“Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” star Jen Shah developed an unexpected friendship with Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, during their time in prison.

An Unlikely Connection

The two women found common ground in the challenges of prison life, forging a bond that Shah described as a mutual support system. Shah explained, “As another high-profile prisoner, there are just certain things you’re both dealing with, so you naturally come together in those instances.”

The Infamous 'Poop Duty'

Remarkably, a shared experience with a particularly unpleasant prison task – “poop duty” – played a significant role in bringing them closer. Shah detailed the system: “If someone in your bathroom does not clean it, you get a strike. If your bathroom gets three strikes, you have to do poop duty.”

She recounted her efforts to avoid the task, stating, “We would make sure that… Like, ‘Hey, we’re not doing poop duty!’ And I almost made it through my time without having to do it. And sure enough, our bathroom got hit.”

Shah described the duty itself as unpleasant, explaining, “On poop duty, you pull up a metal chair and watch everybody come in and use the bathroom… After they use the bathroom, you have to get up, go inspect it, and either clean it if they don’t or tell them to come back and clean it.” She added, “You can imagine the smells and everything going on.”

Fitness and Shared Conversations

Beyond “poop duty,” Holmes also participated in Shah’s prison fitness classes. Shah had become a certified nutrition tech and personal trainer while incarcerated, working in recreation for the last 16 months of her sentence.

“I taught a bunch of classes — ‘Shah-mazing Abs,’ HITT class, all kinds of stuff — and I started helping women with their diets,” Shah said. Holmes specifically attended Shah’s line dancing classes.

The two also spent time walking the track together in the evenings, providing opportunities for deeper conversations. “That’s when we would have our time to just talk,” Shah explained. “We’d talk about how much we miss our family. We would talk about plans after; when we were both going to get home.”

A Mutual Support System

Shah emphasized the emotional support they provided each other. Holmes asked Shah, “What do you think it’s going to be when you walk in the house? Can you put yourself in there?”

“There’s a lot of heartache in prison so we were a sounding board for each other where you could just be like, ‘Can we go walk and cry? I just need to cry,’” Shah shared. “And just knowing that you had somebody there that understood you.”

Shah pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in July 2022 and was sentenced on January 6, 2023. Federal prosecutors had sought a 10-year prison sentence, alleging she defrauded thousands in a telemarketing scam. Elizabeth Holmes is preparing to begin her more than 11-year sentence for defrauding investors in her blood-testing startup, Theranos.