Mary Cosby believes Jen Shah is a “stain” on “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” — and looks forward to a time when her memory is wiped clean from the Bravo reality show.
“I’m just trying to get, like, the stain off the show from her, trying to re-innovate the show,” the preacher, 51, told us Tuesday night at a DIRECTV Christmas party hosted at Kathy Hilton’s Bel Air mansion.
Cosby, who rejoined the series as a “friend of” the cast this year following a season hiatus, added that she wants to “create a whole ‘nother place … a safe place” for the cast.
She hopes the group — including Meredith Marks, Heather Gay, Lisa Barlow, Whitney Rose, Angie Katsanevas, Monica Garcia and herself — won’t have to discuss Shah, 50, in future seasons.
“That’s what I’m aiming for,” emphasized Cosby.
When reached by Pvnew via her rep, Chris Giovanni, Shah replied from prison, “Thank you but no comment for the girl who married her grandfather.”
Cosby married her step-grandfather, Robert Cosby Sr., through a provision outlined in the will of her late grandmother, who wanted the future reality star to take control of the family’s controversial Faith Temple Pentecostal Church. She and Robert Sr. have been together for more than 20 years and share an adult son named Robert Jr.
Shah, meanwhile, is currently incarcerated for scamming countless elders in a widespread telemarketing scheme.
Notably, newbie Garcia, 40, previously worked for Shah, a fact that came up during the first portion of “RHOSLC” Season 4.
On a more recent episode — during which Garcia butted heads with Barlow, 48, and Gay, 49 — the former huffed that Shah “never had anything nice to say” about the latter two, a claim she used in a confessional to enforce her developed disdain for the women.
Before Garcia entered the fray, Shah’s path to prison was documented on Season 3 of the unscripted hit. Presently, she is serving a six-and-a-half year sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas — where she is helping fellow fraudster Elizabeth Holmes get in shape.
Pvnew exclusively reported this week that Shah is running workout classes in the prison yard.
She has reinvented herself as “Jen Fonda” and has come up with a 30- to 60-minute ab workout class she calls “Shah-mazing,” her longtime manager Chris Giovanni raved to us.
“She created it in prison. It started off as something she was doing to improve her fitness,” Giovanni shared.
“As she went in, she lost a good amount of weight. She developed the Shah-mazing abs class. … All the ladies started coming up to her on the yard and they would do workout segments.”
He also confirmed that Theranos swindler Holmes, 39, “attended with other inmates.”
“It’s become a thing in there,” the rep continued. “Jen Fonda, that’s her nickname in there.”
When asked to share her opinion on Shah’s rebrand, Cosby told Pvnew, “Good for her. Make the best of what you’ve got. Good for her.”
Cosby and Shah memorably clashed throughout their tenure together on “RHOSLC.”
Their fight over Cosby’s disdain for “hospital smell” — apparently a lingering scent on Shah following the amputation of one her aunt’s limbs — established major conflict during 2020’s inaugural season.
“Out of everyone, I had the most and too much [of Shah’s drama] and I’m good,” Cosby told us, asserting that she would “never” take a fitness class from the jailbird.
“No, I’m not taking anything from Jen Shah,” she stated. “Bless her heart. I know she’s doing what she needs to do.”
Cosby was one of many Bravolebrities at Hilton’s holiday celebration.
Her “RHOSLC” co-stars Marks, 51, Rose, 37, and Katsavenas, 49 also came out for the festivities, as well as Scheana Shay, Larsa Pippen, Guerdy Abraira, and Emily Simpson, plus Hilton’s sisters, Kyle and Kim Richards.
“The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
