Lisa Vanderpump Explains Why She Didn’t Fire Max And Brett Over Racist Tweets

Lisa Vanderpump is standing by her decision to keep Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni on “Vanderpump Rules” after racist tweets from their past resurfaced when they joined the show.

The subject came up on part one of the show’s reunion Tuesday night on Bravo, as Jax Taylor and Tom Sandoval argued over the homophobic messages Brittany Cartwright’s pastor posted ahead of their wedding. After being called out by Tom and a talking to by Lisa, the two replaced the pastor with Lance Bass.

“I don’t know why you had to make a big production about it, considering what your manager’s done,” Jax shouted at Tom, referencing Max’s tweets.

Tom then accused Jax of texting both Max and Brett, saying he’d “come after” Sandoval at the reunion because he “didn’t say anything about you and your tweets.”

“The only reason why you said shit is not because you give a f–k about racial equality, it’s to f–king deflect from your shit, you f–king piece of shit,” added Tom.

When Jax said he hoped Sandoval “reacted the same way” to Max’s tweets as he did to Jax and Brittany’s homophobic pastor, both Tom and Ariana Madix said they did.

“I’m also a 5% owner, Lisa chose to keep Max,” added Tom, shifting blame to LVP.

“As a 5% shareholder, he wouldn’t have the right to terminate his employment,” said Vanderpump. “If I fired every one of you that have made mistakes, it doesn’t matter to what degree, probably none of you would have a job.”

“It upsets me that the word n—a is not allowed to be said unless you are black because quite honestly it’s my favorite word,” wrote Max in a 2012 tweet. In another, he added, “Something about Asians that just makes me want to punch them in the suck hole.”

Brett also had a ton of tweets using the N-word.

“I’m an adult now, and I cringe even thinking that I said those things,” Max said when Andy Cohen gave him the floor last night. “I have a grandfather who pretty much raised me who’s African American, I have a half-Black mom and we live in a generation now where saying some things, even if you are of that culture, it’s frowned upon. I’m just really sincerely sorry, there’s no excuses.”

Added Brett, “It wasn’t okay then, it’s not okay now. It’s something I regret deeply, and it was just kind of making jokes with each other, like we’d literally be in the same room and just say stupid shit to each other, and it was a dumb f–king thing to do.”

“I’m doing my best to move forward and be the best person I can be, and try to emulate that to everybody else,” he added.

Lisa ended the conversation by saying she’s “never seen any inkling of anything that would make me believe that that’s the beliefs they were holding now.”

She added, “If I had, they wouldn’t be working for me.”

The reunion special was filmed before the death of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests and renewed conversations about how the Black community is treated in this country.

“Vanderpump Rules” airs Tuesdays on Bravo.