Brandi Passante, the reasonable voice in ‘Storage Wars,’ is a fan favorite no doubt. Brandi who is actually from Houston, Texas moved to Orange County in California during her early years.
Her life completely changed after she started appearing on the reality TV series ‘Storage Wars’ with her longtime boyfriend Jarrod Schulz. ‘Storage Wars’ is a reality TV show that aired on the A&E entertainment channel which has successfully crossed more than ten seasons. The show focuses on the bidding and auction by auctioneers on storage lockers.
People love to watch this bossy lady. The companionship of Brandi Passante and Jarrod Schulz reminds us of the fact that opposites really do attract. Why? Because Brandi is often portrayed as the “Voice of the reason” and Jarrod “the loose cannon” throughout the show and this is what keeps it interesting!
The California native is not just a buyer. She has proved her mettle and has become a successful business model. She has built her empire with her own hard work. She is not that kind of person who stops finding and mending her ways to generate more income.
Since the on-screen couple is strong in their real-life relationship too, we love to watch them. Though there were controversies suggesting their show was rigged, time has proved it wrong.
Here’s a listicle on 15 little known facts about Brandi Passante and her marriage!
15 The Texas-Born Finds Love In California
How did Brandi from Texas end up with Jarrod in California? Good question! It is surprising that even at this age everyone’s history is not so public. Though this is digital era and we believe that Google and facebook can dig back our history, Brandi’s seems to be an exception. She is generally tight-lipped about her childhood life and in the public domain there is no much information about her early personal life. Yes, it is true that there are people who don’t want everything that happens in their life to be posted or hashtagged!
Though there is not much data or info available, according to marriedbiography.com, Brandi Passante was born on 16 May 1980, in Harris County, Texas, USA. Her nationality is American but her ethnicity is North American.
Her birth name and full name is Brandi Leigh Passante. There is no any information about her parents as well. She herself has not revealed any information about her childhood life. There is no much light on her educational background too. She doesn’t like it or not, we don’t know, prefers not to talk about her private life in media and public. From Texas later she had relocated to Orange County in California from where she met Jarrod Schulz, her longtime companion.
14 It Was Not Love At First Sight For Brandi
When Brandi Passante and Jarrod Schulz were interviewed by the History Con, they both had a mouthful to say about their first meeting, professional life, personal life and much more.
We all like to hear love stories. Whenever someone is ready to spill their beans, one of the first questions would be “Was it love at first sight”?
There is no doubt that Brandi and Jarrod are a wonderful lovely couple. They have known each other and have chosen a life together through thick and thin for more than 15 years now. So obviously, the interviewer wanted to know whether theirs is a love-at-first-sight story. But Brandi cleared the air by saying ‘no,' it was not a love at first sight for them. Instead, their love was a gradual thing that happened.
They might have had a spark in the beginning and then it grew gradually to become a strong bond. This reality TV show couple has disagreements on many topics except their relationship. And it is great to see that it is as real as the reality show they had involved in!
13 Jarrod Was Brandi’s Boss In The Beginning
Brandi is always showcased as a strong personality and Jarrod a flexible one. How is it even possible? This might be because of the mutual love and deep understanding that has grown between these two throughout the years.
So, how was their beginning? Jarrod and Brandi met in 1999. They were both working at a carpet-cleaning company in Tustin. Fortunately or unfortunately, Jarrod was the manager of the sales office. Brandi happened to be a new hire there and she finally landed a job.
Jarrod jokingly says: “She was, like, chasing me down all the time.” And Brandi says" “Yeah, right.”
So technically speaking Jarrod was Brandi’s boss before it all started. One of their mutual friends used to post chits on Jarrod’s truck asking him to be nice with Brandi because he knew that Jarrod could be a little abrasive.
Then they started dating and finally decided to be in a relationship. The rest we know. Life is quite surprising. We never know where it takes us and where we land. The person with whom you spend the rest of your life could be your childhood friend, your classmate, your family friend, your boss. It could be anyone, Who knows?
12 Brandi Made The First Move!
Well, Brandi might not agree with this. As revealed earlier, Brandi was an apprentice and Jarrod was her manager and they both were working together in a carpet cleaning company. We know Jarrod is on the softer side. But according to him, it was Brandi who made the first move.
According to marathi.tv, at the time when they met and got introduced to each other, both of them had just gotten out of bad relationships. We know how hard it is to recover from unpleasant negative relationships. Since both of them had gone through the same rough patch, they both were not ready to give it a try right away in the beginning.
But in an interview, Jarrod shared the secret that it was Brandi who had made the first move. She had gracefully refused his claim too. She says ‘in his wildest dreams.'
Whoever made the first move is not the important point. Whoever made the first move, the other one also followed suit and it has ended in a beautiful family, on-screen and in private too. This is simply amazing!
11 They Waited A Long Time Before Saying 'I Do'
Marriage is a big decision in everyone’s life. You can date anyone, but you always want the perfect partner in a marriage. This is because we consider marriage as a serious relationship in which we love unconditionally and also expect the same from our partners. Be it a man or a woman, both want the same thing from a marriage - love, trust, support and a good companionship. So when it comes to this step, we all think hard, add and subtract, multiply and divide everything that comes our way just to reach a decision.
For some, the decision making is not that tiresome. They are head over heels in love and take the decision without much delay. Some, on the other hand, will take weeks spanning to months and then to a couple of years to take the big decision of their life. Brandi and Jarrod Schulz took more than a decade to make this decision! Do you believe this?
They both had unpleasant previous experiences in their relationships before they met each other. This might have forced them to stick on to a long living together relationship without entering into a nuptial knot.
10 Jarrod Proposed To Brandi With Their Pet Dog
Proposals are always cute. People fill their brains to get on with new and excellent ideas to make proposals. Some people want it to be romantic while some add a fun element to it. Some make it most public whereas some want it to be utter private. Some make it more memorable but some are very casual.
I have always felt those casual ones are the most daring and most confident ones. Because they don’t have to show off anything and they are damn sure that they will hear nothing other than a ‘Yes’. So why to worry about crazy ideas?
Brandi Passante was proposed by Jarrod Schulz with the help of a mediator, and that is none other than their pet dog, Johnny. Jarrod made Johnny wear a black hat and a tuxedo. Johnny also had a chain on his neck with beautiful red and black heart-shaped lockets. On each of the lockets, Jarrod had messages printed in golden letters. The first one read “Let’s do this”, the second read “You earned this”, the third read, “You could do worse”, and the last one read “Please say Yes”. johnny then jumped on to the bed where Brandi was sitting and the rest you can imagine.
Wow! That was a cute one, wasn’t it?
9 Brandi Said Yes To A (Cheaper) Dress
Brandi was in full wedding swing when she was filmed dress shopping in season 1 episode 7. In the episode, Brandi tries on one dress after another but Jarrod keeps saying ‘No’ to each one. Why? Jarrod was reluctant to say 'yes' to any dress because of their price tags. According to Jarrod, it was unwise to spend that much on a gown that his future wife would only wear once.
Well, it's hard to disagree with that one. Brandi was definitely not looking at the price tags. She wanted what every bride does - to look and feel beautiful on her wedding day. Finally, though, Jarrod went on a random search across the wedding gown boutique and picked out a pretty one. As Brandi stated, “It would be the cheapest available on that store”.
Like every other woman, she also imagined an amazing wedding ceremony. Along with that, her wish list included the attendance of her full family to her wedding. Also, she made a wish of having flowers, a standard classical marriage including an outhouse and not to neglect, a lot of BOOZE too!
8 A Marriage And A Business
This is the million dollar question. It is not a secret that they have been in a strong relationship and have stayed together all these years. It is much more than a decade that they are going strong in their relationship. Though they were portrayed as a business couple in the Auction series of storage Wars by A&E, they were not married then.
The show started airing on December first, 2010. The success of the show garnered popularity to Brandi and Jarrod and they were approached by the producers of the show to have another show on their private life. Brandi & Jarrod are a couple who have made miracles happen in their life. A normal life escalated to a celebrity life!
The new show namely “Brandi and Jarrod: Married to the job” revolved around their personal life which also showed their bidding and auctioning on a small scale. A preview episode was aired on April 22, 2014, while the series officially premiered on August 12, 2014. The series only ran for eight episodes ending on September 30, 2014, according to Wiki.
In these episodes, the crazy and funny proposal by Jarrod was aired and to that Brandi said ‘Okay’. So we have seen the official proposal and confirmation. But unfortunately, we could not view the rest of it as the show was winded up with eight episodes.
The website marriedbiography.com has introduced Brandi as a married woman. So we believe, the couple is finally married but the marriage date and the details are not yet known to the public. Yes, the true Brandi style!
7 They Have 2 Kids
When the Auction TV series Storage Wars was aired, along with the show’s popularity, Brandi and Jarrod also became public figures. Though the show projected them as a lovely yet strong couple, they were never married then (Even now we don’t have any solid proof). They were in a strong living together relationship and have two kids, a son and a daughter.
Brandi and Jarrod have an older son and a younger daughter. Son is named Cameron and the daughter is named Peyton. Both children were featured on the brand new show - ‘Brandi & Jarrod: Married to the Job’.
Cameron is around 15 years old now. When he turned 12, Brandi setup his birthday celebrations with an 80’s themed birthday party. According to his bio put up on the A&E website, Cameron loves roller coasters and his favorite superhero is Captain America. He wants to eventually design cartoons.
Peyton, meanwhile, is almost 12 years old now and, just like her older brother, loves to ride roller coasters. According to aetv.com,she has either candy or money on her mind. She may come across as shy, but Payton is more than tough enough to hang with the boys. Payton loves to bake and can’t stand wearing jeans.Her dream was to join the track and field team. The current status of the kids are also not that public.
6 The Scandals Did Not Affect Their Relationship
This is something I like about her very much. Life can never be fair to everyone. Life is meant to be a test and a trial and it is never meant to be easy. In 2011, the creator of revenge porn site IsAnyoneUp.com, Hunter Tyler Moore claimed that he had nude photos and videos of Brandi and he would circulate the photos and videos on the internet. Brandi started getting wild tweets such as “Can’t wait to see more” etc followed by this. But after a research, she understood that she was not a part of the pictures and those were articulated. She protested saying that she was not the one on the videos and photos and also the photos were fake.
Brandi claimed that Moore had violated the Lanham Act, privacy and publicity statutes, defamation laws and consumer fraud laws, just to name a few. She sought $2.5 million in damages. Moore was found guilty in the case on the court. Jarrod stayed by her side through the ordeal and the scandal did not affect their marriage negatively.
Though the reality personality won her case, California Judge James Selna only awarded Brandi $750, claiming she had “established liability, she had failed to establish entitlement to damages she seeks.” Though the figure is not an attractive one, I salute her just because she stood up for a better cause and became a role model to many other women.
It is very interesting to note that Brandi’s name was never associated with anyone in affairs even as rumors. Also, there are no any rumors regarding her professional life. Throughout her successful career, she has never become a part of any other controversial issues.
5 Brandi’s Entry Must Say Thanks To Jarrod’s Aunt
From the Carpet cleaning company where Jarrod and Brandi met, Schulz eventually moved on to the mortgage business. Unfortunately or fortunately the mortgage business got collapsed in the mid-2000s and he was becoming unemployed without any unemployment benefits. Finding a job wasn’t very easy.
An aunt of Jarrod who managed a public storage facility one day invited Brandi and Jarrod to her store. It was a new experience for the couple. Gradually they both fell in love with this and they got tamed to become an integral part of the Storage Auctions held from then on.
When rent is not paid on a storage locker for three months in California, the contents can be sold by an auctioneer as a single lot of items in the form of a cash-only auction. The more they became proficient in this profession, the number of items they procured also increased. They had to open a thrift store to sell these items. It was their slowly emerging popularity in this field had attracted the producers of the show ‘Storage wars’ to them. The show which was started on Dec 1, 2010 has successfully completed 11 seasons as of now. Brandi & Jarrod became one of the most popular faces of the show and rest is history, you know!
4 Storage Wars Was The Game Changer
‘Storage wars’ was literally the game changer in Brandi and Jarrod’s lives. The show follows professional buyers who visit storage facilities throughout the state and bid on these lockers. Before each locker is auctioned, the buyers are given five minutes to inspect the contents from the doorway, but may not enter the locker or touch any of the items.
After the day's auctions are completed, the winning bidders sort through the lockers, estimating the prices they will set on the contents and/or consulting with experts for an appraisal of unusual items. Running totals on-screen display the cost versus estimated total value, and a final tally at the end of the episode summarizes the buyers' net profit or loss as per Wiki.
Brandi and Jarrod had opened the Now & Then Thrift Store in Orange, California to sell the items they collect through bidding and auction from various storage facility centres before started featuring in ‘Storage Wars’ itself. Once they became the integral part of the show, they got the perfect chance to collect even unusual items for their store through bidding and auction in the show. Needless to say that It has become an advertisement for their store. The store offers a handful of rare and hard-to-find items. It hasn’t all been easy though. In 2014, the couple closed the Long Beach, California location of Now & Then, opting to cut back on the high costs of running multiple stores.
3 Brandi Doesn't Want Her Kids In The Storage Business
Parents all over the world has some vision and dream about their children. A doctor would want his son or daughter to follow the same path and become a much more victorious doctor. This might be partly because the environment the kids grow would be more suitable for following their parents.
Brandi and Jarrod both are not in favour of the idea of their kids getting into buying storage units business. Brandi and Jarrod’s son Cameron wants to be a director or producer—which is great as per inquirer.net. The parents have already warned him that it is a tough industry.
According to Jarrod, Cameron had said, if the Director job is not working for him, then he could rely on the ‘Now & Then’ store by his parents. Jarrod and Brandi were not in approval of his plan. They had made it clear to him that he will not even have his first job there and he will have to find his own path. They have strictly prohibited him from following in his parent’s footsteps.
Brandi & Jarrod’s daughter is more into track-and-field . She likes to run and is very athletic. She also has tried her charm in competition cheerleading. And Brandi and Jarrod were surprised to see small girls dieting to lose extra three pounds and they have realised how hard those kids work and how dedicated they are.
2 Jarrod Loves Brandi’s Cooking Skills
Every wife longs to get compliments from their husbands. Brandi is lucky in this. Jarrod gives full credit to Brandi on her cooking. According to him, her cooking is amazing. As reported in the inquirer, Jarrod had admitted that before Brandi coming to his life he had never enjoyed food. He had never put salt in his food. For him food was something essential to sustain his life. He had not given more importance to food than this. But once Brandi came to his life and started cooking for him, hie eyes were opened. It was then he started enjoying his food. Sounds great!
Brandi’s schedule is almost, she is a mother of two, has the stores to take care of, should be the part of the shows as well. Even then she finds enough time to cook every now and then. She is a kind of person who is focused on healthy eating habits, but also admits that she has cheat meals too. She has told lifetimemoms.com:
‘I love to cook! I’m Sicilian, so it is in my blood! But it is time-consuming, so I have learned how to cut corners. I rely on roasted chickens a lot – I use them to make things like soups and pot pies. They make it possible for me to get dinner on the table in 30 minutes.’
Brandi also had disclosed that she had considered becoming a chef once. Ask her what is her specialty, the answer comes without a delay - it is none other than the ‘chicken stroganoff’.
1 Jarrod Continues To Surprise Brandi
Brandi and Jarrod had never imagined that their show would become a massive hit and they would become renowned public faces. When they started filming the show, they were already into buying storage units and had the ‘Now and Then’ store. Jarrod had told her back then, even if nothing happened, even if the show ran for only one season they would be getting a free advertising for their ‘Now & then’ thrift store. But the show surprised them. Jarrod’s words became true. Jarrod has been quoted saying: ”We never thought we’d get this far. I mean, we’re now in Asia for the first time!”
Jarrod says that he never plays a lottery because the show itself happened to be the biggest lottery in their lives (source: ocregister.com). As of 2018, the net worth of Brandi and Jarrod is estimated to be $2 million each.
According to Brandi, Jarrod surprises her every single day. Brandi was surprised that Jarrod knew a lot about fashion. Jarrod says, “Just because I am not fashionable doesn’t mean I don’t know anything about fashion”. He owns the brand ‘Outlawapparel’. He either creates or approves everything that comes out in outlawapparel.com. He also had made candles which again was a surprise for Brandi
References: wikipedia.org, aetv.com, marriedbiography.com, how-rich.com, youtube.com, entertainment.inquirer.net