 53, exclusively told Us Weekly at the Blue Jacket Fashion show on Tuesday, February 4. “But, good for her.”
Marks, however, doesn’t know whether Shah could potentially return to RHOSLC upon her release.
“That’s a call for production, and I don’t wanna comment,” Marks stated.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate records, Shah, 51, is scheduled to be released on November 3, 2026. It is the second time that her sentence has been reduced.
Shah and her then-assistant Stuart Smith were arrested in March 2021 for their alleged roles in a telemarketing scheme that allegedly defrauded hundreds of victims over the age of 55. While they both initially pleaded not guilty, they ultimately changed their respective pleas ahead of trial.
Us confirmed in January 2023 that Shah was sentenced to six and a half years in prison with five years of supervised release. She began her sentence the next month at Bryan Prison Camp in Texas.
Amid Shah’s sentence, she reached out to Marks via a telephone conversation.
“It was very brief,” Marks said during the RHOSLC season 5 reunion earlier this month. “She called me. Well, obviously, I can’t call her.”
Costars Whitney Rose and Mary Cosby then questioned how Marks could entertain a conversation with the former Bravo star. For Rose, 38, she wondered how it wasn’t worse than her own conversation with season 4 alum Monica Garcia. (Garcia, 39, left the show after news broke she ran an Instagram gossip account about the RHOSLC ladies.)
“I didn’t seek Jen out to dig dirt on my friends,” Marks said. “Jen called me from prison after she’s taken accountability, served time and is paying restitution.”
Cosby, 52, chimed in, claiming that she would not have answered a call from Shah because “she tormented us.”
“Well, that’s up to you,” Marks responded. “That’s surprising. So, what is she supposed to do moving forward? She is serving her time and paying her restitution and has been accountable for it. What should she do? Curl up in a corner and die? … It wasn’t like I was going for a sleepover or something. This was a 10-minute phone call. Do you think there’s no second chances in life? Is that what we’re all deciding?”
Marks further said “it’s fair” that Cosby was still hurt Shah “lied every single day until she couldn’t” regarding her involvement in the legal battle.
“She blamed us,” Cosby added. “I would have said, ‘No, I’m not taking your call, Jen Shah.’”
As Marks maintains that her friendship with Shah can be repaired, she also feels the same about the other Housewives.
“Of course. There’s always a path forward,” Marks told Us, especially referring to Angie Katsanevas before sharing how Bronwyn Newport handled her debut season. “I think Bronwyn’s brought a lot of fashion and a very different take to everything.”
With reporting by Travis Cronin
