Tori Spelling said her teenage daughter, Stella, was “shamed” by classmates upon her return to school in 2023 after living out of an RV the summer before, believing she was “homeless.”
“My daughter is like, ‘People already talk about us at school. They know you and they know the family and they read the press,’” Tori, 50, told listeners during the debut episode of her “Misspellings” podcast on Sunday, March 31.
“She had someone come up to her at school and ask, ‘Are you in the school district, or where does your RV park? Because you live in an RV with your mom, right?’” she continued about Stella, 15.
Tori and her five children with estranged husband Dean McDermott were photographed living out of a recreational vehicle in a Ventura County, California, campground in August 2023, two months after he shared in an Instagram post that the couple had split before deleting it.
“We rented that like every other family and drove up the coast and camped and they were like, ‘Oh, we thought you were homeless,’” Tori claimed Stella’s classmates told her when she returned to school in the fall.
There was confusion about Tori and her children’s living situation after she told fans in May 2023 that her family had to move out of their home due to a toxic mold infestation. “We are seeking accommodations via a hotel, Airbnb, or Vrbo home until we can grasp what to do,” Tori told her Instagram followers when informing them of her situation.
After Dean’s June 17, 2023, statement that the pair had split, Tori and their kids – Liam, 17, Stella, Hattie, 12, Finn, 11, and Beau, 7 – lived out of a $100 a night Hollywood motel, leading some fans to wonder if she’d fallen on hard times.
The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum defended her living situation to a TMZ cameraman on July 17, telling him, “Are you a parent? You know you would do whatever you can for your kids, right?”
On August 2, the first photos emerged of Tori and her kids living out of a Sunseeker E450 RV at a campground, as they were seen unloading camping chairs, a cooler, a stove, a pop-up table and a large rug to cover the ground. The former reality star was later seen walking around the campground in her bathrobe with her hair in a towel following a shower.
While many fans worried at the time that Tori and her kids were living out of the RV due to financial woes, the Stori Telling author shared a carousel of Instagram photos on August 10, 2023, showing a look at their camping life. Tori wrote in the caption, “As long as we have each other …,” along with the hashtags, “summer 2023 ,”family time,” “priceless memories” and “on the road.”
Dean, 57, admitted in a November 2023 interview with The Daily Mail that he shared the post about the former couple’s split while drunk. He said Tori helped get him into a rehab facility shortly after that, where he spent 40 days before later moving into a sober living home outside Los Angeles with other recovering alcoholics.
Tori filed for divorce from Dean on March 29, and listed their date of separation as June 17, 2023 – the date of Dean’s split post – according to legal docs viewed by In Touch.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
