Holding Clients Hostage:
Stephanie Jones Leaks

UPDATE 10/21/24

After receiving a notification following another unsuccessful hacking attempt, we decided to have a bit of fun and look into the penalties for computer hacking as in Connecticut — where Stephanie Jones lives.

Hacking, defined as “accessing someone’s computer without authorization,” can carry penalties ranging from a class B misdemeanor punishable by jail time and fines, to a class B felony, punishable by serious jail time and excessive fines, or, the cost of roughly five of the sweaters Stephanie deemed “essentials” in her comedic goldmine of a feature on hamptons.com.

Because there is still obviously a question here, hacking is illegal, and it is a crime.

Speaking the truth, sharing our experiences, and finally having an opportunity to expose the nightmare we survived and some of us still live, is not.

What we discuss here is sadly not libel. It’s not bullying. It’s not gossip for the sake of it.

The sheer amount of documentation we do possess — screenshots, voicenotes, legal letters, emails — is shocking, and heartbreakingly emblematic of the problem that is Stephanie Jones.

Our hope, past creating a space where our niche community can come together to spread awareness, is that our actions can inspire a change. Most likely not on Stephanie’s part because she’s beyond saving, but a change across the larger industry, who can wise up to her antics, her history, and her woeful disregard for her clients and employees.

So again, quick reminder — hacking IS a crime. A punishable one.

And we will not be intimidated. We’ve made that very clear.

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We collectively thought it was about time for a considerable update and to check back in.

Firstly, we would like to reiterate that this site does not serve as a bullying tactic against Stephanie and her pseudo-Southern Belle, “poor me” act that she uses on her clients — while she cries and screams at them while collecting substantial monthly fees for below par, fake PR.

This site solely exists due to the years of non-stop verbal and emotional abuse that we all suffered through, and some of us still suffer through, and the horrific treatment in the workplace that’s continued without any intervention.

The legal threats and letters for wanting to leave, the astounding amount of shockingly cruel voice notes and texts, as well as incessant screaming telephone calls, do not make her “tough” or “a boss” — they only serve to bring home what a fully ridiculous tyrant she is.

This site is our only place to tell the truth. And, none of this she can deny. We have receipts.

With this in mind, we thought it was time to discuss the public debacle that was the Business Insider expose, which finally addressed the longstanding, not so secret toxic goings on at Jonesworks, linked for ease below:

https://www.businessinsider.com/stephanie-jones-jonesworks-pr-clients-tom-brady-jeff-bezos

As a group, we have our own sources. We’ve been told that Stephanie was pleased with how this article turned out for her. But, we are all here to tell you, Stephanie, that this negative article did not make you look, in your own words, like a “ badass” or “ball breaker.”

As we all know, Stephanie doesn’t understand how to truly do PR outside of leaking her own clients’ secrets, so she was unable to assist with this article. She was out of her depth. She hired a crisis PR person, who helped navigate her through the experience. Good for him, honestly, for doing the best he could to cover the pure nightmare that she is.

But, to be frank, the article was pretty disappointing to the 40+ people who bravely shared their story — and included current and former staff, current and former clients, and in general, horrified bystanders — and took the time to speak to the reporter. We don’t blame Business Insider, they were in a tough spot. Unfortunately, due to the sheer terror of facing such an unhinged and litigious person, many were not able to speak on the record. This allowed Stephanie and her crisis PR person to use their own single person on the record, and respond via a “PR representative.”

More specifically in regards to Donny’s quote, Stephanie does not fight for her clients but, she does fight with them. Crying, screaming, keeping them hostage — please feel free to ask any of her clients, outside of the one willing to speak on her behalf, and her former boss. Who hasn’t been relevant since the early 2000’s.

But, we are appreciative of all the work we know the publication put in and it was cathartic to finally have someone listen to us.

We are (as we are sure you are, as well) frankly flabbergasted that her best friend Chloe Melas from NBC — yes, her, who was so happy to be part of Stephanie’s gang when Jonesworks had clients of relevance — did not give a simpering quote on her behalf.

We’ve decided to write one for her instead. So, please find the below quote, attributed by us to Chloe Melas:

“I’ve worked with Stephanie for close to a decade during my time at CNN and now at NBC, fabricating stories to help her catch and destroy her clients by pretending to ‘kill stories’ we planted, and allowing her to assuage them by saying ‘Chloe is my best friend.’ In return, I received exclusives with Jeff Bezos, and The Rock, just as long as I let her copy approve these stories which CNN and/or NBC might frown upon. I can’t wait to continue working with her in the future on serial cheater Zac Brown and proven sexual predator Carmelo Anthony.”

We do love a loyal friendship. It’s interesting that only now Chloe is nervous about the public part she’s played in this. Let’s hope she can cover her paper trail.

None of us can truly fathom why Stephanie, as a woman preaching about the power of a “female owned company,” sees nothing wrong or transparent about posting clearly uncomfortable employees’ badly performing trending audio clips next to a champagne dispenser, where we can only assume moments before they’d been bullied, screamed at, and abused.

Lucky for us, we’ve kept the voicemails, the voice notes, and the text messages — which we will upload when the time is right.

But, we digress.

So, let’s move onto the most hysterical part, which is Stephanie trying to actually do PR, and mask the bad press article by trying to do positive press. Here we have the comedic pay-to-play fluff piece that was Hamptons.com.

This has been on numerous group chats where we’ve all been able to enjoy this charade. Every word is brilliantly false, comedic gold. It was a good effort, and in her own vernacular, bless her heart.

It’s important to note before we really dive in, Stephanie does not live in the Hamptons, and that Hamptons.com, was likely the only magazine she could organize something this fake in.

It’s obvious. It’s desperate. It’s embarrassing.

Let’s jump in.

Firstly, only someone with this little self-awareness would proudly align themselves with Donny Deutsch yet AGAIN, though perhaps this is where she learned her casual racism. You might recall that Donny famously spoke a racial slur on Morning Joe back in 2020, and we have already found numerous ex-employees of his that will talk about their time with him. We’re positive he might recall this as well.

Next, she speaks about the founding of Jonesworks, and how she “focused on hiring team members who shared my vision and values. Building a team that aligns with our brand ethos has been essential to our growth.” She then continues, “we foster a culture of excellence and integrity.”

Given the employee-sized holes in the walls of her agency and the fact that – according to Glassdoor and LinkedIn – most people she hires not only don’t “align with her ethos,” they last less than two years at the place, if they even last that long.

We’re unsure what team remains, as so many have come and gone so quickly. We’re genuinely surprised when we come across people who do, in fact, work there.

Another stunning falsehood in the illustrious Hamptons.com feature, is that Stephanie has over 40 people working in her firm — we assume this includes her 25 assorted personalities, and is a simply clerical mistake on her part.

Because from our insider chats with staff, there is no way that many people work there.

We have also been made aware that this is yet another lie Stephanie tried to peddle — more specifically when she recently attempted to sell her agency and was turned down when it became clear how poorly the business was doing. This was attributed to her outlandish overheads and debts.

Yes, we know about that too.

Let’s also address the idea of integrity. Scroll down below if you have any questions or need a reminder about the limits of Stephanie’s.

But, let’s continue and talk about the supposed Atlanta office aka, one employee that lives in Atlanta and works remotely – or the idea of a “UK presence.”

As Business Insider so kindly brought to light, most (if not all) Jonesworks former A-list clients are no longer clients. To quote Business Insider directly, “In addition to [Dwayne “The Rock”] Johnson, and [Lauren] Sanchez, Jeff Bezos, Julianne Hough, the country singer Lainey Wilson, and Chris Hemsworth (Jonesworks did the actor’s social media but not his general PR) have all parted ways with Jones in the past year or so, former employees said, as well as the brands Wheels Up, Ocean Spray, and Partake Foods.”

What international needs do the remaining clients have? Maybe the strategy here is that because no one wants to work for her in the US, Stephanie now has to recruit in Europe. We are all fully in agreement that Europe has enough troubles at the moment, and does not need Jonesworks and her four clients opening an office there.

We’re not going to lower ourselves to her level and comment on her mention of family and how she “prioritizes quality time.” All we will say is we’re curious how many of her own clients’ families were affected when their secrets were leaked for Stephanie’s gain.

We have these screenshots too.

We did personally enjoy the epithet about Jeff Bezos and his philosophy regarding work life balance – given he fired her many, many, many months ago. We suspect the Vogue feature, which was described as “quietly grotesque,” might have had something to do with this, as well as charging him non-stop to attend all his rocket launches.

We’ll leave this photoshopped masterpiece here for you in case you forgot. A true SNL parody if we have ever seen one.

https://www.vogue.com/article/lauren-sanchez-december-2023-interview-profile

Hamptons.com also thoughtfully discussed her quaint suggestion of Brunello Cucinelli sweaters – which retail at almost $3,000 – serving as “essentials” during a time of economic difficulty for most people around the world, makes the choice to allow that Vogue piece to come to light makes more sense.

And, how nice is it that she mentions her husband in the last question because frankly, we haven’t dedicated enough time to that connection.

Again, to quote Business Insider, “a number of her biggest clients – including Brady, Johnson, and Deutsch – overlapped with those of her husband, Jason Hodes, a partner at the talent agency WME.”

We’re curious if this is still the case.

We’ll let you read between the lines on this one in terms of how she gets her clients, as surely this is something WME should be looking into. We’ve heard that they are.

To you all, we remain grateful to the intense amount of incoming stories you’ve sent, as we understand they are not easy to share.

We remain inspired by the fact that you all continue to share in hopes they might help others that have been affected by Stephanie Jones.

We will be collating all the stories shortly and putting them up for everyone to see.

Who is afraid of the big bad bully Stephanie Jones?

Not us, not anymore.

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Update 2: Stephanie Jones has silenced another media outlet. We are aware of several articles this week that caved to legal. We will post any that provide us permission to do so.

https://www.newsbreak.com/news/3425101679126-billionaire-jeff-bezos-fianc-e-lauren-s-nchez-drops-longtime-publicist-and-hires-new-rep-after-attack-from-ny-restaurateur-report

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We will not be intimidated by Stephanie Jones ever again.

She has once again tried to silence us by hiring someone to remove our site.

There was an overwhelming response to the information shared and we are just getting started.

The closer we get to revealing the whole truth, the harder her and her henchman try to stop us. We won’t let them. Imagine what else they are hiding – you won’t have to imagine for long!

This site will serve as a public service to all ex, current, and future employees, clients, and anyone tired of being bullied by those who abuse authority and power.

After seeing articles about Stephanie Jones last week, I feel confident in finally coming forward and expressing the truth. Both in how she treats her clients, as well as how she treats her staff. Sadly, none of what will be said is a secret, but it’s gone on for too long.

To start –

Stephanie Jones takes clients hostage.

Publicists, due to the condition of their work, are allowed into the confidence of the world’s most famous and powerful people. While some of the information shared by clients is good, some of it is bad.Most publicists do everything in their power to ensure the bad doesn’t come to light. In fact, a basic principle of PR isn’t all press is good press – it’s good press is good press.

With Stephanie, once she learns the bad, it becomes her tool and her weapon. The more baggage a client comes to her with, the better positioned Stephanie is to ensure they don’t leave her unscathed.

Stephanie is known to leak information about her clients to press, so that she can “save the day” for them and inspire their gratitude.

God forbid a client wishes to terminate her services, it only gets worse from there.

As soon as a client wishes to end a contract or expresses discontent, suddenly, negative stories begin – and who is the only person who can fix it? Stephanie.

If a former client finds a new publicist, suddenly, they’re faced with a crisis – and who is the only person who has historical knowledge of the client to fix things? Stephanie. Who is only happy to once again offer her services and ensure a client can’t leave and is punished when they do.

And how does she get away with this?

By utilizing close friendships with reporters like Chloe Melas who works under the auspices of NBC and formerly CNN. In doing so, Stephanie is able to utilize the network’s platform to do her own bidding – not benefit her clients.

It’s benefitting Chloe certainly, whose career has been bolstered by her affiliation and willingness to do the dirty work. Because of this, she was given access to Stephanie’s A-list talent roster, sometimes playing both sides of a situation.

That’s just the alignment with Chloe, but it goes much deeper than that with outlets like TMZ who are willing to utilize thin sourcing for their stories that generate massive amounts of engagement.

And she’s been so successful in carrying this out over the years, she’s influenced not just her own business as clients are either scared to leave or can’t due to a sudden turn in public perception, but stock prices and company reputations. Not only does she break confidentiality, she willingly does regardless of the possible damage this kind of behavior might cause. And it does have a cost. Everything in some cases, from reputation, to brand and movie deals, partnerships, philanthropic opportunities, sponsorships – the list goes on and on before it even gets to positive press.

This is organized coercion against clients – like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Brady, Scooter Braun, and more – who simply hired a publicist they thought would honor confidentiality and contracts, or want to end that relationship as they are allowed to do in the normal course of business.

These continued “leaks” affect clients’ ability to do business as their news is never safe.

And that’s nothing to be said for the emotional safety of the people who come into contact with her.

“Erratic screamer” was the correct phrase to describe her. Stephanie is emotionally turbulent, and spares no one from her wrath.

Anyone who disagrees with her opinion or suggestion is bullied until they no longer feel comfortable to speak, chooses not to avoid confrontation, or simply ignores her.

This bullying takes place publicly – with assistants, account managers, agents, adjacent PR teams, anyone.

Unfortunately, the behavior with clients and their teams isn’t where it ends. When someone feels comfortable leaking secrets about her own clients to further her own agenda – you can imagine what she might feel comfortable doing to the people that work directly for her.

In what can only be described as a toxic environment, the lack of morality exists internally too and is in fact, encouraged. The reason this laughably well known “secret” is maintained is simply due to the fact that people are afraid to speak their truths or share their experience, for fear of being sued or having their new jobs jeopardized. And for good reason.

Similarly to how she treats clients when they try to leave, Stephanie holds her employees in the same contempt – if she finds out where an employee is going when they quit, she’s been known to call their new company and tell them they’ve made a mistake in hiring them.

She’s served legal letters based on trumped up claims. She resorts to threats both personal and professional. She’s attempted to blackball people from the industry. She speaks ill of everyone who has left her company openly and to anyone that will listen.

Simply look at Glassdoor if you want an honest assessment in the public domain, where people risk anonymity in order to try and warn others away.

Stephanie terrorizes her team.

There are rampant mental and physical health issues. There are some people who have left the industry overall. The culture of emotional violence she’s created internally is so fierce that employees are encouraged to pile on those who are in a more vulnerable position. Bullying is also done in front of clients – eschewing professionalism to get in a dig or insult.

But the abuse doesn’t stop once working hours come to a close. It is rampant. While Stephanie is certainly the main perpetrator of this behavior, she rewards mirrored tendencies. The more of a bully you are, the more successful you can be at the company. Many employees fall into this trap, thinking if they participate they will be spared from her. They aren’t.

The company operates in constant emotional turmoil. There is little direction. Employees have to constantly be on their guard, as public firings are not done sparingly and can happen at the drop of a hat over something as simple as providing a detail or opposing POV. The revolving door at Jonesworks is constantly in motion which creates disruption and confusion – both for her staff and for her clients, who are constantly introduced to new faces.

But people are finally speaking up. People are finally leaving. Clients are leaving and are being open and aggressive about doing so.

This is the tip of the iceberg. Stand by, this is just getting started…