Welcome to The Trial of David Foster, where Lauren and Chan examine this Canadian songwriter & producer's marriages and misdeeds. Listen as the gals dive into David's five marriages to discuss his relationship patterns and the toll it has taken on those in his orbit. Join Lauren and Chan as the judge, jury, and executioner regarding this man's bad behavior, complete with the gals' take on why David hated being on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills + why they think he and Yolanda Hadid (wife #4) split. Finally, listen in as Lauren and Chan discuss the interview where Katherine McPhee (wife #5) tells the tale of her and David's love. Buckle in, because this is a trial you won't want to miss. Shop Clean Simple Eats protein powder a nd use code POPAPOLOGISTS for 10% off! Click here to try Ea rlyBird CBD/THC gummies and use code POP20 for 20% off. To support the show, consider subscribing on Patreon or on Apple Podcasts, where yo u can get a bonus episode of Pop Apologists every Friday! Please note this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What is the purpose of this episode?
Hi, everyone. Well, thank you so much for being here today. Chandler and I, Chandler sitting right next to me, say hello. Hello. We have decided that we are going to give ourselves on the week of Thanksgiving and the week of Christmas a little moment to not be putting out a new episode, but instead to be delighting you with a top episode of our almost 400 plus episodes.
There's quite a catalog and we need to resurface some of our best work. We absolutely do. And for the four years we've been doing the show, almost five, we were like, we never don't put out a new episode. And one of the things we've noticed is that barely anyone's listening to podcasts on these weeks. Yeah. It's really not something where like everyone's listening anyway.
And so everyone's just with their families enjoying the holidays. We're just going to give ourselves the grace to do that as well. We back next week with a brand new, fresh, free episode of Pop Apologists. There will always be an episode on our premium content. If you are dying for our fresh takes. We are chatting all about Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Orange County.
Donna Kelsey starring in not one, but two Hallmark movies. Ballerina Farm inviting the New York Times into her home. I mean, to be honest, the premium episode this week is very charged. We have a lot to say. So if you are dying for more content, it's always there. Enjoy this episode that we're bringing back from the archives. Yes. Love you guys. Love you.
There's a TikTok going around which is a clip of David Foster and Catherine McPhee. They're at some sort of concert hall doing a singing event or whatever and they show her at American Idol and she kind of like makes a reference to her body at that time. She's like, I was a lot chubbier then or I was chubby then and David Foster goes, you were fat. He literally says, you were fat. Yes, yes.
This is a long awaited day Chandler, this deep dive we're about to embark on together. Yes, Lauren, this is a long awaited, highly contested, demanded deep dive. And I think actually deep dive is the wrong classification. What you have joined me in today and what you're going to witness is actually the trial of David Foster. Except we didn't bring a jury. We just brought an executioner.
There will be no two sides of this argument. Yeah. So yeah. And I also am just going to start off this by saying that I attempted to rewatch the David Foster off the record documentary that we watched years ago. And that's what really turned us on to how terrible he is. So true. And I couldn't even get through it. I was just planning on having it in the background while I was working.
And I could not listen to that man for one more minute. And I had to turn it off. So yeah. I feel like just in our own defense, because this feels like such a, like, why are we doing this? Like, why are we doing a deep dive on David Foster? He's just a music producer.
I do feel like the culture has foisted David Foster and his personality and his personal life onto us, like in the form of him being on various reality shows, in the form of his documentary on Netflix.
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Chapter 2: Why is David Foster controversial?
And once again, another reason why this isn't a deep dive is because I actually don't care to take you through his professional accomplishments. I'll pass a few notes on those, but this is actually just a deep dive on his crimes against women. And that's it. His accolades and the way he's produced so many amazing stars cannot absolve him of his crimes.
One of my favorite things about David Foster is... So I listened to World's First Podcast hosted by his daughters, Erin and Sarah, who I really adore. And one of my favorite things that they've ever said is he just... It was so annoying to them and also to him that he so quickly became Yolanda Hadid's husband or Yolanda Foster's husband or Yolanda Foster's ex-husband.
Like he was a guy who's the husband of a real housewife that really became how he was known across America. And I just find that to be cosmic justice, you know? Oh, yes. I mean, by a show of hands class, who had heard of David Foster until Yolanda Hadid stepped out into the real housewife scene?
until that golden skinned platinum beauty came across our silver screens who the fuck did we didn't know who david foster was i mean all we knew was we were trying to get like the mom driving us home from school to turn off josh groban that's as close as we came to david foster or the or the sister that you shared a jack and jill bathroom with who loved to sing along to josh groban you love josh groban let's not let's not pretend i guess i shouldn't play it cool
You know, there was a time, Chandler, when Josh Groban gave me some stirrings, okay? You raised me up. I felt the spirit. Or was he your sexual awakening? Yeah. You know what? There was a time, Chandler, when I would think there were stirrings all across my body.
Have you ever been turned on by Josh Groban?
Listening to Josh Groban is true. Yes. Literally, I think I only knew about Josh Groban because you love Josh Groban. I think that's really sweet about you. I think, you know, always had a taste for really like annoying stuff like that. The thing is, is I think 12, 13, yes, I had a moment with Josh Groban, but then I quickly came to realize that Josh Groban was popular. Opera, pop.
It wasn't highbrow. We weren't listening to arias. It was lowbrow, highbrow. Yeah, exactly. It was lowbrow, highbrow. I very quickly did away with the Josh Groban, my personal Spotify catalog. Well, thank goodness because it's really proved to help you succeed and get to be the podcaster that you are today. Thank goodness you've only stuck to highbrow stuff since then.
Yeah, it's so true, honestly. Thank you, Chandler, for pointing that out. In my research and thinking about what I wanted to say today, I realized that if the stars ever align and our podcast ever gets up off the ground, we're never going to be able to go on the world's first podcast because we will have done a trial and execution of their father.
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Chapter 3: What patterns emerge in David Foster's marriages?
I mean, I think that would be so emotionally scarring, especially to be in a Hollywood situation where everyone's really wealthy, where you are, you know, your dad is famous, you know, he's not just like some deadbeat who's actually, who's choosing this other family. Right. Like way more traumatic for Aaron and Sarah and Jordan as compared to Brandon and Brody, who they had a father figure.
They were in the, you know, they had all the wealth. They had all the resources. But then, you know, they had their own trauma, which was seeing Bruce go and have a family. And now Caitlin have a family with Chris. And there was a lot of abandonment issues from those kids towards Caitlin. Yes. So a trail of tears by these men. A trail, literally. Men and women. Mostly men.
So in 2016, Linda Thompson released a memoir called A Thing Called Life. In her book, she revealed that David Foster was very jealous of her exes. And he expected his wife to cater to him. And this is where I really got the impression that he really is neat. a king and he needs to be treated like one.
She writes, quote, at times he had an expectation that I was there to serve and take care of him, to make beds and do housework. He really and truly wanted to be treated like a king, not like a husband or father, which speaks volumes about what he was like to live with as lovable as he could be. You're not saying to David Foster, hey, can you do bedtime tonight? I'm pretty tired. Right, exactly.
This is not a partner. This is not someone who's in life with you. This is someone, and I think that for a lot of really wealthy guys, That's the deal. If you decide to sign up for a life with them and they've already built everything and they don't see you as a true partner, they really see you as like their romantic partner, but also like their like low-key maid. Like you're there to serve them.
Yeah. House manager slash sex partner. Right, right. Which honestly, it's not a terrible deal, okay? Linda looked like she was having a pretty decent life if you watched Princess of Malibu. You know, if you know that that's the deal and that doesn't bother you, who am I to say whatever? But you know, Lauren, David would get really upset when Elvis was brought up.
So she said that she saw Foster's insane jealousy of the memory of Elvis and who Elvis was. But David clapped back and he said in Vanity Fair, it wasn't jealousy. I just got tired of having a TV crew in our house every year on the anniversary of his death and hearing my wife declare him the love of her life. Just kind of funny. Wait, that's actually hilarious. Mic drop.
And to be honest with you, I really feel like this is the one time on this episode that I'm going to be team David because I feel like if you hear Linda Thompson talk and if you – I didn't read her memoir, but I feel like I got the gist of it by reading all the magazine articles – It was all about Elvis. Her life is about having dated Elvis. That's her claim to fame. David Foster is a footnote.
The father of her children is a footnote. Caitlyn Jenner is a footnote. It's all about the nine-month relationship she had with Elvis or however long it was. So just to quickly follow up with a few more details about Aaron and Sarah. Sarah says that her dad really instilled the importance of hard work into her, you know, thanks to his adage, I'm rich, you're poor.
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Chapter 4: How did David Foster's actions affect his children?
Now he's with Catherine McPhee, who's like 30 years younger than him. David was always going to David. Her getting sick just sped up the inevitable. Yeah, it's so true. It's honestly so true. There's a TikTok going around, which is a clip of David Foster and Catherine McPhee. They're doing some sort of like, they're at some sort of concert hall doing a singing event or whatever.
And this is recent. And they show her at American Idol doing something. And she kind of makes a reference to her body at that time. She's like, I was a lot chubbier then, or I was chubby then. And David Foster goes, you were fat.
We met 17, almost 18 years ago when I was a little chubby and tearful contestant on American Idol. Look at me smiling.
Oh yeah. So happy. You were fat.
I was a little chubby, okay? True. I was just young.
He literally says, you were fat. Yes. Yes. I'm going to throw up. I think it really just goes to show the way he views women and the way he thinks it's okay to talk about women. Because if he can say that in front of a crowd about his wife, what does he feel like it's appropriate to say? Oh, absolutely. I mean, oh, that's vile.
Let's get into his relationship with Catherine McPhee because she was giving an interview talking about how they met and, you know, eventually got together. And I think there's some, like, fascinating tidbits in there. Basically, the long story short of it is that he kind of always told her that he was into her. Oh, interesting. And I guess, you know, do you want me to play the audio?
Yeah, play the audio.
Okay.
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Chapter 5: What insights does Linda Thompson provide about David Foster?
Catherine David Foster you know who David Foster is and uh I was like okay so I grew up idolizing Celine and that was one of the many people that he like she was already he'll credit and credit her because he's always good at giving credit where credit's due but he'll he'll say that Celine was already famous in Canada but he brought her he brought her down to America and
made her first album with her. And so I was obsessed with Celine, obsessed with her too, but he didn't produce her. And the Whitney Houston bodyguard soundtrack. I mean, he did like everything that I loved. So anyway, that was when I first met him, but of course it wasn't like, I mean, I was very young and we have a huge age difference.
And so I was certainly not, all I was thinking about was the competition and Andre Bocelli and
getting through that week but it was really cool because when i came off the show i came in second i didn't win but ice got signed to rca and they had me the the big song that i sang on idol was somewhere over the rainbow that simon picked for me he had like said this is you know this is a song that cat's gonna sing you know and uh so rca had hired david so i remember like getting in my little because i grew up here in la so i had my car here and my mom came to the studio
And he lived in Malibu at the time, this beautiful property. It was mostly like the house itself, he'll say, like wasn't even that great. But he had this amazing studio with this huge lawn. So it's just like straight out of a movie where I pull up in my little like Honda Civic car. So cheeky. My first little car that I ever had.
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Chapter 6: What lessons can we learn from David Foster's relationships?
It was like a beautiful mansion and had a great session that day and recorded the vocals with him. And I just remember being really, you know, I realize obviously at that point how iconic of a
producer he was right and all the amazing accomplishments he had and being there with my mom and doesn't just talking about music and stuff so it was a really special day and then he started taking me on the road like to do a bunch of he's everyone would tell you that he never says no to a charity event right he's like always doing the musical entertainment for a charity event so but then he always needs singers to sing so I started becoming one of many singers that he would take on the
so none of that had any romantic notions whatsoever um although he did like you know he did make it known that i was marrying the wrong person um i did get married i got married uh i was almost 24 so i was 23 and so i'd already known him for a couple years now i'd been done a bunch of gigs with him He came to the wedding and played the piano when I sang for my then husband.
We'll pause right there and we can keep listening. But isn't that crazy? That is crazy. He played the piano at her wedding. Yes. I also want to know. He told her she was marrying the wrong person. Yes. Probably when he's with Linda Thompson at this time.
No, literally.
Or maybe this was Yolanda. Linda Thompson and him, I think were divorced at this time. But yeah, pre-Yolanda. Yeah. So we'll keep listening.
And that situation didn't work out. But it was, you know, I learned a lot. But he was just kind of always this person that I... really felt honored to know and to just, I knew I didn't never had any intentions of him producing an album for me or whatever. I, when I could, music is like a whole other subject I can go into.
I kind of always just in the back of my mind realized I would probably be more of an actor than I would be like a recording artist. And yeah, so we stayed friends and did a lot of gigs together and got to know each other in a lot of different circumstances, but it wasn't until, After I moved back from LA, I went to New York, from New York.
I did Smash for two years, did a TV series on CBS Scorpion for four years. And then it wasn't until like the last two years of Scorpion that we ran into each other in Palm Springs. And I was much more mature. I was 32 years old and we had a lot of red wine. Yeah. That's how it always starts. That's how my babies were made.
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