10 Biggest Reality Star Arrests

Reality can be tough — especially if you’re an embattled reality TV star. From the early days of reality TV when The Real World was groundbreaking TV to current day scenarios, like when Big Brother‘s Christmas Abbott was arrested this week for criminal mischief, handcuffs and jail cells have plagued reality TV stars for years.

Check below for details on the arrests of Abbott and other reality stars from over the years.

Christmas Abbott — ‘Big Brother’

Christmas Abbott, who finished in third place on the 19th season of Big Brother in 2017, was arrested on a felony charge of criminal mischief on Tuesday, Nov. 6 after turning herself in. She was released within the hour on her own recognizance and did not spend time in a jail cell.

The arrest came a month after she gave birth to her and ex-boyfriend Benjamin Bunn’s son, and three months after she reportedly repeatedly rammed her car into Bunn’s current girlfriend’s car, causing an alleged $10,000 in damage. See photos of the damage here.

Abby Lee Miller — ‘Dance Moms’

Abby Lee Miller of Dance Moms was arrested in October 2015 after a bankruptcy judge who happened to see her on TV remembered her from his court and realized she hadn’t disclosed nearly $800,000 of income. She was indicted on charges of bankruptcy fraud, concealment of bankruptcy assets and false bankruptcy declarations, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

She was sentenced to 366 days at a federal penitentiary in Victorville, California and ordered to pay a $40,000 fine as well as serve two years probation. In May 2018, she was granted early release and transferred to a halfway house, but found herself up against an entirely different battle. After undergoing emergency back surgery, Miller was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

She has since undergone rigorous treatment, including chemotherapy, and spent five months at a live-in rehabilitation facility.

Teresa and Joe Giudice – ‘Real Housewives of New Jersey’

Teresa and Joe Giudice from The Real Housewives of New Jersey were charged with multiple charges related to financial fraud in 2013, eventually pleading guilty to 41 counts of fraud in March 2014. Teresa reported to federal prison in January 2015 and was released after serving 11 months of a 15-month sentence. Joe was set to serve 41 months of prison, but in 2018 was ordered to leave the country following his release from prison.

Joe is reportedly planning to appeal his deportation order, and in November 2018 Teresa said that she is holding out hopes that President Donald Trump will pardon Joe to prevent his court-ordered deportation to Italy.

Matt Brown — ‘Alaskan Bush People’

Matt Brown of Alaskan Bush People fame was arrested in December 2013 after an incident in Juneau, Alaska where he reportedly fled the scene after hitting a parked motorcycle in a Walmart parking lot. He was booked on charges related to DUI and leaving the scene of a crash.

Since then, the 36-year-old reality star has taken steps to better himself; in 2016 he entered rehab for alcohol abuse, and in October 2018, after seeing himself “spiraling” and realizing that he “didn’t want to be one of those guys,” he entered an in-patient rehab center for 35 days.

Ryan Edwards — ‘Teen Mom OG’

Teen Mom OG star Ryan Edwards has faced a long string of arrests in recent years stemming from a heroin possession charge in 2017.

In July 2018, Edwards, who shares a child with Teen Mom star Maci Bookout, was arrested for “previous charges or other reasons,” just months after he was arrested at his home in March 2018 for violating the terms of his probation for a previous heroin possession charge, which came almost a year before that in April 2017.

Soon after his July arrest, Bookout was granted an order of protection against Edwards, who married Mackenzie Standifer in May 2017, just one day before entering rehab. Bookout said Edwards left her threatening voicemails and showed up to their son’s baseball game in May 2017 while “under the influence of heroin” and “threatened to hurt” her.

Edwards and Standifer, who recently gave birth to the couple’s first child together, announced in July that they would no longer be appearing on the MTV series.

Khloe Kardashian — ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’

Long before Khloe Kardashian was known for her Good American apparel line or sharing photos of her and scandal-plagued boyfriend Tristan Thompson’s adorable daughter True Thompson, the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star was arrested in March 2007 for a DUI charge.

Seven months before the show’s first-ever episode premiered, a 22-year-old Kardashian was arrested for DUI. She later apologized for the incident, calling her behavior “unthinkable” and promised to “never, ever do that again.”

 

Austin Lee Russell, aka Chumlee — ‘Pawn Stars’

Austin Lee Russell, or Chumlee, as Pawn Stars fans know him, was arrested after police in Las Vegas carried out a search warrant at his home related to a reported sexual assault. Authorities reportedly found several illegal items, including firearms, methamphetamine and marijuana.

The History Channel star pleaded guilty in Las Vegas to attempted possession of a controlled substance and was given three years’ probation on the misdemeanor charge, but avoided jail time.

Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino — ‘Jersey Shore’

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino of Jersey Shore fame was sentenced to eight months behind bars in 2018 for years of tax evasion. As part of his plea deal, he was granted a reduced sentence and was permitted to delay reporting to prison until Jan. 15, 2019.

He initially faced the possibility of many years in prison for not paying an estimated $8.9 million in taxes over the course of several years. In addition to his sentence, he was hit with about $133,000 total in fines and is expected to perform 500 hours of community service. His brother, Marc Sorrentino, is going to prison for a total of two years on similar charges.

After his sentencing in October, Sorrentino married his college sweetheart, Lauren Pesce, on Nov. 1.

 

Stephanie Pratt — ‘The Hills’

Before Stephanie Pratt was known as the sister of The Hills villain Spencer Pratt, she struggled at a young age with drug abuse. In her 2015 memoir Made in Reality, Pratt opened up about her troubled childhood, revealing that she smoked crystal meth 13 times a day when she was 14.

“I was 14 or 15 [when I first smoked it],” she wrote in her book. “I was on the extreme level and addiction developed instantly. [I smoked] probably four times before school, then at snack… probably 12 or 13 times a day.”

She said she struggled with addiction to both meth and cocaine, noting that her parents turned their heads to the issue. “I didn’t care about anything. I could live or die, I didn’t care,” she wrote. “I had nothing to get out of bed for, nothing was exciting.”

In 2006, she was arrested for attempting to steal $4,000 worth of designer clothes in Hawaii while on drugs. “I woke up handcuffed to a hospital bed. When I landed back in L.A., Mom took me back home and I went upstairs to my old bedroom and I felt so much shame,” she wrote.

Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman — ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’

Yes, even bounty hunters can get arrested. While Duane Chapman from Dog the Bounty Hunter is usually the one tracking down criminals, he himself was arrested in 2006 for illegal bounty hunting in Mexico after capturing an alleged rapist who had fled to Puerto Vallarta.

Chapman allegedly skipped bail, returned to the United States and was arrested in 2006 by U.S. Marshals on behalf of the Mexican government. All charges against him were dropped by the First Criminal Court in Puerto Vallarta in 2007.