Jax Taylor and Kristen Doute are looking back at the early days of Vanderpump Rules.

During the new episode of Kristen‘s podcast Sex, Love, and What Else Matters, she and Jax revealed the surprisingly low amount they were paid for the first season of the Bravo reality series when it first premiered in January 2013.

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“It was $5,000 and if we became a primary, we got an additional $5,000,” Kristen revealed.

Looking back, Jax said that it felt like that money was life-changing.

I had nothing at that time so whatever we got … [I felt like] I was rich. $5,000? I was paying $100 a week to live so I [thought] I could retire. When we were filming, I felt like, ‘This is awesome,’” Jax recalled. “I have been hustling my whole life and living paycheck to paycheck to paycheck. I would do a lot of jobs but by the time I got my paycheck I was so behind on my credit card bills.”

Jax and Kristen both left the show in 2020 after season eight. It was recently revealed that the two of them – along with Jax‘s wife Brittany Cartwright – will be starring in a new spinoff series.

Amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, another Bravo star proposed that reality stars also go on strike.