Janet Caperna has left the country with her husband, Jason Caperna, and their 18-month-old son, Cameron, after receiving a slew of vile and hateful messages on social media, including death threats against her and her child.
After making her Instagram account private and venturing to Switzerland amid the airing of The Valley season two, Janet, 35, opened up about the relentless trolling she has received from social media users to expose how serious it’s gotten.
“I’m sick of threats and slurs being normalized because ‘we signed up for this when we joined reality TV.’ That’s sick and not normal and I’m not ever going to pretend it’s normal or acceptable to message strangers threats and slurs,” Janet told the Daily Mail on July 3. “It’s sad to me that people go this far, it’s definitely the worst part about this ‘job.'”
“I’m learning how to put boundaries on social media in place and learning as I go. I support healthy dialogue around reality TV and think some of the best conversations about modern culture stem from shows like ours,” she continued. “I’m far from perfect, and people are seeing the best and worst of all of us when we put our lives in front of cameras. My hope is people can have fun conversations about reality TV without going as far as some have recently.”
Along with her statement, Janet provided shocking screenshots of messages she’d received to the Daily Mail.
“I hope you die a slow and painful death. You are so ugly are you actually a man? You look like a man. You are evil and I wish death upon you. I will put a Sicilian curse on your soul and your husband,” one person had written.
“Ooooh I know where you live, I’ve seen where your son goes when you’re not with him. Keep an eye on your breaks,” said another.
A third targeted Janet’s mental state, saying, “You literally make me so sick, you’re the nastiest person I’ve ever seen, and I think you need a lot of mental [help], you’re absolutely disgusting and most likely a psychopath mother and wife. You think you’re such hot sh*t. I literally would love to see you in the street.”
“I hope you rot like you deserve you worthless garbage,” added someone else.
Others told Janet to “go drown in a sewer” and said they hoped her son would grow up “absolutely hating” her.
One of the most shocking messages declared, “I LITERALLY HOPE YOU DIE.”
“Can you crash in a helicopter ride like your whole family, don’t need your [offspring] producing,” someone else wrote as another person mentioned one of Janet’s other family members.
Janet also opened up about the threats on her podcast, This Side of the Hill, with co-host Jared Lipscomb.
“This isn’t constructive criticism,” Janet stated. “I understand that I put my life out there and I’m gonna get comments, good and bad, this isn’t that … [But] it makes me wonder, how many people throughout my day am I interacting with that are like this behind closed doors?”
According to Janet, one message came from a woman who was a family photographer, and another hateful threat was dealt by a mom to a young son.
Janet also alluded to a former friend and co-star, possibly Kristen Doute, 42, interacting with her haters.
“I had a former friend who responded to someone’s comment questioning the safety of my child, questioning whether I had a drinking problem,” she recalled. “This former friend decided to respond with a laughing, jokey emoji, and I’m so disappointed in that.”
The Valley season two airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.
