Speaker 1: Welcome to when you know, you know, Unleashed, the show
Speaker 1: where nothing's off limits because out here there's no FCC
Speaker 1: breathing down on next the first guest actually lived through
Speaker 1: something different. She didn't choose the spotlight. The spotlight found her,
Speaker 1: and it nearly burned her alive. Her name became a
Speaker 1: headline before anyone bothered to ask her what actually happened.
Speaker 1: She's known for being part of one of the biggest
Speaker 1: sports celebrity scandals of all time. I'm talking about Rachel,
Speaker 1: you could tell. So Welcome to the podcast. Rachel. So
Speaker 1: great to see you, my friend. It has been let's
Speaker 1: just say, it's been more than a day. You have
Speaker 1: an age, not one bit. I do want to ask
Speaker 1: you something because you and I share something very very similar,
Speaker 1: and that's being thrust into public light, and interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: because nobody prepares you for waking up one morning finding
Speaker 1: out that the whole world has an opinion about you
Speaker 1: and your life. Take me back to that moment when
Speaker 1: you realize that your name was about to become a headline.
Speaker 1: You remember when that happened? Unfortunately to me, Yeah, what
Speaker 1: was going through your head in those first twenty four
Speaker 1: hours and what did you feel emotionally and even physically
Speaker 1: at that time.
Speaker 2: So, first of all, Michael, I want to thank you
Speaker 2: for having me on your show. Obviously, we've known each
Speaker 2: other for a long time. We've been in and out
Speaker 2: of each other's lives a little bit, and I'm so
Speaker 2: happy to see you where you are now, and it's
Speaker 2: an honor to be on your show to answer your question.
Speaker 2: I remember that twenty four hours and I remember that
Speaker 2: moment really vividly when essentially to put a caption on it,
Speaker 2: it was when I knew that my life was about
Speaker 2: to change and the person that I was up until
Speaker 2: that point would sort of no longer exist.
Speaker 3: My name was.
Speaker 2: Going to precede me in any room, that people were
Speaker 2: going to think that they knew me, and they wouldn't
Speaker 2: know the whole story, and it was terrifying. So it
Speaker 2: was around Thanksgiving of two thousand and and now when
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, the news started to report that
Speaker 2: Tiger Woods was in an accident, and I'll never forget
Speaker 2: getting a phone call a couple hours later from a
Speaker 2: reporter saying, I just want to let you know that
Speaker 2: the paparazzi is descending upon your apartment right now. If
Speaker 2: you want to say something, you should say it right now,
Speaker 2: because otherwise we're going to say it for you. And
Speaker 2: I hung up the phone. I was by myself, and
Speaker 2: I remember panicking. I remember the feeling of my stomach
Speaker 2: going in my throat of.
Speaker 3: Not knowing what to do but almost floating.
Speaker 2: As well as panicking because I was like, what does
Speaker 2: this mean? You know, I didn't understand the gravity of it.
Speaker 2: I didn't understand how big that story was going to be,
Speaker 2: and I just knew that I was about to be
Speaker 2: under attack, and I felt like this fight or flight mode,
Speaker 2: and I mean, it's you know, we could talk for
Speaker 2: many hours about that, twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: And we actually have. We actually have talked for many
Speaker 1: hours about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have.
Speaker 2: But the biggest thing that I remember is just feeling
Speaker 2: like I was completely alone, Like I was scared to
Speaker 2: death of what this meant in terms of everything I
Speaker 2: had created up until that point. And I was scared
Speaker 2: about how to react to people I knew and who
Speaker 2: are acquaintances, and then people that didn't know me, because,
Speaker 2: as you probably know, everyone wanted to be part of
Speaker 2: that story, right Everyone wants to say they know me
Speaker 2: they have some story to tell, and I could would
Speaker 2: read those things and I would say, how could they
Speaker 2: say that?
Speaker 3: How did they get that information? That's not even true.
Speaker 2: Those people didn't even know me, And that was the
Speaker 2: thing that I had to wrestle with for many years,
Speaker 2: because part of the story is like you become a headline,
Speaker 2: but you're no longer a person, And to grapple with
Speaker 2: it with friends was different than obviously people that didn't
Speaker 2: know me. Yeah, I even had to deal with that
Speaker 2: with friends, because it was a moment where I realized that,
Speaker 2: you know, I really had to look within and figure
Speaker 2: out who I was as a person and what friends
Speaker 2: I wanted to keep in my life.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you this then, because looking back,
Speaker 1: obviously you knew that you were going to be dating
Speaker 1: a celebrity. You knew that, of course Tiger was married.
Speaker 1: Were you ready to be publicly scrutinized if they found
Speaker 1: that out, because it's not like he was an unknown
Speaker 1: And let me ask you another part to that question,
Speaker 1: what would you tell you yourself in that exact moment when
Speaker 1: the two of you had met and decided to see
Speaker 1: one another. If you can go back in time right now,
Speaker 1: a lot of people ask me that question as it
Speaker 1: relates to President Trump. Is there anything that you would
Speaker 1: have done differently? You know, not to avoid the situation,
Speaker 1: but more to survive it better.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a hard question because I will tell
Speaker 2: you that I know I went back in time. Would
Speaker 2: I do things differently? Know, because I didn't know any better.
Speaker 2: A lot of the lessons you learn as you go
Speaker 2: through life, as you have to go through things.
Speaker 1: But if you can go back in time now, knowing
Speaker 1: what you know, would you do something differently? Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course. I mean I would do plenty of
Speaker 2: things differently. But at the same time, I will say that,
Speaker 2: you know, I haven't. There's a lot of things that
Speaker 2: we all know now. There's a lot of stories that
Speaker 2: have come out. I personally have spoken I did the
Speaker 2: HBO documentary.
Speaker 3: I really only talked.
Speaker 2: About stuff that was A lot of it that I
Speaker 2: spoke about was out in public. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: parts of the story that I haven't talked about. But
Speaker 2: what I will say is that, of course I regret
Speaker 2: being the other woman in a marriage. I would never
Speaker 2: do that now, I get I talked to listen. Cheating
Speaker 2: on your spouse is like a common thing these days.
Speaker 2: You kind of see it. People do it all the time.
Speaker 2: It's not it seems like it's not that big of
Speaker 2: a deal because everyone talks about it and there aren't
Speaker 2: consequences like there were back in the day with such
Speaker 2: a big story.
Speaker 3: I would never do that.
Speaker 2: I don't associate with those kind of people or scenarios.
Speaker 2: I don't get involve. I don't condone it, but I
Speaker 2: understand it. I understand.
Speaker 3: Listen.
Speaker 2: I met Tiger through Derek Jeter, and I met Tiger
Speaker 2: when he was dating other people.
Speaker 3: So I was in a world and that I don't.
Speaker 2: Want to get myself in trouble here, But like I
Speaker 2: was in a world of running nightclubs.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember that.
Speaker 2: So I ran tow in Las Vegas and then eighteen
Speaker 2: other places were places where I was the director of
Speaker 2: VIP operations. I only dealt with high rollers or celebrities,
Speaker 2: and I was their gatekeeper and their wing woman.
Speaker 3: Would I do it again?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was an amazing job.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 1: You know, people ask me that. The reason I'm asking
Speaker 1: this question is because people ask me all the time.
Speaker 1: Knowing what you know and what happened to you meaning
Speaker 1: the total destruction of my life. Would you do something
Speaker 1: different as it, for example, related to the payment to
Speaker 1: Stormy Daniels And I constantly say no, I would not.
Speaker 1: I would not do anything different. I understand the consequences
Speaker 1: I do, but I knew what I was doing in
Speaker 1: terms of an NDA, something a nondisclosure agreement, something that
Speaker 1: is done routinely. The only difference, the only one difference
Speaker 1: which caused me to ultimately be charged federally under campaign
Speaker 1: finance is the fact that Donald J. Trump became President
Speaker 1: of the United States. So no, I would not have
Speaker 1: done anything different to protect a friend, which sort of
Speaker 1: brings me to a different question, because there is a
Speaker 1: difference between being talked about and being misrepresented. You were misrepresented.
Speaker 1: I believe I was misrepresented literally going from the Steele
Speaker 1: dossier all the way to the end. How much of
Speaker 1: what the world thought that it knew about you was
Speaker 1: actually true?
Speaker 2: Well, I think I think the biggest misconception is that
Speaker 2: they think they knew me because of a headline, and
Speaker 2: that just wasn't true. Listen, Obviously I was involved in,
Speaker 2: you know, in a relationship with somebody, and that was true.
Speaker 1: But who who was married you who was married and
Speaker 1: you were not.
Speaker 2: Right who was married and I was not, But I don't.
Speaker 2: I also want to be very clear, like I'm not
Speaker 2: a victim in any situation.
Speaker 3: I did something that I do feel bad about, but.
Speaker 2: At the same time, I have reconciled, I've done the
Speaker 2: work to know that the only person I needed to
Speaker 2: apologize to was the wife, and that is who I
Speaker 2: owed my apology to and who I've learned a lesson.
Speaker 2: So to go back to your first question of if
Speaker 2: I would ever do it again, I would not do
Speaker 2: that again. I would not be another woman again. But
Speaker 2: the other things that I did to survive that scenario
Speaker 2: I had to learn and get through to live my
Speaker 2: life and be who I am now. I'm very proud
Speaker 2: of the person I am now. I'm very proud of
Speaker 2: those situations. So like you, you know, I know the
Speaker 2: situation you went through. I actually and I think we've
Speaker 2: talked about this. You know, Stormy with somebody I knew
Speaker 2: in Las Vegas, and she contacted me right after she
Speaker 2: was with mister Truck, and you know, she wanted to
Speaker 2: sell that story years before, and so I understood the
Speaker 2: whole thing that was going on. You know, and you're right,
Speaker 2: because you became president is how this.
Speaker 3: All got us into a situation.
Speaker 2: But this is things that we were all dealing with
Speaker 2: and we all kind of surrounded ourselves with back in
Speaker 2: the day, and it wasn't a big deal. So now
Speaker 2: I'm forgetting the question you just asked me at the
Speaker 2: end of there.
Speaker 1: Well, let me change it a little bit and ask you,
Speaker 1: did you ever try to correct the record? Because there
Speaker 1: was much information that was being said about you that
Speaker 1: was inaccurate. Yeah, did you ever try to correct the record?
Speaker 1: And more importantly, what do you want right now? Using
Speaker 1: this massive platform that we have right here on WABC
Speaker 1: with my when you know, you know, unleashed, what do
Speaker 1: you want them to know about? Like the person who
Speaker 1: I know, the Rachel you could tell that I know
Speaker 1: who you really are.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, listen. The thing is is it's very
Speaker 2: complicated because I spent years trying to correct the record.
Speaker 2: The problem was is I had a thirty five page NDA,
Speaker 2: and part of that NDA was not even acknowledging that
Speaker 2: I had anything to do with this person or the situation,
Speaker 2: and the cuffing of that, the clamping of being able
Speaker 2: to verbalize that saying listen, I'm not even allowed to
Speaker 2: talk about that. That was breaking the NDA. So a
Speaker 2: huge part of my story that a lot of people
Speaker 2: don't realize is that this misconception that came with me,
Speaker 2: all these terrible words of you know, homewrecker and mistress
Speaker 2: and whore and whatever people wanted to name the woman
Speaker 2: right was so not who I was. And not only
Speaker 2: could I just not defend myself, I couldn't even correct
Speaker 2: the truth of what happened. And that has been the
Speaker 2: worst thing. And I you know, I get very heavily
Speaker 2: involved in conversations that have to do with NDAs because
Speaker 2: people really don't understand them. And I believe that they
Speaker 2: serve a purpose and there is a good reason for some,
Speaker 2: but I do think, for example, the one that I
Speaker 2: signed as a young woman, that thought, oh, this payment
Speaker 2: is going to be like, you know, a scarlet letter.
Speaker 2: This is what is worth the scarlet letter that I'm
Speaker 2: going to have to live with, became the problem that
Speaker 2: I had.
Speaker 3: In general.
Speaker 2: It was worse than the situation because it prevented me
Speaker 2: from being able to get my credibility back. And the credibility,
Speaker 2: as you know, is a thing that is so damaging.
Speaker 2: And when you turn your lights off a night and
Speaker 2: you go to sleep and you put your head on
Speaker 2: the pillow, Michael, you know that all those things are
Speaker 2: going through your head and you want to explain yourself.
Speaker 2: But when you have an NDA, you cannot, not even
Speaker 2: to my mother, not to a friend, not to a husband,
Speaker 2: I couldn't racion.
Speaker 1: You want to hear something really funny. You know the
Speaker 1: NDA that I did would Stormy Daniels. You know that
Speaker 1: I patterned it after the NTA that Tiger had given
Speaker 1: to you, with the pseudonyms and so on. I thought
Speaker 1: it was actually brilliant, right, and to have a side
Speaker 1: letter whereby you can use it when I read about
Speaker 1: the NDA, and so I just like, hey, this is
Speaker 1: really a great idea in terms of how to do it,
Speaker 1: because you don't want a document floating around out there
Speaker 1: that maybe somebody gets their hand on. So there's only
Speaker 1: that one paid pseudonym explanation. But I actually want to
Speaker 1: finish by asking you because you very much like a
Speaker 1: Monica Lewinsky story where her life was defined by a
Speaker 1: single moment. A single moment. People don't know the real Rachel.
Speaker 1: You could tell they didn't know all the accomplishments that
Speaker 1: you had in your job, and all of the incredible
Speaker 1: people that you had a chance to meet and to
Speaker 1: help and to do things for. I want you to
Speaker 1: finish by telling the audience what's one piece of advice
Speaker 1: that you rachel you could tell would give to someone
Speaker 1: who might be actually one bad headline away from something
Speaker 1: that's going to go wrong and terribly wrong.
Speaker 2: Well, if they're one bad headline away, I would say,
Speaker 2: think before you make your next step, and maybe think
Speaker 2: about what you have and how that's going to feel
Speaker 2: when you lose it, and how your credibility is going
Speaker 2: to feel when you lose it. The other thing I
Speaker 2: will say on another part of that question, though, is
Speaker 2: if these headlines happen, whether it's in your own community
Speaker 2: or in the public, I personally believe that silence is
Speaker 2: not your friend. I think that owning your narrative, owning
Speaker 2: your voice is the most important way you're going to
Speaker 2: get out of it and hitting rock bottom. People don't
Speaker 2: want to hit rock then they don't want to go
Speaker 2: through the uncomfortable as you.
Speaker 3: I think know going through.
Speaker 2: That is the only way to understand life and to
Speaker 2: on the only way to figure out wait a minute,
Speaker 2: what are the mistakes that I made, what's worth it,
Speaker 2: what's not, and how.
Speaker 3: I'm going to live going forward. So, just like you,
Speaker 3: a lot of things.
Speaker 2: To go back to your other question, I don't regret
Speaker 2: because I know how to get myself out of any situation. Now,
Speaker 2: just like you, you can decide if you want to
Speaker 2: be friends with somebody, if you want to reconcile, if
Speaker 2: you want to move forward with things, because you have
Speaker 2: the knowledge of what happened in the past, and you know.
Speaker 2: For me, it's like I want to tell people that
Speaker 2: are in situations like this, you got to own your narrative.
Speaker 2: You can't be persuaded by people that want you to
Speaker 2: say certain things. You can't say things just to get
Speaker 2: out of a situation. You got to own what you
Speaker 2: did wrong first, and then you got to be able
Speaker 2: to move forward and be like, here's my story. But
Speaker 2: my past doesn't define me. It just might make me
Speaker 2: more interesting. But the past literally creates who I am
Speaker 2: in the future and who I am now.
Speaker 1: Well so interesting, well, so interesting that Rachel Yucatel has
Speaker 1: a number one podcast that's out there. You want to
Speaker 1: give yourself a nice little plug here, sure, which I,
Speaker 1: by the way, expect to be on very very soon.
Speaker 2: Yes, I am very excited to have you. And part
Speaker 2: of the reason I created a show like this, it's
Speaker 2: called Misunderstood with Rachel yu Cautel. It's about people who
Speaker 2: have been reduced to a headline and their on a
Speaker 2: mission to change their narrative about the complexities of the
Speaker 2: human nature and the power of second chances. And so
Speaker 2: we have everybody from politicians to athletes, to actors to
Speaker 2: reality stars and sometimes ordinary people with extraordinary stories. We're
Speaker 2: number one in entertainment news right now and I can't
Speaker 2: wait to have.
Speaker 1: You on well and too Felon. So thank you so
Speaker 1: much Rachel for joining me on when you know, you know, unleashed.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, and I would love to also one
Speaker 1: of these days have you on my talk show here
Speaker 1: on seventy seven WABC on Sundays at five pm. Can't wait, Rachel,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you sharing your story. You know, the
Speaker 1: parts that make you look good, the parts that make
Speaker 1: good television, the parts that clearly still cost you something
Speaker 1: to talk about. And that's what the show is for
Speaker 1: my friends. That's Rachel, you could tell. So if you
Speaker 1: take one thing from this conversation, just one. Let it
Speaker 1: be this, that the person behind the headline is never
Speaker 1: the actual whole story, and we'll see you next time,
Speaker 1: right here on when you know, you know, leashed