If there’s one thing the Zach Nichols Podcast does well, it’s talk about controversies. On a recent episode, Sarah Rice and Susie Meister discussed about their relationship with Kenny.
Susie acknowledges they get a lot of crap for it, but both Sarah and Susie firmly state that they love him.
Note: This article will address some touchy topics. I will interject at times with paragraphs beginning with “My thoughts.” To be clear, this is me editorializing and should not be taken as fact.
After this clip was posted, many fans criticized Sarah and Susie for defending someone who was accused of raping or sexually assaulting Tonya. Keep in mind, the alleged incident occurred 15 years ago while filming The Ruins. Sarah and Susie were on that season, but Zach was not.
Sarah and Susie insist that the illegal conduct never occurred, but Jemmye chimed into the conversation to post her opinions. Specifically, she called them “typical white women.”
Then, Jemmye shared a direct message from Susie.
In the message, Susie states that Jemmye is falsely accusing someone (Kenny, but presumably this applies to Evan too) of a felony. She is also upset that Jemmye is spreading rumors that portray Sarah and herself as rape apologists.
However, Susie states that she has been vocal about how men have behaved inappropriately on the show, sometimes being encouraged or rewarded. This conduct does not exclusively apply to Kenny and Evan, but they are included in the claim, and such inappropriate behavior did take place on The Ruins, specifically on the night when Tonya’s alleged assault occurred.
My thoughts: This has been an ongoing discussion for 15 years. With the revealed information, now might be a good time to clarify what “inappropriate” behavior actually occurred that night. EDIT: While the language in Susie’s DM to Jemmye is vague, she has shared her recollection of the incident, in detail, in the past.
Jemmye publicly responded to this message by stating that she firmly believes Kenny and Evan did “something” to Tonya. She stated that MTV settled with Tonya, and as part of the settlement, Kenny and Evan are banned. In Jemmye’s words, “the proof is in the pudding.” There have even been rumors that Sarah or Susie played a hand in deleting footage of the incident, but that rumor comes from a cast member who was not on The Ruins.
My thoughts: Jemmye has spoken about the case on her podcast, so I do believe she’s read legal documents about it. However, neither she nor Zach were present on The Ruins, nor were they active on Bunim Murray productions until a year or more after The Ruins wrapped filming. So, they will never have definite answers.
Later, Susie and Sarah would host a Patreon chat discussing the situation, during the conversation they said:
- They understand viewers’ perspectives, but cast members all knows what’s really happened
- There has not been a cast or production member who was on The Ruins that publicly stated Tonya was raped or assaulted, but Susie said there’s camera footage to prove Kenny and Evan’s innocence.*
- Susie stated that Kenny and Evan had to sign a lifelong NDA, so they can’t defend themselves.
- Cast members, including Wes, told Tonya she was assaulted, which is why Tonya was aware of the alleged incident. She was passed out when the accused misconduct occurred. For this reason, Susie understands why Tonya would believe the claims.
- It’s implied that people told Tonya she was assaulted as some type of game strategy
*My thoughts: Veronica has publicly stated that “the accused” blame her “case testimony” for getting banned. This seems like a fairly public statement — and she was on The Ruins with Tonya. However, it’s a recent claim, so Sarah and Susie may not have been aware of it.
At this point, over a decade after the incident happened, it’s unlikely we’ll get any significant answers. Over the years, Sarah and Susie have been steadfast in denying accusations of rape or sexual assault. However, there were people on the set of The Ruins that have never spoken about the incident. But, it is a very sensitive topic and cast members likely don’t want to discuss an incident that could be emotionally damaging to Tonya. I have avoided talking about the incident in many occasions, and have only opted to summarize this discourse because it has been discussed on public forums.
Stop Being Polite 
Jemmye calling them “typical white women” when she herself is a “typical woke white woman” is honestly so ironic
She’s right though and woke doesn’t even mean what you think it means but go off.
I’m not sure you actually understand what woke means.
let’s be real there was some kind of abuse that took place, big companies such as Bunin Murray aren’t going to settle out of court if nothing ever occurred. There also wouldn’t be a lifetime ban on them ever returning if there wasn’t a reason, believe me it had to have gone farther than just bullying. This is just friends trying to cover for their friends to keep them out of trouble. The whole argument that it didn’t occur while they were around doesn’t mean it didn’t occur just that they weren’t there when it did.
I doubt there were any eye witnesses other than Kenny, Evan and Tonya, so anyone other than those three saying something are making summations and not telling first hand witness information. Those who don’t like Kenny or Evan and have seen the way they acted on other occasions, can justifiably say they believe the accusations.
Those who are friends of Even and Kenny believe their friends when they say nothing happened and there is no proof.
Whether or not there was any recordings of the incident or not only the production team know. If you had a company and had two employees like Evan and Kenny who definitely pushed boundaries and they are accused of raping someone, then you would do what they did because they are wide open to a massive lawsuit if they had let Kenny and Evan come back and something similar happened.
There are always multiple layers to a story like this, each side has their own prejudices or favorites in the discussion.
my understanding is that the only reason Kenny and Evan haven’t been brought back is that production could no longer get them or Tonya insured after the case became public. Otherwise you’d probably have seen one or all of them on All Stars along with some bullshiiiit cathartic moment.
outside of this case.. i rarely here storys of ACTUAL rape victims, decide to take the money and let the (accusers off with a scotch free record) THE BOTTOM line is, Tonya made the decsion for this not to be viewed as True. She did NOT have to Settle.. As EVERYONE in the cast acknowledges. Just like Susie Said. INNAPROPRIATE behavior was certainly present, but Rape was NOT..
there is no arrest . And each of them have Records that are clean according to the United States Judicial system.
SO how about we respect our system and 15 years later, people stop spreading runors they have no factual evidence of like high school girls gossping
Like everyone else, I do not know what is or is not true in this situation. That aside, this comment is extremely concerning as a victim.
Out of 1000 perpetrators of SA, only 50 will be arrested. Of those 50, 28 lead to felony conviction. Of those 28 convictions, 25 will be incarcerated.
That means an absurd number of victims will see no justice in the criminal court system.
In many cases, including my own, the assault is not immediately reported. I was not mentally ready to report it but did so because the statutes of limitations in my state was quickly approaching. There was no physical evidence or witnesses. Given criminal court has a much higher burden of truth than civil court, and my abuser was not going to admit to it, I was not going to see any justice through the criminal system. The only accountability I could hope for was through civil court. I didn’t care about the money. I cared about accountability in whatever way I could see it. Civil court was the only way to punish him. Settling is the only semblance of acknowledgement of what happened I ever got after years of personal hell. A victim settling out of court is usually due to suffering prolonged mental trauma as they relive the assault over the course of years. Settling still punishes the perpetrator and allows us to move on.
My story is not unique.
My intent is not to personally attacking the OC. A lot of people simply don’t realize how awful the numbers are when it comes to the justice system in cases of SA because they never had to deal with it. I just want it to be known that what this person asserts is inaccurate. Actual victims often do settle in civil court. We’re lucky if that even happens. What is rare is for someone to falsely accuse another of SA. However rare it is, it can happen, so I do believe in due diligence. I don’t know what the truth is in this case. We cannot treat assumptions as fact. It just has to be applied both ways.
It’s actually adorable that you think that all rapists are held accountable for their actions. A) you weren’t there and B) it’s clear that you have no idea how many rapists get away with their deeds.
I like Jemmye that she’s messy and isn’t afraid to speak up, but it just gets exhausting that she always has to give her two cents worth to something nobody asked her about or that she’s not involved with. Clearly something happened on The Ruins that warranted lawsuits, settlements, bans, and NDA’s to be involved to all parties. It’s been 15 years. We’re never going to get a definitive answer as to what happened.
every attempt they make at defending kenny makes me more disgusted than the previous one
Just to clarify, they didn’t HAVE to sign anything. They made a choice to sign an NDA knowing they wouldn’t be able to defend themselves.