Lala Kent is finally speaking out about the rumors that she had a falling out with former assistant Jessica Walter.
“How funny that Jess texted me over the weekend and she sent me a clip of the podcast that we all used to do together,” Kent, 35, said during the Wednesday, May 27, episode of her “Untraditionally Lala” podcast after a fan asked whether she was “still friends” with Walter. “And she was like, ‘This just popped up in my memories. I miss you. This is where I live now. If you’re ever in the area, we should get a coffee.’”
Kent was thrilled to hear from Walter.
“I was like, ‘I miss you so much, all the time, every day,’” she noted. “I love and adore Jessica more than anything. I [recently] did a podcast [episode] about what friendships I feel went south, and I’m not saying that Jess and I … whatever happened, happened. But I miss her so much.”
While Kent didn’t specify what exactly occurred, she hinted at what contributed to her no longer working with Walter. “What happened was time did not align with everything. That’s called life,” she said. “It just didn’t happen, and I want the best for her, but I miss her so much.”
Kent originally revealed Walter’s unexpected departure from her assistant role on her “Give Them Lala” podcast in November 2024. Vanderpump Rules fans later questioned whether the pair were at odds.
“It’s so wild because it’s like, ‘Where were you when she was on the podcast?’ Nowhere to be found. All I heard was, ‘Get her off.’ At the end of the day, she was my employee,” Kent said on the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast in December 2024. “She wanted to go and move on with her life. And I would be, like, a crazy person to not say, ‘Go and achieve everything you want to achieve.’ I don’t know how to break this down.”
Kent clarified she had no plans to have Walter share her side of the story on the “Give Them Lala” podcast.
“At the end of the day, she was employed by Lala Kent. You’re no longer employed. I wish you the best. Have a great life,” she added. “I’ve learned a lot in many relationships in my life, from my ex-fiancé, to certain friends that I’ve had, to employees that I’ve had. Every single thing that I’ve experienced in the past two to three years, I have learned something from. I don’t regret anything, but I know how to make things different.”
Walter, for her part, revealed her sudden disappearance from Kent’s podcast and life was not planned.
“I want to address who I think are a majority of the people tuning in right now, who I’m very grateful for. And those are my loves. Those are my friends who know me from the last podcast I was on, [‘Give Them Lala’],” she said during the debut of her “Date My” podcast in January 2025. “I want to take this moment to address you guys because I seemingly disappeared off that last podcast.”
Walter wanted to give an “explanation” for why she was “suddenly gone,” adding, “First thing I’ll say is no, I was not at all expecting to leave. That wasn’t the plan. If I’m gonna be honest, I thought I’d be at that last job forever. I was, like, ready to be a lifer. Maybe not in the role I was in, but I’ll say within the company I was in.”
After her time with Kent, Walter noted that she “invested everything” she had — professionally and personally — into her job.
“I was investing in a future that I thought we were all on the same page about,” she continued. “Basically, what happened is I said how I felt about the way some things were being handled, and the response I got to that was, in my opinion, not good. The responses I got, honestly, I was taken aback.”
Walter recalled feeling “heartbroken” by the reaction, saying, “I found myself in a position where I felt like I had no other option than to choose to leave.”
While addressing the current state of her friendship with Walter on Wednesday, Kent acknowledged that her former assistant “wanted things,” but the timing wasn’t right.
“I so desperately wanted to give her all of those things, but the timing was not allowing it,” she noted. “If she could have held on another eight months to a year … I’m not kidding you. It would have been so different. But the thing is she wanted to go.”
Kent concluded: “I love her. I miss her. She is one of my most favorite people still to this day.”
