Inside Jen Shah's marriage, childhood, and arrest, as she's sentenced

When The premiered in 2020, became a sensation practically overnight – thanks to her outspoken personality and uncanny ability to cause drama.

Her frequent – and explosive – blowouts with fellow castmates were soon a focal point of the Bravo show, as well as her extreme spending habits.

The reality star, now 49, throughout the reality series – toting around designer purses, bragging about taking private jet rides, buying her co-stars expensive jewelry pieces, and throwing glamorous parties.

But her life of luxury was blown apart when it was revealed that she had built her wealth on an elaborate scam – and while the mother-of-two did her Best Private University to keep up her image of exuberant glamour, it all came crashing down when in connection to a $5 million telemarketing scam.

It was later brought to light that , most of whom were elderly, out of hundreds of thousands of dollars each.

The scams – which were perpetrated with the help of her assistant Stuart Smith – involved promising business coaching to some victims and selling others’ details on what she referred to as ‘lead lists’. 

Once they were placed on such a list, the victims – either through lack of knowledge or technological aptitude – were unable to unsubscribe, and were hooked into never-ending payments 

The scheme has now landed the former TV star behind the bars, with after pleading guilty in July of last year.

During the legal proceedings, it was also revealed that many of Jen’s designer handbags and opulent jewelry pieces – which she spent years flaunting on the show – were actually fake.

It was a shock revelation that stunned fans of the show, many of whom had come to idolize the 49-year-old’s seemingly-lavish wardrobe, much of which she proudly flaunted on the hit Bravo series. 

The news also proved even further that the ostentatious and glamorous person who once reigned the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City was a far cry from the real Jen.

So who is she exactly? Jen grew up in a strict Mormon household, but converted to Islam after becoming pregnant in college and marrying a fellow student named Sharrieff Shah, who went on to become a coach at the University of Utah.

Jen said she was ‘poor’ during her childhood, but by the time she auditioned for Real Housewives, she thanks to her excessive shopping habits.

As Jen is sentenced to more than six years in prison, FEMAIL has revealed the truth about the TV sensation. 

How did she go from a poverty-stricken new mother to someone who could flit away thousands of dollars in an instant? And how much of it was an act to propel her into the spotlight and fuel her fraudulent business? 

From her religious upbringing and marriage to Sharrieff to her rise to fame and the arrest that ultimately ended her career – here’s everything you need to know about the shamed star.

Religious upbringing: Jen grew up with strict Mormon parents – who weren’t happy when became pregnant in college

Jen, who is of Tongan and Hawaiian descent, spent her childhood Salt Lake City, Utah, with strict, Mormon parents.

She previously opened up about growing up as a Mormon and a woman of color, stating in an episode of Real Housewives that she had to ‘work 20 times harder than her male counterparts.’

‘It was difficult just because I was different and a lot of people thought I was Black growing up because they didn’t know,’ she recalled.

‘They just knew if you’re not white, you’re Black, and so that’s just what they thought. I had to work 20 times harder than my male counterparts here, not only because of me being a minority but the religion too. 

‘That was hard. It’s like, if somebody could choose every single way to be different than where they’re at, that’s basically what I did.’

Jen met and fell for her future husband, Sharrieff, when they both attended University of Utah, with him stating on the series that his ‘heart stopped immediately’ when he saw her for the first time.

‘We had a class together. I walk up to her, “Is that seat taken?” She looks at me like, “There’s nobody there. I guess not.” That’s how we met,’ he said.

But things turned complicated early on in their relationship. 

During an appearance on the  in November 2020, she recalled dreading having to tell her religious parents that she was expecting a baby before getting married.

She said she waited until just a few months before her due date before she worked up the nerve to share the news with them. 

‘The second I find out I am devastated because I’m like, “You don’t understand. My life just ended. This is against everything I’ve been,”‘ she said.

They welcomed Sharrieff Shah Jr. in 1994, and tied the knot that same year. Their second son, Omar Shah, was born in 2003.

After becoming a mom, Jen converted from Mormon to Islam – her husband’s religion – explaining on Real Housewives that she made the decision for the sake of her kids.

She said she also decided to switch religions after discovering that Mormons didn’t accept black people into their church until the late 1970s. 

‘When I was about five years into my marriage, we already had our first son and it was time to start thinking about how we are going to raise him under one religion,’ she explained.

‘It was important to me that we had consistency, I didn’t want my son to be confused with what mommy is practicing and what dad is practicing.

‘So I told my husband, I just assumed he would convert to Mormonism and that’s when he was like, “Well, no because they didn’t accept Black people into the Mormon church until like the late 1970s.”

‘I initially didn’t believe him because I had never heard that and I grew up in the church. 

‘So I went to do some research and asked for guidance and the questions to be answered from my bishop and my mom – and nobody could really give me an answer other than, “That’s just how it was.”

‘And so at that time I just didn’t feel comfortable. I didn’t feel that I could continue subscribing to a religion that didn’t accept my husband and my kids.’

Rags to riches: Despite claiming that she grew up ‘poor,’ Jen bragged about spending $50K a month during her Real Housewives audition

While Jen’s lawyer stated during the trial that Jen ‘grew up poor,’ by the time that she auditioned for Real Housewives, she bragged about spending $50,000 a month.

‘I probably spend at least 50 grand a month,’ she said said in her audition tape, as footage of her family traveling on a private jet flashed across the screen. 

‘We live in a gated community. There are like 20 pieces of luggage when we travel and like maybe 17 of them are mine.’ 

In the clip, Jen explained that she was working in ‘online marketing’ at the time, but didn’t share any further details. 

Federal prosecutors say the fraud that Shah is guilty of began as early as 2012 – long before she started showing off her wealth on reality TV.  

At the time, her husband, Sharrieff, had recently become the assistant football coach at the University of Utah.

Sharrieff previously worked as an attorney for 12 years, while also serving as a sideline reporter and an NFL Player Association agent. 

He then decided to stop his legal work and focus on coaching full time in 2012. And in 2019, it was that he earned roughly $491,168 per year as a coach.

Even so, according to fashion designer Koa Johnson – who was once employed by Jen as a stylist – much of her exhibited wealth was actually a front.

‘She was definitely very secretive on a lot of things,’ he said in a Hulu documentary about her, entitled The Housewife & the Shah Shocker. 

‘The items that you see, like the fur coats, they’re not owned by her. And any of the large jewelry that you see on her, those are leased and borrowed as well.

‘Did Jen Shah drive around in a Porsche? Yes. Is she driving a Porsche now? No. Why? Well, it wasn’t her Porsche, that’s not her car.’

It was also revealed after her arrested that Jen owned more than 30 fake luxury bags – which were aimed to resemble products from high-end brands like Balenciaga, Chanel, Fendi, Gucci, Hermes, Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton, and Valentino – as well as around 40 pieces of counterfeit jewelry.

Branching out: Jen used her newfound fame from the reality show to launched numerous other business ventures

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City premiered in November 2020, and Jen was one of the original seven cast members – and she quickly shot to fame thanks to her flashy, direct, and honest personality.

And according to Jen, what you saw on the show was the real her. She once told Page Six, ‘I think people would probably say I bring the most drama, but I’m just reacting how I normally would. 

‘Yeah, I’m going to get pissed and throw glass. Like, that’s normally how I would react.’ 

During her time in the Bravo show, Jen also shamelessly flaunted her wealth, gifting her co-stars with diamond necklaces and throwing lavish parties in their honor.

She was never without a designer outfit or handbag, and boasted about the size of her walk-in closets on numerous occasions. 

Her extreme spending and massive blowouts with her castmates quickly became focal points of the popular reality show, and she used her newfound fame to branch out and launch other business ventures. 

She went on to start her own clothing company, called JXA Fashion, which sold a series of designer masks and dresses, as well as a skincare line, called Shah Beauty, which focused on ‘anti-aging formulas to help you enjoy beautiful healthy skin.’

She had also teased a third endeavor, called The Real Shah Lashes, before her arrest – but it never launched.

Crumbling down: Behind-the-scenes, she was secretly scamming hundreds of people through a vast, nine-year laundering scheme

It was first revealed in March 2021 that Jen had been arrested, along with her assistant Stuart, in connection with a vast money laundering scheme, which spanned across at least five states and involved hundreds of victims.

Jen and Stuart would offer clients ‘coaching sessions,’ promising to improve their online businesses and make them more profitable – but the pair never intended to earn any of the promised return on their investments.

They then sold the victims’ information to telemarketing companies, which would in turn try to sell them more services – like tax preparation, social media boosting, and website design.

The victims would be lured into a never-ending payments or subscriptions service which they couldn’t, or didn’t know how to, get out of – and they never received any of the promised services. 

 The scheme started in 2012 and went on for nine years until March 2021 – when they were arrested.

For more than a year, Jen denied the charges. She insisted that she’d been wrongly accused and her fight for freedom became her storyline on the latest series of the show. 

However, in July 2022, Jen plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and vowed to raise $6.5 million in restitution to return to the victims, which she said she intended to do from prison.

Addressing the court at the time, the reality star said that she ‘knew it was wrong’ and that she was ‘so sorry’ for the ‘many people’ who were harmed. 

When asked by US District Judge Stein if she understood that what she was doing was illegal, Shah replied, ‘Yes, your honor.’

She admitted to ‘committing wire fraud,’ ‘misrepresenting the value of the service’ she was offering, and ‘misleading’ the victims.

Her lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, told DailyMail.com at the time: ‘Ms. Shah is a good woman who crossed a line. 

‘She accepts full responsibility for her actions and deeply apologizes to all who have been harmed. 

‘Ms. Shah is also sorry for disappointing her husband, children, family, friends, and supporters. 

‘Jen pled guilty because she wants to pay her debt to society and put this ordeal behind her and her family.’ 

She was then sentenced to six-and-a-half years behind bars on Friday. She must present herself to be taken to prison on February 17, and will serve her term in a facility in Texas.

During sentencing, Jen sobbed as she read a statement to the court, claiming her reality TV persona was nothing more than an act. 

She also claimed she had ‘longstanding untreated mental issues’ that caused her to ‘create her own reality.’ 

‘You and the world know me as Jen Shah. But reality TV has nothing to do with reality, even my tagline, Shah-mazing – they wrote it,’ she said.

‘I want to speak about who I am. I stand before you as an immigrant from Tonga and Hawaii.

‘Their principles are humility and loyalty and respect and I have come to terms [with the fact that] I have gone against these. 

‘I am sorry. My actions have hurt innocent people. I want to apologize by saying, I am doing all I can to earn the funds to pay restitution.

‘Longstanding untreated mental issues caused me to create my own fractured reality.

‘This is a crucible moment for me. With the proper medication I can now see what happened.’