Dr. Jenn Discusses The Joe Vs. Flav Showdown On 'Couples Therapy'

Over the last two episodes of Couples Therapy, Joe Francis and Flavor Flav have been involved in a vicious war of words. Flav and girlfriend, Liz Trujillo, were just about to formally announce Liz's pregnancy to the group when Joe and his girlfriend, Abbey Wilson, interrupted the celebration, lashing out at them. What we learned in our weekly talk with Dr. Jenn Berman was that originally, Flav and Liz had thought they were six months along and shared that information with the group. After a doctor visit and ultrasound, it was determined they were just ten weeks along, information that Joe and Abbey didn't have at the time that they confronted Flav. It was an ugly conflict, one borne out of the fact that Joe had been growing increasingly frustrated with the attention Flav and Liz diverted away from the group.

There have been several developments with this situation, including Joe approaching the media to make accusations at Dr. Jenn. In our interview below, she sets the record straight.

It appears that Joe contacted a few media outlets including RumorFix, and they published an email he wrote which accuses you of lying. Can you explain exactly what happened?

I'd like first to just clarify the misinformation. What happened is that Flav had approached me at a certain point and said "I think that Liz may be pregnant, I'm not sure how far along she is." When I asked how far along he thought she was, he said he thought sixteen weeks. He asked me not to say anything for awhile, but apparently he had told the other cast members, so people were buzzing about that and eventually it kind of became public information at the house.

What happened was after 911 was called for Liz, I heard cast members talking about the pregnancy and I was like, the cat is out of the bag and I acknowledged to the cast that, yes, she is pregnant and as far as we know it's sixteen weeks. That was the information I had at the time. After she came back from the hospital, I sent her to the top perinatologist in the country and he said to me that he could only treat her if she was also treated by a gynecologist, so I lined up that appointment, which was the appointment they were refusing to go to last week, and when they saw the gynecologist, they did an ultrasound and the gynecologist said they were ten weeks along. I did not share that information with anyone. In the kitchen, when Flav was planning to make that official announcement he was planning to tell the other cast members what was happening. Joe and Abbey didn't have the most up-to-date information and now they're accusing me of lying to them, ad I didn't lie, I gave them the information that I had when I had it, and Flav was going to give them the other information. I'm not sure what difference that six weeks makes, but I think Joe and Abbey felt that he had known for longer than he let on and that upset them and I don't blame them. I get that.

So was that like the final straw, and they snapped because so much of their frustration compounded and that was the last thing they needed to set them off?

Absolutely, I wish they hadn't done what they did, I wish they had let Flav make his announcement and talk to them privately, but I understand their frustration and I don't blame them. It was a very touchy situation because I felt like Flav deserved the respect of being able to announce his girlfriend's pregnancy the way that he wanted. It wasn't official until the doctor confirmed it, and when the doctor confirmed it, they were ten weeks along, not sixteen as they had thought.

Has this situation changed anything about the way you view your doctor-patient relationship with Joe?

For me it does not. I feel bad that Joe feels that I lied and that he didn't talk to me directly. I think that if he had called me and talked to me, he would have understood what was going on, he wouldn't have needed to lash out. I get that a lot of people have betrayed Joe in his life, and his expectation is that people will, but this was not that. Despite what he said about me in the media, I care about Joe and Abbey and I will continue to be available to them if I can be helpful, and I hope at some time he does reach out to me so he can get the proper information.

There were several moments recently where Joe talked about feeling more intellectual than his cast mates, like in the anger exercise where everyone got to take their aggression out by smashing things, he said that violence was something performed by the intellectually inferior.

That was a very anxiety provoking exercise for Joe, and the idea of letting loose like that was really scary for him.

It was so affecting to see Liz perform that exercise, and watching Flav's reaction to her was also really emotional and really hard. It was clear that some of her anger was directed at him for doing the Flavor of Love shows and hurting her in general, but he was so supportive of her while she was breaking the dishes.

It was actually directed more at the person who molested and abused her, but there was some directed at Flav. I think it hit home for him just how hurt she was. I think he had spent a lot of time defending his actions and justifying it as "It's just a contract," and "This is my livelihood," and I think this was the first time he really got how painful that was for her. I think he really absorbed it for the first time.