Janet Caperna and her husband Jason Caperna have been in and around the Vanderpump Rules squad for years — but it wasn’t until they joined The Valley that they began sharing their lives with the Bravo fandom. As Janet was quickly villainized by fans over her Season 1 drama with Kristen Doute and Zack Wickham, Jason quietly supported his then-pregnant wife from the background, making sure “her stress levels were as calm and low as possible.” While she’s been keeping things amicable with Doute so far in Season 2, Janet’s name has still been at the center of the rumor mill, with gossipers claiming she was once a Vanderpump Rules fan who purposefully sought out Scheana Shay to infiltrate the friend group.

When DECIDER caught up with Janet and Jason earlier this week, they finally put those rumors to rest. “I will always own being a Bravo fan. I have loved Bravo shows forever. My mom and I have watched together. So I didn’t realize it was an insult to be a Bravo fan,” Janet began, explaining that her first meeting with Shay at a pool party back in 2017 was purely coincidental.

“I always look back at that day that I met Scheana as kind of the butterfly effect,” she continued. “When she walked into the pool party, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. That’s Scheana from VPR. I gotta go say hi.’ I’d actually just re-binged all of VPR when I had the flu right before I met her.”

The two women ended up bonding over their divorces and have remained close friends ever since. “I’m so grateful for everything that has happened since meeting Scheana, but it wasn’t my intention necessarily. And honestly, if it was, then I’d be really good at executing goals,” Janet joked.

The new mom even credited Shay with introducing her to Jason “in a roundabout way.” The laid-back lawyer gets “dragged into the mix” this season, especially when Doute claims he wasn’t wearing his wedding ring (which he confirmed he doesn’t when he goes to the gym).

“I can say a lot of things about that,” he said. “But I would never ever ever do anything to jeopardize my relationship with Janet and our son and our family. So yeah, it’s a wild claim.”

The couple also talked to DECIDER about Jax Taylor‘s sobriety, Jason’s celebrity crush on Lady Gaga, and Janet’s clash with Nia Sanchez Booko. Check out the full interview below.

DECIDER: How would you say your sophomore season on The Valley has compared to your freshman season?

JANET CAPERNA: Well, first, I was so pregnant. So it’s nice to have a margarita while filming. I’ll say that. And not be uncomfortable. 

JASON CAPERNA: Janet’s pregnancy, like, my Season 1, my only goal was just to make sure that her stress levels were as calm and low as possible. This season feels like my first season of reality TV, honestly. Like, I was definitely more, in Season 1, just commenting on other people’s stuff and this season I get dragged into the mix. So it’s not it’s been a little frightening.

JANET: Dragged or jumped in?

JASON: I don’t know if I jumped in. 

Janet, I want to get one thing out of the way. Kristen called you a fan of Vanderpump Rules in the Season 2 trailer and there are rumors out there claiming you moved to LA to infiltrate the friend group. I personally don’t know many women in their 20s who haven’t seen Vanderpump Rules. Is there anything you’d like to clear up about that?

JANET: Well, one, I will always own being a Bravo fan. I have loved Bravo shows forever. My mom and I have watched together. So I didn’t realize it was an insult to be a Bravo fan, but I do think it’s kind of pushing this narrative that started online that I purposefully found Scheana and snuck into the friend group and all of that. That’s a great story and someone should write a movie about it, but that’s not the case. My goal was never to be on reality TV. When Brittany came to us with this idea, we were like, “Alright, let’s think about it.” But it timed up wise that I had just quit my job, found out I was pregnant and I was like, “Alright, let’s, I guess, give this a shot for a year and see what happens.” 

I always look back at that day that I met Scheana as kind of the butterfly effect. When she walked into the pool party, I was like, “Oh, my gosh. That’s Scheana from VPR. I gotta go say hi.” I’d actually just re-binged all of VPR when I had the flu right before I met her. So, everything was fresh to me, too. I remember just talking to her about how I was going through a divorce, she had just gotten divorced and we really clicked. I was like, “Wow, she’s really great and a lot more than what I’m seeing on the show.” I’m so grateful for our friendship. She introduced me to Jason in a roundabout way and I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for her. I’m so grateful for everything that has happened since meeting Scheana, but it wasn’t my intention necessarily. And honestly, if it was, then I’d be really good at executing goals. I wish I could say like, “Yeah, my goal was always to get on a show and here I am. I did it.” But it kind of just happened this way. It wasn’t as much infiltration of the group as everybody makes it out to be. 

JASON: I infiltrated the group, though. This was my plan.

JANET: Yeah! How come he doesn’t get caught up [laughs]. 

Jason, I think you might be the most chill person on this show. Is it because you have an Android and you’re not in the boys’ chat?

JASON: It’s because I have an android, yeah, exactly. No, I don’t know. It’s just my personality, I guess. I have a pretty long fuse. Not to say that it never gets set off, which I think you’ll see in the season, at certain points it does. But yeah, and I also forgive people very quickly. 

JANET: He’s a Libra, he’s like even scales. 

JASON: That’s it. I was born in October.

I want to get into some of the drama in tonight’s episode. A lot of people have been calling Brittany out for going after Nia when she spent so many years defending Jax. What do you both think of that? Is Brittany being hypocritical? 

JANET: I don’t think so. I think Brittany has put her life out there so much and I think it was just a frustration of, “I’m sharing everything about my experience right now. Nia is commenting on our relationship and why can’t we point out this kind of…” It felt like an elephant in the room in Santa Barbara. It’s like we had noticed you know some things with Danny’s drinking for a while. I think everybody in our group [did] and Santa Barbara was kind of where it was like it really did feel like the elephant in the room. Like, we’re really not gonna say that he’s drunk. We’re just gonna pretend he’s tired. So I think it was a frustration and obviously all of us had been drinking too. So I was kind of like, can we just call a spade a spade? Can we just acknowledge what’s happening here – what we’ve all seen happen for a while now? And Brittany’s like, “I’m laying it all out there.”

I know she got some heat for it, but I got to back her on it. I think that when we agree to share our lives for cameras, you have to share the good and the bad and not just hide or deal with things in-house when things are going on especially if they’re pretty obvious to the group. And I think Brittany has done a really good job of being honest and transparent about some pretty dark things that are going in her life and she’s been open to receiving comments about it from our friends and the public. So I think it was just a frustration of like, “I’m taking all of this.” And Nia, you have no problem commenting about Jax and Brittany’s relationship so why can’t we just call out this very obvious thing that’s happening right now?

I understand both sides of the drinking thing. He was tired, everyone was drinking. But he also had that issue with Jasmine. Do you think if that hadn’t happened everyone would be questioning him as much?

JANET: I think that was a big turning point. I think after the Halloween incident, all of us kind of thought, “OK, that was a rock bottom moment.” When you wake up and you’re told that you put your hands on other people and things like that, you have to wake up feeling horrible. And for me, I would probably not have chosen to drink again, if I was able to get to that kind of place of darkness while drinking. All of us were like, he was very apologetic at first and we were like, “OK, we’re gonna see that backed up by his actions.” But then to kind of come on a group trip with the same people that he had put his hands on and to get to that level of drunkness, it was like, once you hit that kind of rock bottom moment, you can keep drinking like nothing’s happened. 

JASON: I think that both Jasmine and Brittany, if they could do it over again, would maybe change the delivery of their messages. I think they both, as you said, Brittany had her reasons. I think Jasmine’s reasons – maybe she didn’t even really realize what her reasons were at the time because it was a triggering situation where she sees, “Oh, this guy apologized for getting drunk and losing control, but now he’s with me and he’s getting drunk again, so does that mean he’s gonna lose control again? So what’s the point of an apology if you’re gonna be in the same situation?” Obviously, he just went and took a nap, which is fine, right? But yeah, I could see why she’d be triggered. And I think that if they could do it again, they would probably say it in a more conversational style as opposed to a more accusatory style because that always puts people on the defensive if you start attacking them in that way. 

Janet, can you talk a bit about that conversation with Nia at the girls’ lunch?

JANET: I had noticed that some of the experiences I had gone through with an ex-boyfriend in the past were reminding me of some of the things Nia was doing, just kind of protecting your person, which I get you got to do when you love somebody. But really it was like with the hiding, the drinking in the pantry, the hiding of the drinking, all of that, I was like, this is reminding me of some experiences I have been through. And I didn’t want her to feel like she was alone if she was feeling like there was a problem there. I wanted her to know that she did have support. She does have friends that care about her. And if she at that point or ever gets that point, I want her to know that has support. 

I think there was a lot going on and maybe some of the words you used triggered her, but I do think your intentions were good in that moment.

JANET: Totally. When I say to her like, “I’ve been through this and if that’s what you’re going through… ” Also, part of the reason I said that directly to her face at our girls dinner was [because] she’s telling me, “Guys, I don’t like that you waited until I walked away from the table to talk about me so if there anything else you guys want to say I want you to say it to my face.” I wanted to make sure she knew about what happened in the pantry. I didn’t know if he was hiding from her or from cameras. But I wanted her to be aware, like, “Hey, I saw this thing and I don’t want to keep a weird secret from you about your husband.” So to her face at our girls’ dinner, I said, “I saw this thing in the pantry and if you’re struggling with this, we’re here because I’m noticing some drinking habits that just don’t seem that healthy and great and if you are struggling with that, we are here for you.” I felt like she kind of bit my head off there and so I was like, this is kind of why I think people are not so motivated to go to you directly, to your face because you’re not accepting it and understanding it. Like, you’re asking me to come to your face but you’re not being accepting when we are. That was a tough situation but at the end of the day I do think my intention was, “Hey if you’re struggling with something, you do have people that you can lean on for support.” 

Jason, it looks like you and Danny get into it in a preview for next week’s episode. Were you surprised to see him get so angry? What do you think about his drinking?

JASON: When we had that talk, I had a plan of action and I thought, “This is how I want this to go.” I was trying to be a good friend and reach out and just have a conversation. It didn’t go the way that I wanted it to go. It went a little off the rails and it definitely got a little bit more combative than I wanted this to get. So, yeah, I could say that, I guess. But my intentions, similar to what Janet was saying, her intentions were good, my intentions were good. I was never trying to embarrass or attack him or anything like that. 

Jason, I have to ask about the ring. In a preview for next week’s episode, Kristen says you don’t wear your wedding ring. I know that can mean absolutely nothing. You can take it off to go to the gym or whatever, But is there anything you would like to clear up about that?

JASON: I do go to the gym and I don’t wear my ring when I’m in the gym. 

JANET: Neither of us do, like, unless we’re out.

JASON: But that’s not, I don’t think what she meant. I think she meant more like, I take it off for more nefarious reasons, like, I’m out here just like, looking for the girls or whatever, and trying to have them find me and see that I’m single. All I can say about that is that … I mean, I can say a lot of things about that. But I would never ever ever do anything to jeopardize my relationship with Janet and our son and our family. So yeah, it’s a wild claim. 

Zack told us that Jax has only gotten worse since going to rehab. What do you both think of sober Jax? And Jason, would you say he’s a different person than he was when you first drove him to the treatment center? 

JASON: He’s 100% a different person now than when I brought him to the rehab center. Before going to the rehab center, I actually wasn’t really spending a lot of time with him for the few months before that because our son was growing up and I just worked and I didn’t have a lot of time. I wasn’t seeing any friends, just family really. But I had heard things. The separation had hit him pretty hard and he was pretty depressed. Since then, he’s still working his way through. He’s not going to be perfect in just a few days or anything. But finishing the rehab, he’s been sober for almost six months now, I think, at this point. He’s doing what he has to do and he’s moving forward. He is not cured and we’ll hear from Brittany that he does some bonehead things or something, but I think he’s on the right track. 

JANET: I’m really proud of him for staying sober. He’s 44 or something. It takes a long time to rework habits and anger and things that he has. So I’m hopeful that they’ll get to a place where they can be friendly co-parents, but I want to see him put in a little bit more work than I’ve seen so far. I think being sober is a great start, but I think he has a lot more work ahead of him as far as controlling his anger.

JASON: I think they’re still trying to figure out the co-parenting situation in general. Because from my outside perspective, it seems like they’ll be doing really well co- parenting, but then when they get closer, then their feelings start coming up again. And then one will find out that one was talking to a person of the opposite sex. And then it’s a fight. But it’s like, “You guys are separated. You shouldn’t be fighting over this.” 

It’s going to take time. They were together for so long and now they have a kid, which I know can make things even more complicated.

JANET: Cruz is the sweetest little boy in the entire world. I know that they both love him so much. Brittany is the most amazing mom. I mean, she has him in so many different therapies and schools and things to try to help him as much as she can. And I’m in awe of her every single day of how she does it. And I feel like if Jax can kind of ease off of rage texting her a little bit, then it’ll make like all the difference for her.

Janet, you are good friends with Scheana, you were at her 40th birthday party recently. Demi from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives was also there. Did you cross paths with her?

JANET: I just started the first episode of Season 1 so I’m not up to date on it. But we did meet them at her party briefly. Jason, you were talking to them for a little while.

JASON: I was talking to them for a while.I had never seen the show, so I didn’t know who they were. And I was just like, “Wow, you guys are really good looking.” We spoke to them for, yeah, maybe like 30 minutes to an hour or so. 

JANET: They’re really nice, really nice. I think I had to walk away and I was like, “I think that’s one of the Mormon wives.” 

JASON: They told me they were. Because we were just talking about, “What do you do? What do you do?” They hadn’t seen our show either. They didn’t know who I was.

JANET: I remember watching you being like, “I bet he doesn’t know those are the Mormon Wives ladies.”

JASON: I thought they were models or something. They’re really good-looking people. 

Demi has had a bit of a rough season so I’m glad to hear she’s nice.

JANET: Yeah, she was very nice. Scheana always has, like, her birthday party that’s star-studded. I don’t know how Scheana keeps up with [everyone]. She had like 200 people there. I’m like, I barely have time to text him back some days. I’m, like how do you keep up with everybody? But she does it all. She’s Wonder Woman.

Jason, you said Lady Gaga was your hall pass. Do you have a favorite Gaga look or song?

JASON: The meat suit, for sure. No, I’m joking. I mean, I can’t say I’m such a fan that I know her 2012 Met Gala [look] or something. I think she’s attractive. People think it’s like, “Oh, just her talent.” Like, no, I actually think she is attractive. I think actually, you know what? I think I found myself most attracted to her on American Horror Story Hotel. I have this weird vampire thing, too, a little bit. And she played, like, a vampire. 

JANET: I’m learning something new here!

JASON: That and then I just think she’s incredibly talented. Not just music. Acting-wise, too. And she seems like a cool person. We watched that documentary [Gaga: Five Foot Two] or whatever and yeah. I mean, I’m in love with my wife. Now I’m starting to sound like I’m in love with her.

JANET: We laugh, though, because I know Lady Gaga says she’s a VPR fan, so I’m like, maybe she watches our show.

JASON: She’s not in my DMs. And also, I know that she’s engaged or married so no disrespect to her husband. This is all a joke.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Valley airs Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.