‘House of Villains’ Exit Interview: Omarosa Claims Her ‘House Of Villains’ Win Was Unfairly Taken From Her

From the moment Omarosa stepped into the Villain’s Lair on E!’s House of Villains, it was clear that she knew how to play the game. The competition series have proved to be more than just a series of physical challenges, it’s essentially a 10-episode psychological battle between some of the most deceptive and outspoken reality stars ever. From day one, Omarosa was skilled at messing with her opponents’ heads (mostly Corinne Olympios‘s head) and using negotiation tactics instead of brute strength to stay in the game.

Alas, a hand injury (some might use air quotes when using this term) she sustained when Tanisha Thomas may or may not have hit her with a pan she was using as a tambourine prevented her from competing in this week’s challenge, and ultimately that led to her elimination. Decider spoke to Omarosa about having the win “taken from” her (as she puts it), and how she feels Tanisha received preferential treatment on the show, among other bold claims. (In response to many of Omarosa’s claims against House of Villains‘ production company, Irwin Entertainment, we have attempted to confirm what happened through show footage and additional research.)

DECIDER: From the very first moment you walked on screen, you seemed like the one contestant on this show that was ready to play some mental games, that was especially obvious the moment you met Corinne [Olympios] so I wanted to know, how did you prep for this show?

OMAROSA: I was really looking forward to being a part of this show. This is my 20th year on reality TV. And so I’m very excited to be on this project, and so in terms of preparation, I just, I didn’t really know who the cast was in advance. I just wanted to make sure that I was mentally ready because I was very determined to win this particular competition.

How would you say that your strategizing changed over time?

I think what throws my competitors off is that I tell them what I’m going to do. So with Corinne, I looked at her and I said, “I’m gonna get you out.” Using the truth has been a very good tactic for me. I mean, I think being outspoken throughout my career has put a bullseye on my back, but also has endeared me to a lot of people. And, I mean, that’s why I won two Villain of the Weeks and why I was on track to actually win this competition, until that was kind of taken from me. It’s not exactly how I saw the end would be and I think it’s terrible, what happened on this particular show has never happened to me in the history of my career. So needless to say, I’m, I’m pretty devastated.

I’ve spoken to some other housemates who say that they’re still great friends with the rest of the cast. And I’m wondering if the same holds true for you.

Oh, definitely. Jax [Taylor], and of course, Anfisa, my roommate. And then of course, we love Bobby [Lytes]. I think people were very surprised at how close we got and how much time we spent together.

There’s term that you actually made me aware of on this show, the idea of a floater. You used it against Tanisha, but I was wondering, do you consider Anfisa a floater? I know you’re friends with her, but was her silence actually her strategy?

Well, I’ll start with Tanisha, since you mentioned her first: She definitely was a floater, she was also helped a lot by production. This was a production company that she had worked with previously. [Ed. Note: A search revealed that theproduction company, Irwin Entertainment, didn’t work with Tanisha before House of Villains.] They gave her a lot of advantages and gave her insight on strategy and that sort of thing. And of course, saved her with the choir when she was about to be eliminated. So that gave her a great advantage. So she was able to be a floater. But when you have production behind you, you know, hiring choirs and changing the trajectory of the game, then of course, you’ll have a big advantage.

My roommate however, I think people misunderstood her quiet nature for her not being strategic. We talked game a lot and she came to me and said, “Look, I don’t know this, you know this style of American competitive reality shows. I’m ready to to learn.” The fact that she was willing to do the different things that she was willing to do makes me really happy with where she ends up in the competition, you know, as one of the real contender, she ends up above a lot of the vets.

Can you walk me through a little bit of what happened before you were about to get flipped in the chair, that was a dramatic moment when the strap was pressed up against you and you had to be unhooked.

I’ve never been quiet about being an asthmatic. You know, I shared with this production team coming in that I had asthma, and they treated me throughout the competition for my asthma. But the tent that we shot in, you could literally see your breath when you were talking, it was like 32 degrees. I don’t know if you know much about asthma. But when it’s very, very cold, it constricts your lungs. So to have somebody strap you in on top of that, it was terrible. I mean, it was just a really bad combination of things I wanted to do it just out to be a good sport, in spite of the things that happened to me with, you know, the assault, the violence, that sort of thing that I experienced, but I just couldn’t. And I’m glad I didn’t. At that point, the medics had just started to ignore me. So they weren’t giving me care on set. [Ed. Note: When Omarosa says she is uncomfortable in the elimination chair, the show depicts production staff and the medic take her concerns seriously and she is not forced to go through the wall. No one pushes back and she exits through the front door instead.]

It was the first time that I felt in my career that, you know, to even be on the receiving end of that type of treatment from, you know, a network and from a production company. So, yeah, this was probably the worst experience I’ve had in a production in my entire career. And I’m not bashing the network, because like I said, this was the production. But yeah, I’m glad that they showed it. And I think that anyone that’s being a part of these shows needs to be able to speak up and tell people when they’ve reached their threshold, or when they don’t feel safe. And that that needs to be respected. Because the last thing we want to do is to have people physically harmed on these shows. Production had pretty much turned their backs on me at that point and had been openly hostile, so I had to be my own advocate. [Ed. Note: In episode 7, a show producer meets with Omarosa and addresses her concerns. They agree to Omarosa and Tanisha staying 5 feet apart. When Omarosa requests to go to urgent care, production arranges the visit and you see her leave the house to get an x-ray. She returns to the house with a brace and says she received care.]

Are you talking about how the show questions the claims of your hand injury?

Anyone that’s reading your article needs to be clear, if they are subjected to workplace violence, whether that’s harassment, intimidation, threats, I mean, I’m surprised that they even aired Tanisha swinging at me, even though they tried to edit it like, oh, she missed, you should not be in the workplace, having somebody swing items at you. With full speed. It’s interesting, I still can’t believe that they decided to air it.

Because that still is a form of workplace violence, intimidation, threat, right? Those types of threats where people are even pretending like they’re going to harm you. But she wasn’t pretending, this girl hated me. She made it clear that she wanted to harm me. And she she went for it. So yeah, the fact that they mock it, they make fun of it. They violate my HIPAA rights, you know, talking about the medical stuff. I have to tell you, honestly, I’m pretty shocked about it.

I have to wrap up, but I just have one last question for you. I feel like you are one of those personalities that can get by with just one single name. Who else do you feel ranks with you in the world of iconic, single named celebrity?

I want to make it clear that in the history of my entire career, I have never quit one show. I never gave up. I never used laziness or a backdoor on any competition. I want you to look at my track record, I’ve never ever looked for a shortcut. In my entire career, I’ve gone up against the biggest, the baddest, and still, you know, remain standing. So this was extraordinary. When you talk about being a one-named personality, certainly that’s hard to do particularly with a very hard to pronounce African name. But I deliver every time I’m on screen and I tried to deliver here.

I’m just extraordinarily sad that I was a victim of the type of workplace violence that I was subjected to, and ultimately robbed of my chance of winning the prize because of that and because of the misogyny that I was subjected to by production, who did not hear my cries for help or even attend to me and like I said, became, quite frankly, openly hostile towards me.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.