Why Rachel Uchitel turned down Donald Trump’s offer to appear on his TV show after Tiger Woods’ scandal
Rachel Uchitel said she turned down an offer from Donald Trump to appear on “The Celebrity Apprentice” after he was implicated in Tiger Woods’ shocking cheating scandal.
“One day, Donald Trump called me at 7 a.m. I was in Las Vegas, I’ll never forget it. “I woke up and it was Donald Trump on the other end of the phone asking me to be on ‘[Celebrity] Apprentice,’” she told Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast during a recent visit to our New York studio. “We talked about it and I basically said yes, because why not?” she added. But she decided to focus on another unscripted project, season four of VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew,” because it seemed like a better opportunity to rehabilitate her image after she was cast as the villain in a story about Woods’ infidelity that made headlines in late 2009.
Rachel Uchitel explained on Page Six’s podcast “Virtual Reali-Tea” why she turned down an offer from Donald Trump to appear on TV after her involvement in the Tiger Woods cheating scandal. Page Cahn for Page Six
Teacher remembers Trump asking her to appear on “Celebrity Apprentice” during an early morning phone call. Getty Images
“They were filming at the same time. The reason I wanted to go to Celebrity Rehab was because, “Look, everyone in the world hates me right now. They talk about me in ways that I don’t even realize,” she said. “I was really upset that people had such a bad view of me and didn’t even know me. »
Uchitel, 49, was attracted to the 24-hour production format of “Celebrity Rehab” because she believed it would provide a more substantial platform for her to show the world that she was more than the tabloid mistress responsible for the demise of Woods’ marriage to his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren.
“That’s why I decided to do ‘Celebrity Rehab,’ because I only had three weeks left until I was going to be on the show. The show wasn’t going to change me in any way,” she said. “I could have done that, but ultimately it was the right choice.”
Woods cheated on his ex-wife Elin Nordegren with Uchitel and others. Getty Images
Uchitel said she decided to work on another unplanned project instead: season four of VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.” Getty Images
The teacher didn’t believe she would be shown through the condescending lens of President Trump’s cutthroat business competition, but Celebrity Rehab offered a space for candid conversations that gave viewers a glimpse into her heart and mind. “I’m filmed 24 hours a day, even when I’m sleeping. If I didn’t give in, they couldn’t make me into someone I’m not,” she explained. “So I just was myself.” Uchitel got her first taste of fame when she appeared on the cover of the New York Post in 2001 after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, where her late fiancé, Andy O’Grady, worked. Uchitel relied on Pinsky’s show to boost his image in the face of stiff competition from Trump. Page Six’s Paige Kahn
Uchitel’s visit to Page Six’s New York studio came on the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, when his first taste of fame came when a photo he took in front of Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital made the front page of the New York Post. New York Post
At age 26, a terrified Uchitel was photographed outside Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital holding a photo of her future husband, hoping to reunite but never to be.
“It changed my life in the sense that I no longer had to go through this tragedy alone. “Everybody followed my story. They wanted to know more about Andy,” she said. She says the experience “changed” her life in unexpected ways. Kahn Page for Page Six
The teacher hopes to preserve the memory of her late fiancé Andy O’Grady, who worked inside the World Trade Center. Rachel Uchitel / Instagram
“That picture was on the cover of almost every newspaper in the world at the time within two days. But the way they framed it — ‘New York’s tragic face’ — forget me … it was a young, fresh-faced 26-year-old girl in a moment of, like, ‘Please help me find this person.’”
Though Uchitel said the experience was “terrible,” the “Miss Understood” podcast host feels “so honored” to have made the cover of the Post because her story’s enduring interest from the public has helped her keep O’Grady’s legacy alive. “It’s really important to me that people don’t forget him,” the New Yorker-turned-Florida resident said. “Whether they love me, my story or anything about me, when I talk about it, I want to remember him and who he was and what he went through.”
