Interview Becomes Tense When Tori Spelling Is Asked About Her Financial Troubles: ‘Are You Able To Pay Your Bills?’

An interview with New York City’s Fox 5 became awkward for guests Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth when “Good Day New York” co-host Rosanna Scotto asked Spelling about her financial troubles.

Spelling has endured well-publicized monetary issues in recent years, which recently resulted in a bench warrant issued when she failed to appear in court for a hearing involving City National Bank, which is suing the couple over an unpaid debt of $205,000.

During the interview on Tuesday, which surrounded the “Beverly Hills, 90210” co-stars reuniting for “BH90120”, Scotto asked Spelling about how her money troubles are comedically addressed in the new mockumentary-style series, which follows the stars of the teen drama as they attempt to launch a reboot.

“That was a decision I made and we made together to put that in there,” Spelling explained. “That’s such speculation, media loves to talk about it, so we were like, ‘Let’s face it straight on. Let’s put it in there.’”

This led Scotto to push further. “The media has been all over your financial troubles,” Scotto told Spelling (the money talk begins at the 2:15 mark in the video above). “Are you experiencing financial troubles? Are you able to pay your bills?”

“Am I able to pay my bills?” responded Spelling in disbelief. “Yeah, thank you. I am.”

Despite the immediate awkwardness, Scotto continued her line of questioning by pointing out that the new series will “give you money in your pocket,” a remark that Garth termed “interesting,” while Spelling suggested the cringe-inducing interview could be integrated into “BH90210”.

At the interview’s end, Scotto apologized, telling Spelling, “I’m sorry if I offended you.”

After the interview aired, Scotto explained her rationale for asking the question.

“I didn’t mean it to be awkward. They are putting on a show where it’s a mockumentary and it brings up their problems — they’re real-life problems,” she said in a Facebook video. “And Tori has had — for years now, since her mother cut her out of the will — there’s been so many stories about her not having any money. I tried to see if she wanted to dispel the rumours, but she got very upset.”

Scotto’s co-host, Lori Stokes, added: “She told Rosanna it was inappropriate and ‘I’m not going to answer that.’”

“I apologized,” Scotto interjected. “The bottom line was maybe we know too much. We know she recently sent a text to somebody saying she hadn’t money to pay for her kids for food.”

Added Stokes: “What she thought by coming on a station on Fox — the show’s gonna air tomorrow night — that it should be women supporting women.”

“When you come on this show, we keep it real. Wendy [Williams] was here talking 20 minutes, dispelling every rumour out there,” Scotto continued. “Tori came in. She had a little bit of an issue… and whatever, it is what it is. We gave her the opportunity to put aside some of that stuff. It’s her character on the show this season having money problems!”

“Mirroring her real life, but she didn’t want to go there at all,” added Stokes. “It changed the entire climate here. It was war.”

Added Scotto: “When we went to a clip of the show. She’s like, ‘I didn’t expect this from somebody from Fox.’”

“BH90210” premieres Wednesday, August 7 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Global.