In a revealing excerpt from her memoir My Good Side, shared with Entertainment Weekly, Scheana Shay, the beloved Vanderpump Rules star, pulls back the curtain on her scandalous affair with actor Eddie Cibrian while he was still married to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum Brandi Glanville. With raw honesty and vivid storytelling, Shay recounts the intoxicating early days of their relationship, the subtle red flags she missed, and the gut-wrenching moment she began to unravel Cibrian’s deceptive charm.
Scheana’s story begins in a bustling cigar lounge where she worked, a hotspot where Eddie Cibrian was a regular at the weekly poker games. Charismatic and unattached—or so it seemed—Eddie quickly caught Scheana’s eye. “He never wore a wedding ring, so I assumed he was single,” she writes. In the pre-social media era of 2006, there were no Instagram stories or family photos to tip her off. “Why would I have thought he was married?” she muses, reflecting on her naivety.
What started as a casual fling soon evolved into a weekly rendezvous. “Eddie wasn’t my boyfriend, at least not exclusively,” Scheana clarifies. “It was a booty call. He’d go home, and I’d go back to my life for the rest of the week.” Yet, Eddie’s boldness was undeniable. He paraded Scheana around in public, mingling with her friends and even introducing her to his best friend and his toddler son. “We were intertwining our families and the people closest to us,” she recalls, painting a picture of a relationship that felt real, even if it wasn’t exclusive.
Their adventures were glamorous—cruising on Eddie’s boat around Castaic Lake, snapping photos, and building what Scheana thought was a genuine connection. She never questioned why she never visited his Calabasas home. “I had less than $1,000 to my name in 2007, and Ubers didn’t exist,” she explains. “Hanging out in Beverly Hills or Hollywood was easier, and my place was more convenient.” Blinded by infatuation, Scheana saw no red flags.
The illusion began to crumble one fateful night at the cigar lounge. A concerned lounge member pulled Scheana aside with a warning: “I heard Eddie’s married.” Her world tilted. “I didn’t believe it—or maybe I didn’t want to,” she admits. After all, Eddie’s public displays of affection didn’t scream “secret mistress.” Still, doubt gnawed at her, leaving a “massive pit” in her stomach.
When Eddie arrived that night, he sensed her unease. Scheana, ever the people-pleaser, treaded lightly. Instead of confronting him directly, she sent a playful text: “Does something belong on your ring finger?” She hoped to soften the blow, terrified of rocking the boat with a man she was falling for. “I was young,” she reflects. “Writing ‘Are you married?’ felt too accusatory.”
Eddie’s response was a masterclass in manipulation. “No, that’s insane. Why would you ask me that?” he deflected, dismissing her concerns with ease. Scheana, trusting and smitten, bought into his denial. “It was gaslighting in its most basic form,” she writes, looking back with clarity. Despite the warning, she continued the relationship, caught in the web of Eddie’s charm and her own hope that their connection was real.
In My Good Side, Scheana Shay doesn’t shy away from exposing the emotional rollercoaster of her affair with Eddie Cibrian. Her candid account reveals a young woman swept up in a whirlwind romance, only to be blindsided by deception. With her signature vulnerability, Scheana invites readers into a chapter of her life marked by naivety, passion, and the painful truth that sometimes, love can blind us to the red flags waving right in front of us.