- "RHOSLC" star Lisa Barlow told Insider Whitney Rose's party-sabotaging accusation is "all a lie."
- Rose suggested Barlow sabotaged Angie Harrington's gala because of their burgeoning friendship.
- Barlow "felt ambushed" when Harrington confronted her over Rose's accusation on the last episode.
Lisa Barlow is setting the record straight after "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" costar Whitney Rose accused her of sabotaging a friend's charity gala: "It's all a lie. I did nothing wrong, I would never do that."
Barlow and Rose have had a rocky relationship from the first season of "RHOSLC," with Rose accusing Barlow of talking down to her — an accusation Barlow has repeatedly denied.
On last Sunday's episode of the Bravo reality show, Angie Harrington, Barlow's longtime friend and an "RHOSLC" newcomer, hosts a charity gala for LGBTQ youth. Ahead of the event, Harrington opens up to Barlow about how she's developed a friendship with Rose, and a little while later, Harrington says that her caterers for the event backed out.
In a separate conversation between Rose and Harrington shown during that episode, Rose suggests that Barlow might have sabotaged Harrington's event because of Harrington's newfound friendship with Rose. Later at the party, Harrington confronts Barlow about possibly having put pressure on the caterers to back out of the event. Barlow first denies the accusations in a heated conversation and then tearfully storms away from the party.
Speaking to Insider on Wednesday, Barlow said she "felt ambushed" by the party-sabotaging accusations. She added that she was "super excited" to go to Harrington's gala because the Vida owner is "very pro-LGBTQ."
"Then when I'm asked to have a conversation, I thought it was going to be something light between friends for multiple years," Barlow said about her chat with Harrington. "So I was shocked, blindsided."
She continued that when Harrington asked her if she'd made the caterers back out of the event, Barlow felt a "myriad of emotions."
Barlow told Insider she recalled thinking at the time: "Why does this have anything to do with me? What are you even talking about? There's amazing food being passed around. There's a room with catering and it's all displayed on a table."
Office managers for the caterers involved in the controversy — chefs Marco and Aubrey Niccoli — told Page Six on Wednesday that Barlow "had NOTHING to do with them not being able to do Angie's event — and Angie knows that."
"The truth is that they had just opened their restaurant and had prior commitments," the managers said.
The same day Aubrey Niccoli shared a text exchange between herself and Harrington on Instagram, writing that Harrington "completely fabricated this story to create a story line for herself."
"Lisa did NOT tell us to not do Angie's event. Never happened and she never would do something like that," the caption continued, in part.
Barlow also told Insider that catering for Harrington's event "wasn't a good business decision" for the Niccolis, something Aubrey Niccoli reiterated in her Instagram post. Barlow explained that "Marco had his brother cater the event," which is why there was food at the event after all, as shown in the episode.
Instead, Barlow held Rose responsible for the misunderstanding over the caterers and pointed at the strained relationship between the two women. But she also hinted that viewers might expect a possible reconciliation between herself and Rose.
"Whitney and I get to a much better place," Barlow said. "But I feel like for Whitney, if I hug Whitney, I need medication, which I'm not on. If I don't hug Whitney, I'm snubbing her. So I think she's always trying to figure out where Whitney is, every time I run into her."
