Look Back At Lisa Barlow, Meredith Marks' Friendship, Fights, & Reconciliation
The RHOSLC besties got into a multi-season fight, but things are looking up for their relationship.
When Bravo fans were first introduced to the cast of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City in Season 1, Lisa Barlow and Meredith Marks seemed like an inseparable duo.
Fast forward to Season 2, and Meredith had fully disengaged from the friendship after Lisa delivered perhaps the most infamous hot mic moment in Bravo history.
But after many apologies from Lisa, they’ve been able to turn things around in a major way in Season 4 (despite the occasional snag). Here’s what to know about Lisa and Meredith’s friendship.
In RHOSLC Season 1, Lisa Barlow and Meredith Marks were close friends
When RHOSLC premiered, Lisa and Meredith were great friends. “Lisa and I were set up on a friendship blind date when I first moved to Utah,” Meredith explained in the premiere episode. “We were there for hours and hours.” Lisa and Meredith remained close throughout the remainder of the season.
In RHOSLC Season 2, Lisa Barlow was caught in an incriminating hot mic moment
The January 30, 2022 episode of RHOSLC was one for the Bravo history books as Lisa got caught in a surprising hot mic moment. It all went down after the ladies’ Cinco de Mayo dinner, in which Lisa wasn’t feeling supported by her longtime pal Meredith.
“This is so upsetting to me because you turn a blind eye to the way everybody treats me," Lisa expressed in an interview during the episode, later adding, "You don't have to speak for me; just have my back."
Lisa eventually decided to get up from the table and exit the dinner. "I'm leaving. What Meredith just did is so f-cked up," an emotional Lisa could be heard saying as she walked back inside the house. "I am f-cking done."
The episode ended with a rather intense moment as a hot mic picked up Lisa making some claims about Meredith, her family, and her home behind a closed door.
Meredith Marks stopped by WWHL the night Lisa Barlow’s hot mic episode aired
At the time of the hot mic moment, Meredith was completely unaware of the things Lisa said. But when the episode aired, Meredith got to hear it with the rest of the world, and she was shocked. That night, she stopped by Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen to react.
Host Andy Cohen asked Meredith what she thinks she "did to trigger that reaction" from Lisa. "So, it's interesting. I'm trying to still decipher that," Meredith said. When asked if Meredith had "any idea Lisa had any of these feelings," Meredith said that there were "certain clues." However, Lisa's comments were "far beyond anything I could've ever imagined," according to Meredith, who added, "It's just, like, incomprehensible."
Lisa Barlow apologized to Meredith Marks at the Season 2 reunion
Meredith also saw the hot mic episode for the first time the night before the RHOSLC ladies were set to film the Season 2 reunion. "I should point out, you saw this episode the day before we shot the reunion. So just for all you watching at home, you will see basically a very raw reaction from you as you enter the reunion," Andy said of Meredith on WWHL in January 2022. "And then you and Lisa sat down together for the first time since you saw the footage. So, there you go. That's what happens at the reunion."
Of course, at the reunion, there was lots of tension. “I just wanted to come over here and say I am beyond sorry,” cameras caught Lisa telling Meredith during a break. “I did not ever mean to hurt you.” But Meredith was not ready to move on.
Lisa Barlow apologized again in RHOSLC Season 3
During a Season 3 cast trip, Lisa attempted to make amends again. “Meredith, again, I owe you an apology. I apologized in L.A. and I want to say it again,” Lisa said. “What I said was hyperbolic. I do not mean them. I apologize for them. I don’t think those things. I was very hurt and I said things that I regret and I regret my poor choice of words.”
But Meredith was still upset. “You don’t regret what you said but only your choice of words?” she clapped back. “I never fully trusted you and now I know why.”
In Season 3, Lisa also said Meredith was spreading false rumors about her.
In November 2022, Meredith Marks said she’s “disengaging from Lisa Barlow”
During a November 2022 episode of WWHL, Meredith explained more about why she wasn’t ready to accept Lisa’s apology. “She refused to explain the behavior, like the underlying causes. She refused to give me any reassurance that it wouldn’t really happen again, other than saying, ‘I won’t do it again,’” Meredith said. “I’m done with it. I’m disengaging from Lisa Barlow at this point, because she’s continued to make excuses for her behavior. An apology that has excuses attached to it is not an apology.”
The same month, Lisa got to say her piece at the clubhouse as well. “I’ve apologized a bunch of times,” Lisa said. “She wants an explanation, but if I explain it, it’s an excuse. So she can stay disengaged. Disengaging is so 2020, though.”
Meredith Marks explained what she needs from Lisa Barlow to move forward
In a January 2023 episode of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Season 3 After Show, Meredith shared more about why she wasn’t ready to move on from her fight with Lisa yet. “I was hoping to find a level of understanding of her behavior,” she said. “That didn’t happen. All I’ve heard about it is how many times she’s apologized. But talk to any therapist — an apology coupled with excuses is not an apology.”
Things escalated further at the RHOSLC Season 3 reunion
During the Season 3 reunion, Meredith explained that there was more to the story of her fallout with Lisa. “My issues with Lisa today have nothing to do with her childish tantrum. After Arizona, we were in a neutral space,” Meredith says, referencing the cast’s Season 3 trip to Phoenix. “Shortly thereafter, I come to find that Lisa had removed me as a follower on her Instagram and was hiding her Stories from me.”
That’s not what sent Meredith “completely over the edge,” though. “[At the] reunion last year, I explained that I was very hurt by Lisa that I didn’t hear from her when my father passed away,” Meredith said. “And Lisa went to Twitter and posted a lot of text messages that actually occurred a month later to make it look like I was lying when I had already been traumatized enough about my father’s death, where she had already created confusion over dates.”
She continued, “That to me was just, like, ‘Really? We’re gonna go here again with something that was so raw and so painful to me?’ I couldn’t understand the rationale and I thought, ‘This is not someone who wants to move forward with me in a positive direction.’”
Lisa Barlow and Meredith Marks started RHOSLC Season 4 on the path to reconciliation
Going into Season 4 of RHOSLC, Lisa was hoping to make amends with Meredith — and for the first time, it seemed like there was a light at the end of the tunnel. In a September 2023 interview with E! News (which happened after the season wrapped filming but before it aired) Meredith said that she and Lisa are “definitely better” than the previous year, but their friendship is still a work in progress. “We're real people with real feelings and so there are times where you see ups and downs,” she added.
In the season premiere, Meredith and Lisa agreed to have a conversation, which fans got to see play out in Episode 2. “I feel like over the last few years we’ve had trouble,” Meredith told Lisa during a walk in a park. “We’ve had this long relationship and I think we’ve both made mistakes. We both have regrets. I think we both are sorry for things we’ve done, said, whatever.”
Lisa Barlow and Meredith Marks’ Drama with Angie Katsanevas and Monica Garcia
However, as the season progressed, Lisa and Meredith found themselves on opposite ends of disagreements among the group. Lisa was close pals with Angie Katsanevas, and Meredith did not get along with Angie. Lisa then became uncomfortable when Meredith alluded to “the rumors and nastiness” going around Salt Lake City about Angie.
Later, in Episode 12, Lisa told Meredith that conversation about Angie had been “triggering” for her, given the rumors Meredith had once spread about her, and that it had caused her to “pump the breaks” with Meredith a bit.
Then, during the group trip to Bermuda in Episode 14, Monica Garcia told Lisa that Meredith had told her that she had Instagram DMs with damaging information about Angie.
The situation didn’t sit well with Lisa, considering Meredith had also allegedly received “random DMs” that were making allegations last year: “It’s Meredith’s intention to damage Angie’s friendships, relationships, reputation,” she said in an interview.
Later in the episode — during Monica’s pirate-themed birthday dinner — Angie confronted Meredith about the DMs in front of all the women.
“You’re lying about this. You’re sending her the f-cking DMs,” Lisa told Meredith. “If one more f-cking DM shows up, I will have my cyber security team go the distance on it.”
In Episode 15, Lisa doubled down during a screaming match on a catamaran, telling Meredith, “You’re hurting good people.”
The rest of the ladies sided with Monica, Angie, and Lisa against Meredith, while Meredith continued to deny the accusations that she was behind the DMs to Monica.
Moments later, much to the confusion of the other women, Lisa and Meredith were copasetic once again.
That night at dinner, Lisa and Meredith explained their quick reconciliation. “It’s like a sister thing,” Lisa said. “Me and my sisters fight all the time.”
Meredith told Lisa: “I made a choice when we reconciled our friendship to accept who you are and part of who you are is you get heated, you have a bit of a meltdown sometimes, and you move forward.”
Originally published Sep 23, 2023.
