When Brandi Passante made her debut on Storage
Wars, no one could have predicted an A&E reality show about people battling over the contents
of storage lockers would be so entertaining. She quickly became a fan favorite, but how
much do the show's fans really know about her? Brandi Passante and Jarrod Schulz came to
the attention of Storage Wars producers through their Now and Then secondhand store in California's
Orange County, which they stocked with items obtained from abandoned storage locker auctions. During one such event, Schulz was approached
by producers of what would become Storage Wars. After hearing nothing for eight months, Schulz
received a call from producers asking if they could shoot footage in the couple's store. As it happened, Passante was manning the cash
register that day. Schulz told The Orange County Register, "They asked me, 'Who's the girl up front?' Would she mind being on TV?'" In an interview with The Saline Courier, Passante
shared, "They asked if we wanted to be on camera for
a few minutes. We really didn't think it would go anywhere,
but it became a big deal." The rest is Storage Wars history. Passante told The Register, "It's a blessing and a curse. Sometimes you just want to go to the grocery
store and pick up some milk." While Brandi Passante was becoming a celebrity,
she continued to run a thrift shop with Jarrod Schulz. Filming together on the show plus working
side by side at the store, the couple quickly realized that some boundaries needed to be
set. She told Filipino entertainment site PEP, "We figured out a balance because we're together
24/7. You cannot bring your work life into your
home life, so whatever conflict we ever had during the day, we let it go when we come
home." Schulz backed her up. "You really have to separate the drama that
happens at the auction from the life that you have once you walk in the house." Brandi is not one to keep her feelings to
herself, and that's one of the key reasons why she became a fan favorite. The bluntness held true when she was asked
to share her opinion of Dave Hester, whose belligerent demeanor and "Yuuup!" catchphrase
made him the show's primary villain. "Yuuuuuup. Yuuup." When Inquirer Dot Net asked Passante if Hester
was, quote, "a real jerk," she did not mince words, saying, quote, "Yes." Schulz then seemed to reject the allegations
Hester made in the infamous lawsuit he filed against the show, that what viewers were seeing
on Storage Wars had all been staged and their dialogue scripted. Schulz retorted, "Nobody tells us what to say. If it appears as if Dave is getting on my
nerves, it's because Dave is getting on my nerves." As anyone who's ever watched Storage Wars
knows, the beating heart at the core of the show is the friction and competition between
the show's stars during bidding for a storage locker. While they don't seem to be bitter enemies
on the show, the Storage Wars cast don't seem like besties either. So what's really going on? Brandi Passante put it simply when speaking
to The Saline Courier, "We're not buddies. We don't go hang out afterwards." However, that doesn't apply to every person
in the Storage Wars cast. Passante told Inquirer Dot Net about show
star Barry Weiss, or "The Collector", "We like Barry. We've kept in touch. We see him a few times a year. We hang out." During a 2017 interview with The Mystery Men
Show podcast, Passante and Schulz were asked to single out the weirdest thing they've ever
found within a locker. According to Schulz, the couple opened up
one locker and found five locked wooden boxes. Passante explained, "So we unlock them, and there's some form
of powder in Ziploc bags". Schulz finished the thought, saying, quote,
"I'm thinking cocaine off the bat." Passante came to a different conclusion, saying, "And I'm holding it, I'm looking at it, and
I was like, what is this? And I realized that there was a dog tag on
one of the boxes. I was like, 'Oh my god, they're dogs!' They're dead dogs. They're ashes from their dogs." "Oh my God they're dogs! EWW! And ohh…" She added, "First I was grossed out. Then I felt really guilty, so we sent them
up front so [the owners of the locker's contents] could come and pick up their dogs." Fans were shocked when Brandi and Jarrod exited
Storage Wars in 2014, with their absence from the show resulting in a big void for viewers
accustomed to the couple's hilarious banter and joke-filled bickering. However, there was a good reason. Passante and Schulz had begun a new project:
a Storage Wars spinoff titled Brandi & Jarrod: Married to the Job. The new show took everything fans loved about
the pair's unique dynamic and put it front and center. An A&E press release said it best: "After 15 years together, Brandi and Jarrod
finally decide to tie the knot, and they approach wedding planning in a way that only they could:
with a little love, a lot of bickering and constant detours along the way." In the fall of 2012, Brandi Passante's world
was rocked when revealing photos and video of a woman who appeared to be her showed up
on an adult website. The footage in question, however, was fake. As a television personality and mother of
two, Passante was understandably mortified. She retaliated by launching a $2.5 million
lawsuit against the site's owner, Hunter Moore. As reported by The Wrap, her lawsuit declared, "Passante looked at the referenced website
and was horrified, hurt and ashamed to see images of someone portraying her in...video
and associated images. Passante never made any such video, has never
had any contact with Mr. Moore and did not send him sexual images." The lawsuit went on to state: "Moore fabricated the video for the purpose
of trading on Passante's fame and celebrity to draw traffic to his site." According to The Hollywood Reporter, Passante
won her lawsuit the following year. Her court victory turned out to be hollow
when the judge awarded her not $2.5 million, but a mere $750, declaring her request was
not justifiable. Being together at their shop, being together
while filming Storage Wars, being together while raising their kids, that was a lot of
togetherness for Brandi Passante and Jarrod Schulz. In fact, Passante admitted that being in each
other's faces constantly did put a strain on their relationship at first. She told California's Times-Standard: "Working together as a couple every day is
quite an obstacle to overcome. We're together 24 hours a day, seven days
a week, trying to make business decisions together." She told Los Angeles Power One-Oh-Six's Big
Boy in 2013: "We had some rockstar fights at the beginning. You know, just being together 24/7, it's a
little tough, it's trying." However, her significant other tried to see
the bright side of their constant togetherness, joking, "But you always get to take the carpool lane." Brandi Passante shares two children, a son
and a daughter, with Jarrod Schulz. Asked by Inquirer Dot Net if they wanted their
kids to follow their career path, the couple did not waffle. Passante was direct, saying, quote, "Lord,
I hope not!" Schulz insisted, "Our kids will not be in the buying-storage-units
business." Schulz added that their son, Cameron, wants
to be a director one day. He noted, "I told him it's a tough industry, [but] you
need to make your own path. Don't follow in my footsteps." Brandi Passante is like many working moms
who juggle their careers alongside family responsibilities. In an interview with MyLifetime Dot Com, Passante
was asked if she experienced "mom guilt," but she insisted that her experience as a
working mother actually proved to be the opposite, saying, quote, "I think I'm a better parent
because I work." Noting that she found being a stay-at-home
mother to be difficult, she explained that she felt, quote, "alienated and depressed"
without a career. Asked about her secret to balancing all her
varying obligations, she replied, "If there's a formula, I haven't figured it
out yet!" On the plus side, though, she revealed that
the money from Storage Wars allowed them to hire some additional help with the kids. She said, "I work all the time, so I need someone to
assist with the day-to-day stuff, but I do try to make time for the kids. In fact, we are going to Universal Studios
in a few days. Oh, also, I rely heavily on caffeine to make
it through the day!" Brandi & Jarrod: Married to the Job didn't
turn out to be the hit that Brandi Passante and Jarrod Schulz had hoped for, and A&E canceled
the show after its first season. Still, the Storage Wars spinoff gave viewers
some extra insight into the couple's relationship. As Schulz told The Orange County Register,
what viewers saw wasn't an act. He joked, quote, "It makes our dysfunction
seem a little less dysfunctional." While cynics might accuse the show of scripting
dialogue for the couple to pass off as their own, Passante insisted that was not the case. In fact, she pointed out that this would actually
make the whole process significantly more difficult, as neither she nor Schulz are actors
who've been trained to memorize lines. Brandi put it best: "I feel like that is something that would
never work. You just have to let it come out naturally." Viewers might not realize that, in addition
to her role on Storage Wars, Brandi Passante has also used her unexpected fame for charity. This was the case in October 2019, when she
volunteered to emcee a charity event for Women's Own Worth, which raised $100,000 for the Arkansas-based
organization, which according to their mission statement is devoted to, quote, "empowering victims of domestic violence and
survivors of violent crime through supportive self-worth opportunities." Passante told The Saline Courier, "I have experienced some things in my life,
and it's a really wonderful cause. It's things that are needed, so I wanted to
help in any way possible." According to Celebrity Net Worth, Storage
Wars has been very good for Brandi Passante's bank account, with the site estimating her
net worth to be about $2 million. Passante certainly didn't have that much money
back in 2013 when MyLifetime Dot Com asked Passante if she was a millionaire. She replied, quote, "Not hardly!" However, Jarrod Schulz admitted that their
television fame has definitely brought the couple some perks. He told The Orange County Register: "Our style of living has definitely gone up. We'll go to a restaurant and the chef will
send us out something special." However, Passante admitted she has mixed feelings
about fame. She told My Lifetime Dot Com, "This may come as a surprise to some people,
but I'm actually a very shy person. I even get anxiety when I have to go out to
the store or to the gas station because I'm afraid of people approaching me. I was even shy as a child." In fall 2019, rumors began to emerge that
Brandi Passante and Jarrod Schulz had split up, after her Instagram followers began to
realize her posts hadn't recently featured Jarrod. In fact, as of this video, the last time the
two were shown together on social media was in a throwback party photo from March 2019. While Schulz has been absent from Passante's
social media, she has shared several photos of herself accompanied by a mystery man. Her sharp-eyed Instagram followers have noticed,
taking to the comments section to share their concerns. "Where's Jarrod?" asked one fan. A second added, quote, "Haven't seen your
husband lately on your post! Is everything OK?" Another of her followers put it right out
there, asking, quote, "Are you and Jarrod all done???" For the time being, the answer to that question
is unclear, though Schulz has also been posting images on his social media of himself with
another woman. Still, nothing has been officially revealed,
as neither Passante nor Schulz have responded to the numerous social media questions about
their romance. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more The List videos about your
favorite reality show stars are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the
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