‘RHOSLC’ Star Monica Garcia Says Her Only Fake Louis Vuitton Bag Was Given to Her by Former ‘Boss’ Jen Shah (Exclusive)

Monica Garcia never said she was poor. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star had a lot to offer right off the bat when she introduced herself at the start of Season 4. She's a divorcee who was excommunicated from the Mormon church because of an affair with her brother-in-law. She was once Jen Shah's assistant and was called in as a federal witness in the latter's fraud case. And of course, she felt like she had to buy a Louis Vuitton bag just to fit in with the other SLC ladies on a trip to Palm Springs, which set some people off on the internet. 

"Everyone's like, 'She's making it seem like she's poor!' All I was saying was I felt pressure for the first time in my life to have nice things in order to fit in with the group," Monica Garcia, who owns the company Brea Baby, told The Messenger exclusively. "It wasn't about being poor, it was more so about the pressure that women can feel in order to fit in with a new group of other women."

Some on the internet also tried to claim her bag was not, in fact, a real Louis Vuitton. Monica disputes that, even if she does happen to own a fake bag, which she received as a hilariously sketchy gift from a former "employer." 

"The only fake Louis I have ever owned was the one Jen Shah gave me," she said. "Let me just go out here and say that my Louis was purchased brand new from a store. I have the receipts. Take that and check it. Only fake thing I've ever been given was from Jen Shah."

Monica never appeared on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City alongside Jen, who is now in prison, but in the first episode of Season 4, we learned that she knew the former housewife quite well when she briefly worked for her. 

"So, Jen had fired her assistant, and I stepped in to help her, and one night, Jen asked me, 'Do you want to be rich? Do you want to make $600,000 a year? All you have to do is put this, this and this in your name,'" Monica explained during the premiere. "I remember being so weirded out, like what? It was very bizarre. And I have a friend in the Secret Service, and I called him, and he said, 'Get the f— away from Jen Shah — she's going to prison.' And she was arrested two months later. And that was how I became a witness with the federal government in her trial."

While that's how it was phrased on screen, Monica is now trying to clear things up a bit. 

"Okay, so I did not work for Jen," she clarified. "I'm pretty sure you have to be on a payroll, and, I don't know, make money from someone in order to be considered working for them."

She also was not an informant or a key witness, and Monica has faced criticism from viewers who see her as a "rat."

"I wasn't a rat, because I was subpoenaed as a witness in a federal trial," she explained. "I'm a mother of four young daughters, and if I'm subpoenaed, I'm not going to prison for anybody at all. I was forced to be a witness…and I never ended up testifying, because there was no trial." 

Before Jen pled guilty and the trial was canceled, Monica was "flown back and forth between Utah and New York" to talk to the prosecution, and she described it as "overwhelming."

"This was real, at the end of the day. I know people give reality TV a lot of like, 'Is this scripted? Is this even real?' But Jen's situation was one hundred percent real," she shared. "I also am not going to sit here and dismiss the fact that she was my friend, and I did care about her greatly. I think anyone can say that she can be an amazing friend. She can be so fun…It's not like it was all bad, but unfortunately, I was around for some things that the government was like, 'We may need you to testify.' I don't know if people really understand. You don't get to say no when you're subpoenaed." 

Monica said she hasn't spoken to Jen since two months before the arrest, but she does still have that fake Louis Vuitton bag.

As for the real bag, it will get its day in the sun. "I'm going to bring it to the reunion," Monica revealed. "The Louis is going to have its own seat right next to me at the reunion." And thanks to Jen, there's an empty chair!

The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Bravo and is available to stream next day on Peacock.