Kevin Lee revealed he had to shut down his social media pages after he made a remark about Katie Maloney’s weight during a guest appearance on “Vanderpump Rules” in 2018.
The luxury celebrity event planner spoke out in the July 24, 2024 episode of “The Behind the Velvet Rope With David Yontef” podcast to explain that he only meant to “boost” Maloney when he suggested she needed to lose weight.
“When that episode aired, oh, I have to shut down my Instagram, shut down my Facebook. I got calls, oh my God,” Lee told Yontef on the podcast. “I couldn’t believe that people were yelling at me.”
Lee explained that when he first met Maloney she looked as thin as a “model.” When he noticed she gained some weight he mentioned it to boost her to “go on a diet.”
“That’s all my intentions were,” he insisted. “What I told her was only encouragement. It’s from the heart, from love. Not to bring someone down.”
Lee admitted that he sometimes shouldn’t open his mouth. “But I have to tell the truth,” he said. The event planner also shared that he felt “bad” for hurting Maloney’s feelings, but then doubled down on his remarks.
“I cannot change who I am,” he said. “Why should I change? This is who I am. I don’t care [if] you get insulted but if you heard it, do something about it. That’s it. Okay, you can’t be so gorgeous? You can’t lose 3, 4, 5 pounds? If you can, do it. It doesn’t take a lot to lose some weight. Big deal. Do it. You’re gonna look good. I’m not pushing you down.”
Kevin Lee Made Katie Maloney Cry When He Body Shamed Her in a “Vanderpump Rules’ Season 6 Episode
PeacockKatie Maloney tells Lisa Vanderpump what Kevin Lee said.
Lee has appeared on episodes of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and “Vanderpump Rules.” More recently he turned up in the RHOBH season 13 episode “Soirees and Separations,” in which Kyle Richards hired him to plan her White Party at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
But five years earlier, Lee infamously appeared in the “Vanderpump Rules” season 6 episode titled “Call Me Jason.” In a scene that featured some of Vanderpump’s SUR employees working an event, Lee stopped Maloney to comment on her body.
“What happened?” he asked her. “You were much thinner than this. You gained a little bit of weight, you have to work on it. Seriously, I’m telling you as a friend. It’s out of control now. I can tell.”
Maloney broke down in tears as she told Vanderpump what Lee said to her. Vanderpump assured Maloney that she was beautiful.
In an interview with Us Weekly, Maloney described the situation as “uncomfortable.” “I had a hard time processing what he was saying to me,” she said of Lee. “I literally thought he told me I looked good and then he kept going.”
Once she realized he was body-shaming her, she walked away and told Vanderpump.
“It kind of just, like, really set in with me, because I hadn’t been in a good place in my life with self-love,” the former SUR waitress continued. “And I struggled with that for a long time and acceptance and confidence and positive body image, and I finally was in a place where I felt healthy, and I felt great. I had dealt with seeing that stuff on social media a lot and Kevin saying it to my face put a voice and a face to all of that, which was hard. But at the end of the day, and right after, Lisa kind of lifted me back up.”
Kevin Lee Said He Meant the Comment as a ‘Joke’ & Initially Thought Maloney’s Reaction Was “Weird’
PeacockKevin Lee on ‘Vanderpump Rules.”
Lee was hit with backlash immediately after the “Vanderpump Rules” episode aired in 2018. At the time, he told Page Six he found Maloney’s reaction to be “kind of weird.” “It was a funny kind of joke that I made,” he explained to the outlet. “I had known her for a while. I thought it would be fun to say things like that to her.”
Lee added, “I didn’t realize [she was upset] until she really reacted really badly. I feel so bad. It wasn’t bad-intentioned at all. It was something like, ‘Oh my God, you look a little different than I expected. I haven’t seen you in a while.’ She got really upset.”
