A reality TV star spent 2 seasons convincing viewers she was innocent. Now she's in prison.

It was season two, episode 10. 

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast are sitting in a van, preparing to leave for a girls' trip to Vail, Colorado. Everyone's excited.

While waiting for the rest of the women to arrive, Jen Shah receives a phone call from her husband, Sharrieff. 

She asks another cast member to turn off her microphone. 

Image: Bravo.

Jen steps outside and learns her husband is in the hospital with internal bleeding. She tells the other women and leaves, but says she will try to make it on the trip.

Twelve minutes later, NYPD and Homeland Security show up looking for her. Production staff tell them she left, and in what vehicle.

Heather Gay, one cast member, asks, "What if she’s on the run?"

Police then leave, track down Jen and arrest her on the side of the road.

Image: Bravo.

Jen Shah was introduced to audiences when The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City premiered on November 11, 2020. 

In the opening scene of the first episode, you're taken inside her nearly 10,000-square-foot mansion with eight fireplaces dubbed the "Shah Ski Chalet" and introduced to her family.

For some background: Jen moved to Utah from Hawaii when she was six years old. 

She and her husband, Sharrieff, are university sweethearts. He works as a football coach at the University of Utah and they have two sons - one in his 20s and another in his teens.

Jen describes her job as "advertising" and has four personal assistants, known as the Shah Squad.

"We have a platform that helps people acquire customers, so when you’re shopping online, and something pops, we have the algorithm behind why you’re getting served that ad," she says on the show.

The 49-year-old is over-the-top and outspoken, often at the centre of arguments; but she's also open and kind, which makes you kind of love her despite her occasional outbursts.

Jen and Sharrief. Image: Bravo.

The same day Jen was arrested, she was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. 

Her longtime assistant Stuart Smith was also arrested. The two had worked together for more than 10 years.

He was frequently called Jen's "first assistant" on the show, and they were often filmed together discussing their business.

Initially, Stuart pleaded not guilty, but in November 2021 he admitted his part in a "wide-ranging telemarketing scheme" that defrauded hundreds of vulnerable victims, many of them elderly.

Jen and Stuart. Image: Bravo.

For two seasons, Jen maintained her innocence.

"I’m fighting this," she said on the show while crying. "I’m innocent. I will fight this for every person out there that can’t fight for themselves."

She sold "Justice for Jen" merchandise. Her season two tagline was even: "The only thing I’m guilty of is being Shah-mazing".

Jen's husband believed her, her cast mates believed her, and at times, we wanted to believe her. 

At the end of the season three finale, the episode flashes forward three months and picks up with Jen and Sharrieff arriving in New York City for her trial.

Her co-stars Heather and Meredith are there to show their support.

"When your friend looks you in the eyes and says, 'I am innocent of this,'" Heather says, "you say, 'Then I will support you in whatever path you're gonna take.'"

But during her trial, Jen changed her plea from not guilty to guilty.

Weeks before her sentencing, the US government recommended the reality star be sentenced to 10 years.

Victims addressed the judge in impact statements, with one person claiming they lost more than $100,000 USD and had to re-mortgage their home.

On January 6, 2023, Jen was sentenced to six and a half years in prison and five years of supervised release.

The Assistant US Attorney said Jen was the leader of a "clear and brazen fraud" that stretched from 2012 to March 2021.

He called her the most culpable among more than 30 defendants.

"She always knew what she was doing wrong," he said. 

In her own statement, Jen said that she "struggled to accept responsibility for the longest time".

"For years I blamed other people for putting me in this position," she said.

"I have no one to blame but myself. I wish I could have stood outside myself and seen the harm I was causing and changed course.

"I am profoundly and deeply sorry."

Following the trial, a Supreme Court judge said he was not sentencing the person people see on television.

“People should not confuse the character she played on an entertainment show with the person I have before me. The other is acting and this is reality."

Jen is currently serving time at Bryan Federal Prison Camp in Texas; the same prison where Elizabeth Holmes is.

Feature image: Bravo.