It’s only been two weeks since the Jessica Mulroney-Sasha Exeter story exploded. To recap, Exeter was doing Black Lives Matter IG posts and making the argument that everyone should support BLM. Jessica took it personally and tried to destroy Exeter’s career as an Instagram influencer. Sasha came out with the receipts, and Jessica was allowed to “step away” from all of her jobs on Canadian and American TV shows and such. Just this week, Jessica’s racist crap ended up affecting her husband Ben Mulroney too – he stepped down from eTalk, the popular Canadian talk show he’s been hosting for 18 years. In his resignation, he said he hoped he would be replaced by a woman of color, basically.
In the wake of the Mulroney scandal, we also heard that the Mulroneys might be taking names of their critics and that revenge is a dish best served cold. It sounded entirely plausible for an insular society in Toronto, where the Mulroneys are big fish in a little pond. But here’s something a little bit smarter: the Mulroneys have likely hired a crisis manager.
Making moves. Jessica Mulroney is taking steps to recover from her racially charged spat with influencer Sasha Exeter.
“Jessica has hired a big crisis PR team to deal with all of this backlash against her,” a source tells Us Weekly exclusively. “She’s been talking to lawyers, image experts and crisis PR teams. She has been having a lot of them over to her house to brainstorm and find a way to put this behind her.”
The stylist, 40, came under fire earlier this month after Exeter alleged that Mulroney threatened legal action against her amid a public feud on social media. “As some of you may have seen, @sashaexeter and I had a disagreement,” Mulroney wrote in a statement posted to Instagram on June 11. “She rightfully called me out for not doing enough when it came to engaging in the important and difficult conversation around race and injustice in our society. I took it personally and that was wrong. I know I need to do better.”
Ben and Jessica tied the knot in October 2008 and later welcomed three children. A source tells Us that the son of former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has been using his family connections in order to try and help his wife recover from her recent drama, as “former prime ministerial employees and political strategists” have been stepping in amid the backlash.
Whether or not they “deserve” a comeback… well, that might be a moot point because, again, big fish in a little pond, and they have money and access and privilege. There are two goals here, and they might not be in tune, but we’ll see. If the goal is to simply get through the crisis in an authentic and educational way, where Jessica acknowledges and gives a real apology for her racism, that’s where crisis managers and PR people can help. If the Mulroneys are talking to the right people, those people are saying “go away for a while, then come back and take your lumps and talk about what you’ve learned and ask for forgiveness in an authentic way.” It sounds simple and obvious but how many people actually follow that kind of advice? Very few. But if the goal is to merely “come back” and soon, the crisis managers aren’t telling their clients the right thing.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red and Backgrid.
The thigh-high boots trend was tragic. I had a knockoff pair in black suede and I’m judging myself hard after seeing Jessica Mulroney’s look.
I think it’s really hard for people as spoiled as this couple to take the L and sit down. There isn’t a quick fix and they’re going to make things worse.
It was a hard look to pull off for anyone. When you pair it with a large Oxford shirt worn as minidress and throw in a too-large LV bag to tie the look together, like Mrs Potato Head here did, it’s a disaster.
What amazes me about the last 20 years is that while fame used to be the means for the ultimate goal (wealth), now wealth is the means for the ultimate goal (fame). This family is extremely wealthy (indeed, she was before she got married), but rather than slink away and just enjoy a quiet life, they can’t fathom a life without attention.
I was looking at pics of how people styled them and there’s a lot of “Oops, I forgot to wear pants!” looks. At least I didn’t do that so that’s how I’m going to comfort myself.
Mrs. Potato Head😂great start to my morning!
I burst out laughing reading your description of this outfit.
Mrs. Potato Head!
Thigh high boots can be really chic…but stylist J.Mulroney is not at all chic.
Keep using that photo – that’s the best payment lol
When all she needed to do was stop talking, and listen to Black people.
THAT PART.
OMG. Seriously. How hard could that have been?
I’d be quite happy to never see a Mulroney on TV ever again.
I second that motion
This woman in considered a stylist? 🤨 And her old face was much better than the muppet baby look she has now, those cheeks are too much
So much cuter before. She sort of looks like her face is melting now.
Her face is so peculiar now. That fake tan is cheap looking and I hate her pageant hair.
omg she looks a million times better in the pic with the hats.
Is that her in the beanie hat or Jennifer Love Hewitt??
She looks so different in older pics! I think that picture has to be at least 10 years old.
Jessica and Ben have showed themselves for the loser-users they are. I do not think they will regain a public friendship with the Sussexes. Without the public friendship of Meghan & Harry, these two are just garden variety spoiled rich people with bad fashion taste.
Does it seem to anyone else but me that Jessica dressers like a WAG?
@BayTampaBay she does look like an England wag circa World Cup 2006, when Victoria Beckham was the leader and tacky af.
Totally WAG. And look at the difference in her boobs from photo 1 to photo 2. She’s plastic from the knees up.
This is shallow, but look how cute she is in the pic with Ben, where they are wearing the hats. That was clearly before she started with all the fake tanning and messing with her face.
Hiring a PR crisis firm is a good idea. Honestly, people have come back from worse so I’m not going to be surprised if/when she does make her comeback, but it will be interesting to see how it goes and how she addresses this particular situation.
If she really does fade away and stays out of the public eye, then it says to me that it was less about Sasha and more about Jessica herself (meaning people don’t want her to “come back” for more reasons than that.)
I thought the same. She looked perfectly fine in the first picture. Shame she felt the need to do so much work especially when it doesn’t exactly enhance.
Will be funny to see what the crisis firm comes up with to rehab her image. There’s rarely lasting consequences for people like her.
Yep. It’s a shame she messed with her face so much because she was GENUINELY so cute back then. And now she just has that bought face that a million other plastic surgery lovers have. She doesn’t stand out for anything other than her cheetoh dust tan. I also think her hair suited her a lot more at the length she had it in the photo you mentioned.
Agree she looked so much better prior to all the procedures.
ABritGuest- I wonder what motivated her to get all that work done too. Is it something about being in the Mulroney environment? Ben looks pretty plastic himself and Mila, who used to be quite attractive has done something to her cheeks and lips – very reminescent of the Joker.
“ In his resignation, he said he hoped he would be replaced by a woman of color, basically.”
Well there’s the beginnings of an unpleasant scenario for some woman of colour: “Hey…so you know they HAD to hire her right?” “That whole Mulroney thing? Remember? Yeah they had to, didn’t matter that there were more qualified people. She only got hired because of that Mulroney thing”.
You can hear it now can’t you? Sigh… Just hire more POCs, don’t look for a cookie for doing so.
Remember when Tanya Kim was “laid off” at eTalk but Ben kept his job? She also ‘liked’ Marci Ien’s insta post about the Jessica-Sasha situation.
I think Tanya also did an IG live with Sasha
Tanya was laid off a few years ago and Ben stayed. There was no real reason because Tanya was always better at the job than he was. Tanya did happen to interview Sasha on Her IG the Friday prior to all of this coming out. She does a daily interview with a variety of people usually from around Toronto so that was just coincidental timing. Do I think Tanya is sad this happened though? Unlikely.
Always liked Tanya Kim. She always seemed professional and classy and just good energy. Hope all goes well for her.
Always liked Tanya Kim too & it surprised me that she was let go from etalk – didn’t they replace her with another female ?
They replaced her with Danielle Graham, who is currently on mat leave.
Honestly, I think she just needs to step back, go quiet and slowly build her way back to respect. Avoid doing those cringe “I’ll learnt so much, I am now in touch with the common man” type of soft magazine articles, which many like to trot out, and instead let hard work and grift get her back in.
The whole matter of taking names for revenge later, if that is indeed what she’s doing, is not a good look.
This is besides the point, but shouldn’t the first step of hiring a PR/crisis mgmt team be: don’t let the press know that they’ve been hired? Just seems to always be a real showing how the sausage gets made moment that blatantly cheapens anything that comes next, and I feel like any good pr team would be able to fly under the radar in these situations? It all just seems like such obvious going through the motions it boggles my mind that anyone buys that these celebs have actually changed post-crisis hire.
LOL at “showing how the sausage gets made” I’ve never heard that one before.
Me either! Funny!!
So she’ll learn from the PR firm how to be a kind person? Because anyone that threatens someone like she did clearly shows what they’re made of-and donating money or time to black causes doesn’t fix that. It sounded (from Lainey and others) that this wasn’t the first time Jessica has done this type of thing-it’s her MO. Mean girls don’t change their spots.
Dollars to donuts the PR/crisis management firm is white AF too.
I’m guessing it’s navigator which is used more for political scandals.
I cannot get over her bad bronzer. A picture from the post about her yesterday looked like her and Trump have the same spray tanner on call. The world doesn’t need more spoiled nepotism brats now or ever again. Please go away forever.
I know it’s been discussed at length already but I just can’t reconcile this supposed best friendship between Jessica and Meghan. The image that Jessica has obviously carefully (if poorly) constructed of herself in the public eye seems to be the complete antithesis of Meghan. I know that opposites attract, and I’ve had many friends whose interests, hobbies, goals, and lifestyles were very different from my own – but when one person is (seemingly) a shallow, narcissistic, right-wing spoiled rich girl and the other is (seemingly) a charitable, progressive, self-made woman it just seems like such a disconnect.
I know that Jessica had her Shoebox Project charity, though I have no idea how involved she actually was with that (was she a keen Kate, or was she a Meghan?). I think that Meghan might have seen Jessica’s public charity work and thought that Jessica was a net good, which might have been a little off from the reality of the situation. The same might be said for the royal family as a whole – Meghan thought that they truly had charitable aims and actually wanted to help people like she and Harry do, and it wasn’t until later that she realized it was all a show for them. (Or rather, maybe she didn’t care if they really WANTED to do charity work as long as it was getting done, and didn’t realize how far they’d go to prevent her from outshining them.)
Anyway, I also can’t help but think maybe the royal family had a hand in pushing the continued friendship between Jessica and Meghan, or at least the participation in the wedding. They would have gone through all the suitable options for Meghan’s flower girls and page boys, and it’s possible they selected the Mulroneys because their relation to the ex PM of Canada legitimized them a bit more in the eyes of the royal family, rather than the children of either a random college pal of Meghan’s or, even worse, a Hollywood celebrity.
I mean obviously they were friends in Toronto, but have we seen any active support or even subtle nods to their friendship like Meghan has done for many other friends, connections, and patronages? Sure, the press said that Jessica watched Archie, but that was never confirmed. Maybe the press latched on to Jessica because her sheer volume of thirst makes her such an easy target and therefore such an easy weapon to wield towards Meghan (as we’re clearly seeing right now).
Idk maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part because I really like Meghan and Jessica I really… don’t, and wouldn’t, and question anyone who would. So truly I just don’t get it, but I hope Jessica just goes away.
@Sunday, I have been wondering how this friendship evolved and how it survived through the years. So many questions.
However, If I think back to when I got married, my bridesmaids were my best friends at the time…and now I don’t see 2 out of the 4 of them. I have grown, matured and we have taken different paths.
Maybe Meghan would have organically let that friendship go as she realised how different they were? (Jessica just happened to hit the gas pedal for her!)
Jessica made it a point to remind the media that she was bff with Meghan. It was her key to accessing the US market.
She also needs a marriage counselor, family counselor, and stylist.
As of this morning, Ben is still hosting CTV’s morning show, Your Morning. He looked pretty relaxed.
Her clothes must be orange when she sweats
Well, Canada has VERY FEW TV stations she can get back on. Even if she does get back on a show, there will always be whispers and snide remarks. Look at Ben on Your Morning, he looks uncomfortable, not his usual cocky and sarcastic self, likely knows every word will be examined now – this is his new reality, a very thin rope. And the same will apply to her. Heck Ben is not even interviewing anybody or anything related to racism on Your Morning now and that is obvious and looks odd – they usually chat around the table about a topic but hard to do know when everyone knows what his wife did. Even if he didn’t do it, he likely has similar patterns (i always wondered why Tanya Kim was let go..hmm). I personally think they have to go to a bigger market, like move to the US, Canada is a SMALL POND and even if they do get back on TV or INsta or whatever, this will follow them, be mentioned in every article that mentions them. The Shoe Project was founded with 3 of her sister-in-laws and the Mulroney brothers are on the Board and they got rid of her on there – so that says she’s poison for now and possibly forever!
And her face – OMG it is melting!! How the heck she EVER thought she looked good with the trout pout is beyond me. And her body is all boob job and skinny legs (plus she’s bowlegged when you watch her walk…I know, not nice, but true!). Her style has always been horrible – yet peopel praised her because again…Mulroney name,…people were on eggshells. Funny how she is the one on eggshells now, karma.
RE: your last paragraph – I believe her husband is a big part of it.
Do you think Meghan got “played” by Jessica? Sort of love-bombed and hero-worshiped into a BFF scenario? Meghan seems to be light years ahead of her in terms of intelligence, charisma, philanthropy, her acting career, and that can be extremely attractive when you choose a friend. I’m impressed and attracted to people who have that kind of drive, talent and innate goodness but there are plenty of people who would see building a friendship with that person as a good opportunity for more selfish reasons. I just get this kind of “wow, she’d be a good asset to have” rather than “I like everything about her, I’m happy we’re friends” vibe from Jessica. Amiright? Wrong?
Meghan wasn’t famous when she met Jessica. Neither was Jessica, it was Ben who was famous, sort of, when they met.
I’m from Toronto and the first time I ever heard of Meghan Markle was when she did a tv commercial for Reitman’s (Canadian clothing store ….going bankrupt because of the pandemic). And also I think she did some things with World Vision. I support world vision so I noticed her. Noticed she was very pretty and seemed nice. Anyway, way back then Ben was the one with the big tv presence.
Hopefully her image rehab will include a fashion / style rehab at the same time, because it’s horrible imo. If she and her PR firm are smart, they’ll realize that a new look would go a long way to achieving a new image (as for the underneath, that’s another story). And hopefully she will take the time to realize her natural looks were so much better than all the tweaking she’s done in the last few years. She could look stunning all on her own with the right makeup, hairstyle, and clothing. Her original looks were so pretty. She has a similar natural beauty where less is more. As for her attitude and personality, who knows. It can be hard work to overcome, but, it can be done. A winsome personality does go a long way to overcoming any perceived beauty deficits. And I really hope that if she really is into personal style/fashion, she truly does some proper learning, because her portfolio is … unfortunate, imo. It’s a tough game, so she has to step up. I really hope she goes away for a while. It’s crazy that we’re talking about re-educating someone…it kind of reminds me of the Chinese re-education camps of the 70s(?) in a wierd way, but then again, if you’re a public figure and you’re trying to affect public opinion, you stay in the ring and take your lumps and fight on, or you call it a day and do something else.
Hey Kaiser, I’ve tried looking up the PR company she hired but couldn’t find the name, maybe you’ll have more luck. I’m interested because I’m would bet money it’s Navigator.
Whenever someone does something terrible in Toronto, they hire Navigator. Jian Ghomeshi hired Navigator. When her father in law Brian Mulroney was involved in fraud and bribery, he hired Navigator. When former Attorney General of Ontario Micheal Bryant murdered an Indigenous person with his car, he hired Navigator. They must be excellent at what they do, but at this point, hiring them is basically an admission that you’re a fucking monster.
I’m curious, too. I was wondering if part of the “crisis” package is the hiring of automated social-media bots and shills. I see that Navigator specializes in “reputation recovery,” so I assume so. It just blows my mind that anyone with enough wealth can BUY themselves a disinformation campaign. (Supposedly Chris Hardwick did!)
I would bet it’s them too.
Her original face looked better than the current one. Who told her all those fillers looked good? Her face is positively misshapen. Yeah she can put me on her list too.
I feel like this has been going on for months. Talk about a story that won’t fade away. This spoiled duo should just take the rest of the summer off and try to learn a thing or two about decency.
I don’t know anything about JM except what I read here. I would say she needs to move to something new, are there Real Housewives in CA?
Regarding whether Meghan knew Jessica is racist/have racist tendencies…Sometimes (for better or worse) people become fast friends. And you really like like or even love the person. And because you like/love them, you may explain away in your head some not so nice things about them. Meghan is half black and is very close to her mom Doria -who has dreads and embraces who she is. I’d wager Jessica likely kept any or most of her racist behaviour on the down low. I know a ton of people like her. And once in a while the mask they wear slips. I can tell you it hurts because suddenly someone you know, love admire you realize they are shitty….
Thats one version of how I interpret Meghan and Jessica’s relationship.
Second theory..again for better or worse. Sometimes you build symbiotic relationships with some not so nice people (barring they aren’t mass murders etc etc) because you have to do what you have to do to survive and succeed in a world that is stacked against you because of your race/gender/sexuality etc. You may even actually be fond of people like Jessica and sometimes even bring them in ‘close’ based on what is going on in your life and other times you pull away.
If any of the above scenarios are true or close to true, I do not and will not judge Meghan for it. Do what you gotta do…white women are certainly doing what they gotta do to get and stay ahead. And they aren’t fretting about it.
I hear what you’re saying and I respect the hell out of it.
@itsme
Thank you. I spent a great deal of time thinking about it and I feel bad that people are kind of judging Meghan and asking if she knew Jessica was always like this.
A former best friend (she is white) taught me some valuable lessons a LOOOOONG ago and she was surprisingly ‘woke’ given this goes back about 20 yrs when I first graduated from university and got my first job. She was also a bit older than I was by about 15 yrs. She took me under her wing on my first job in one of Canada’s major banks and told me, ‘Intheknow, use EVERYTHING you’ve got. Know the odds are against you. You’re young, you’ve got some looks, you’re smart and you’re black, use that too’. At the time, there was a lot of Affirmative Action hiring and politics in Canada. It was insulting at the time to hear that but over time it made a great deal of sense. I wish I had listened and learned sooner.
“She’s been talking to lawyers, image experts and crisis PR teams. She has been having a lot of them over to her house to brainstorm and find a way to put this behind her.”
Why lawyers?? That doesn’t sound like the road to contrition to me.