Brandi Passante's Tragic Story Is Just So Sad
Taking an internet scumbag to court, moving on from a famous relationship, and working on her scary dad voice. She rose to fame thanks to "Storage Wars," but Brandi Passante's life hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows.
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00:00Taking an internet scumbag to court, moving on from a famous relationship,
00:04and working on her scary dad voice, she rose to fame thanks to Storage Wars. But
00:08Brandi Passante's life hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows.
00:12While being a public figure can bless a person with fame and fortune,
00:16it also comes with a number of drawbacks. Unfortunately for Brandi Passante,
00:20she's no stranger to the ugly things you sometimes have to deal with when the world knows your name.
00:25Back in 2012, Passante sued Hunter Moore, an adult film distributor and founder of
00:29the site IsAnyoneUp.com. The Hollywood Reporter notes the site is known for hosting adult content,
00:35usually submitted without the subject's permission, alongside subjects' Facebook
00:38pictures. In 2011, Facebook had issued Moore a cease-and-desist order, after which Moore
00:43shut down the site and moved it to Tumblr and X, formerly known as Twitter. There,
00:47he posted a video of someone he claimed was Passante. Passante first became aware of the
00:52video's existence when she received messages about it on X. Although she maintained that
00:56the video was fake, Passante said that she still dealt with fear and anxiety surrounding
01:01the possibility it would find its way to her family's phone screens. Needless to say, Passante
01:06sued Moore for all he had. She managed to get a judge to ban Moore from spreading any more of
01:10the videos, but her lawsuit against him wasn't very successful. She only received $750 in damages
01:16after initially suing Moore for $2.5 million. To make matters worse, Moore's attitude didn't
01:22change at all throughout the whole ordeal. After the final verdict, he took to X and wrote,
01:26What should I write on the check in the memo line for that b---- who sued me?
01:30While Passante made some big bucks on Storage Wars, she still had to pave a way for herself
01:34in the professional storage buyer world. Everything worked out for her in the end,
01:38but getting there wasn't exactly easy. As she explained to Lifetime Moms in 2013,
01:43working in a male-dominated industry can be wildly unpleasant at times. However,
01:47she's not one to back down from a challenge, telling the site,
01:50It forces me to be tougher and not to wear my heart on my sleeve. I find that the men
01:54in my business will walk all over you once they discover your weaknesses,
01:58so you have no choice but to develop a thick skin."
02:00During her time on the show, Passante proved that she could do the kind of unglamorous work
02:04that comes with buying storage units, just as well as her male counterparts.
02:08After Storage Wars became a raging success, Passante was a bona fide reality star.
02:13While that may sound like a dream for some people, becoming a public figure was a nightmare
02:17for her initially. As she revealed in a chat with Danny Jordan for The Dad Diary,
02:21Passante received some scary letters after the show's initial success,
02:25and eventually had to move into a gated community with a guard for peace of mind.
02:29It was definitely life-changing. I did have to have a little bit of therapy
02:32about it. I didn't like to leave the house for some, you know, quite some time."
02:36Speaking to Lifetime Moms, Passante said that she's not as extroverted as she appears on the
02:41show, confessing,
02:42I even get anxiety when I have to go out to the store or to the gas station
02:45because I'm afraid of people approaching me."
02:48Passante said that her shyness sometimes makes her come across as an unpleasant person,
02:52and when she was a child, she would often throw unintentional dirty looks at onlookers.
02:56Passante is well aware that, because of her introverted personality,
03:00people sometimes have a misconception of her on Storage Wars. She said,
03:03I think I'm perceived as a b---- on the show,
03:05but I'm just trying to run a business and save money."
03:08One person that was a constant presence throughout Brandi Passante's time on Storage Wars was her
03:12longtime boyfriend, Jared Schultz. By the Storage Wars Season 13 premiere in 2021,
03:17however, Passante had announced they'd split up after filming Season 12 in 2018.
03:22Some of what we do know about Passante and Schultz's breakup came during a 2021 interview
03:27Passante gave to Spirit Talk. Throughout the chat, she opened up about moving on from the
03:31relationship.
03:32I was describing it as sort of emotionally dead inside, you know, kind of trying to find my place."
03:37Things between Passante and Schultz appeared a little cold after the breakup,
03:40with the two butting heads during storage auctions on the show. Passante also claimed
03:44during her interview with Spirit Talk that while she had started dating,
03:48she hadn't jumped back into any sort of relationship.
03:51Aside from navigating her breakup with Schultz, Passante was also dealing with
03:54fulfilling the new role of a single mom. Speaking to Danny Jordan for The Dad Diary,
03:58Passante revealed that while Schultz was still a part of their children's lives,
04:02their two kids were living with her. She shared that as tough as it was to raise two teenagers
04:06by herself, she and her kids were making the best of it, saying,
04:09We have a good relationship. We talk to each other and were able to tell each other things
04:13without me getting shocked or upset." However, she also said that she was trying to navigate
04:18the fine line between being her kids' confidant and their mom. When asked whether juggling multiple
04:22roles as a single mom was challenging, Passante revealed that she did most of the parenting
04:27when she and Schultz were together, and her responsibility list hadn't changed too much.
04:31That said, she did confess that her kids were more responsive to Schultz when he asked them
04:35to do their chores, saying,
04:36It's the scary dad voice in the background that we're missing."
04:39Even so, she said she was content with their family dynamic,
04:42and that she was happy with her life at the moment.
04:44One thing about being in the spotlight is that when the whole world knows your name,
04:48chances are they are pretty familiar with your family, too. Passante experienced just
04:53how much her fame affected her children when social media trolls decided to take aim at
04:57them on a few occasions, and she's tried to keep them out of the spotlight ever since.
05:01During her appearance on The Dad Diary, Passante said that her kids don't want
05:04her posting pictures of them on any social media platforms.
05:07Any time I post anything, people say gross things about my daughter, or, you know,
05:11just inappropriate stuff, and I don't want to expose them to that."
05:14Passante said that she respects her kids' wishes to remain off her social media feed,
05:18and therefore rarely posts any pictures with them unless she has their permission.
05:22Passante has plenty of videos and pictures she treasures on her camera roll,
05:26but the world won't get to see it. She did, however, post a snap of her daughter on Instagram
05:30in 2020 to celebrate her winter formal and show off her outfit. In the caption,
05:35she explained to her followers why they rarely saw her kids, writing,
05:38"'I stopped posting photos of my babies because some creepy-ass dudes were harassing them.
05:43Don't be gross.'"
05:44In May 2021, Brandi Passante and Jared Schultz's relationship made headlines again. Passante was
05:50spending time in an Orange County bar with some of her friends when Schultz visited the
05:53establishment and proceeded to have an exchange with Passante that reportedly turned violent.
05:58Police sources who spoke to TMZ after the incident said that,
06:01once the couple's exchange turned heated, Passante asked Schultz to leave,
06:05but he refused to do so. According to the sources, the argument escalated and then got physical.
06:10Schultz allegedly shouted at Passante before pushing her twice. Thanks to the commotion,
06:14the police were called, but Schultz reportedly left before authorities arrived at the scene.
06:18Passante gave a statement to the police, but Schultz denied the allegations.
06:22In the end, he was charged with misdemeanor domestic violence.
06:25It's not clear what the former couple were arguing about. Passante had hinted in an April
06:292021 interview with PopCulture that she and Schultz weren't getting along so well
06:33on the set of Storage Wars, describing working with her ex as, quote,
06:37"'not comfortable.'"
06:38"'There's a 90 percent chance that you're gonna leave here mad at me today, and I accept that.'"
06:43Brandi Passante is one of the many people who lost a family member during the first
06:47year of the COVID-19 outbreak. In October 2020,
06:50the Storage Wars personality took to Instagram to share that her dad had died.
06:54She posted a picture of her father holding her as a baby, along with lyrics to Willie Nelson's
06:59Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground. She continued to write in the caption,
07:02"'I always smile when I think of you. I was most definitely a daddy's girl. I can't think of a
07:07time that you ever got mad at me or yelled at me. I absolutely used that to my advantage.
07:11I will miss you terribly.'"
07:13Passante has continued to honor her father on social media in the years since his passing.
07:17In 2024, she posted a video with various pictures of the two of them to celebrate his birthday,
07:22writing in the caption,
07:24"'I miss you terribly. I hope you're enjoying a road soda and a paper bag and a cheap smoke.'"
07:29In 2022, an Instagram follower asked Passante why her voice has a distinctive rasp to it.
07:34She decided to share her answer in an Instagram story, saying,
07:38"'I have Hashimoto's disease, an autoimmune that affects my thyroid.
07:41Sometimes it makes my throat raspy.'"
07:43Passante didn't elaborate on when she was diagnosed with the disease or whether she
07:47experienced any other symptoms. According to the Cleveland Clinic, other symptoms of
07:51Hashimoto's disease include weight gain, exhaustion, and constipation. Puffiness of
07:56the face, hair loss, infertility, muscle pain and joint stiffness, and inability to concentrate and
08:01depression are also associated with the disease. Hashimoto's affects the thyroid gland's hormone
08:06production, causing it to produce less thyroid hormone than it should. This is what leads to
08:11the unpleasant symptoms associated with the disease. Hashimoto's disease is relatively
08:15common, affecting about every 5 in 100 people in the U.S. Medications that can help keep symptoms
08:20at bay are available. Unfortunately, no cure yet exists, and the medication used to treat symptoms
08:26can cause some undesirable side effects. If you or anyone you know is dealing with domestic abuse,
08:32you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
08:37You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.