Let’s start with the episode that broke the internet at the time. In Season 5, Episode 13, the “cultural, sophisticated” Stephens-Fowler family of San Francisco swapped wives with the “paintball-loving” Long family from small-town Missouri. Right off the bat, the Stephens-Fowlers wanted America to know how intellectual and well-off they were — and boy, did it backfire spectacularly. After a walkthrough of the Long’s house, swapped wife Renee Stephens remarked, “I guess we’re not looking at advanced degrees here.” Unlike her home filled with organic groceries and fine art, the Longs enjoyed fast food and ATVs.
Throughout the two-week experience, Stephens’ husband Stephen Fowler repeatedly berated swapped wife Gayla Long and snubbed middle-America (his British accent doesn’t help). Some of the insults hurled include: “Your two languages seem to be bad English and redneck,” “She’s a very rude lady, but that’s okay because she doesn’t have an education,” and, “God, that woman is the most stupid woman I’ve ever met in my life.”
According to “Today,” Fowler’s comments sparked immediate disdain from the public online, inspiring a (now defunct) StephenFowlerSucks.com, a Facebook group, “I Can not Stand Stephen Fowler from ‘Wife Swap,'” and death threats. In an interview with the Noe Valley Voice, Fowler said he regretted going on the show, as he was subsequently fired from his job two weeks after the episode aired, and it put a strain on his marriage. “I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy,” he said.
