Whatever Happened To Tan Mom?

Unapologetic UV enthusiast Patricia Krentcil made headlines across the world back in 2012, when she was arrested for allegedly bringing her 5-year-old daughter into a tanning booth with her. The New Jersey native was held in jail for seven days (she came out "pale after a week" of zero tanning, she told the New York Post), but the charges against her were dropped when a grand jury refused to indict the twice-divorced mother of five. The press dubbed her Tan Mom, and for good reason — around the time of her arrest, her skin looked so dark that she actually got accused of doing blackface.

Upon her release from jail, Tan Mom had two options: she could either lay low and wait for the whole thing to blow over, or milk the attention for all it was worth. She took the latter route. Krentcil used her new found notoriety to transform herself into one of the craziest pop culture figures in recent memory, but (unlike her tan) she faded from the public eye once her fifteen minutes of fame were up. She never gave up on stardom, however, and she's made numerous questionable decisions in pursuit of it.

What has she been up to since her highly publicized arrest? You really have to read it to believe it. Here's what happened to Tan Mom.

Farrah Abraham reportedly got paid a cool $1.5 million for her allegedly "leaked" intimate video, but Tan Mom had to settle for $1000 when she made her adult entertainment debut. According to TMZ, she was offered a grand to play a tanning salon owner in an episode of Kings Of New York, an X-rated gay series about ambitious New Yorkers who have "sold whatever and whoever they had to" on their way to the top. Tan Mom isn't the only celeb that's popped up in Kings of New York (Andy Dick, Lady Bunny and Michael Lucas have all made cameo appearances), but she was apparently one of the most difficult to work with.

Speaking to The Huffington Post, Kings of New York director Marc MacNamara revealed that shooting scenes with Tan Mom proved to be a little trickier than he'd initially anticipated. "We expected Patricia to need a bit of hand-holding, but when she showed up we quickly found out we had to hold more than her hand to prop her seemingly inebriated body up," MacNamara said. "She seemed to [be] having a great time, but it was definitely a challenging day. In the end she delivered Tan Mom in all her glory, and that's what people are infatuated with."

Back when she was still a viral fad, Tan Mom was made the celebrity guest of honor at a drag queen show in New York. The event was supposed to be a roast, but Krentcil reportedly didn't take the jokes and jibes that were thrown her way very well. The fact that she turned up steaming drunk probably didn't help matters. "She showed up for the red carpet and fell over," an eye witness told the New York Post. "She then got up and tried to attack the drag queen."

According to host Bianca del Rio, Tan Mom was so smashed that she had to be escorted out of The XL Club by security almost immediately after she took the stage. "We asked her what she wanted to drink and she slurred, 'I didn't put my kid in a tanning bed!'" Del Rio said. Luckily, organizers anticipated that their guest might get a little rowdy and had come up with a code word ("Christmas") in advance. "After about five minutes, we were just screaming 'Christmas!'"

Tan Mom fell over again on her way out of the venue, exposing her underwear to the photographers gathered outside. The camera bulbs flashed like crazy as the then-44-year-old pulled what Radar Online (who obtained the photos) described as "a bevy of sexy poses while spreading her legs and showing off her nude colored panties." 

A few months after the arrest that made her infamous, Tan Mom made her first appearance on Howard Stern's show. That was all it took for the legendary radio host to make her a member of "The Wack Pack," his recurring group of oddballs. It was an inspired move — Krentcil has proven to be a great addition to the pack. There are too many Tan Mom highlights to list, but we have to mention the time she claimed to be a Scientologist despite appearing to have zero knowledge of the religion's practices, and the time she shared her poignant thoughts on her own funeral plans. "Well, I'm being cremated," she said. "I went in tanning; I'm going to go out tanning."

Stern regular John Stamos had a bit of fun with Tan Mom in June 2017, when he unsuccessfully asked the D-lister out on a date. Stamos called Krentcil and suggested that they go to a theme park together, but she wasn't interested. "And do what? Go on a ride and eat a hot dog? I don't do those things." At one point, Stamos even groveled. "I was on General Hospital," he pleaded. "I mean, doesn't that ... you know ...?" Amazingly, Tan Mom came up with an excuse to get off the phone (she had "to go run errands") and left Stamos hanging. A few weeks later, she told the New York Post that Stamos just isn't her type. "I like Ray Liotta," she confessed.

Tan Mom likes to get serious about her love life from time to time. Back in 2013, the newly minted Wack Pack member reportedly filed for divorce from her husband, Richard Krentcil, after he "failed a lie detector test about infidelity on a TV show called The Test," TMZ reported. She never went through with the divorce, however — the pair was still legally hitched in December 2015, when they appeared on Howard Stern's show together.

"I'm fine with it," Richard said, revealing that Tan Mom threatens to divorce him on a regular basis. "Patricia has that personality. She's just very dramatic." Tan Mom complained about her lackluster sex life during her short-lived career in standup comedy, but that was all for show, Rich claimed. He told Stern that he and his wife had been intimate just a few weeks earlier, but that didn't tally with Tan Mom's account. "He's f***ing lying!" she screamed from the green room.

Tan Mom was then invited to give her side, and what she came out with was pretty shocking, even by her standards. The bronze-skinned viral celeb told Stern that she lost interest in her husband when he stopped making good money, and is only with him for the kids. "I'm sorry, I want that money," she said, adding, "He's so effing annoying. He's under my a** 24 hours a day."

Tan Mom was given an ultimatum by airport police after she caused a scene during a layover in Minneapolis, Minn. Krentcil left the airport to smoke, and when she tried to re-enter, the TSA informed her that she was way too drunk to fly. According to TMZ, she was told that she could either "go to jail for public intoxication, or spend 30 hours in a detox facility." She chose the latter option, but that wasn't the end of it.

About a week later, Tan Mom checked into a Palm Beach, Fla. rehab center with the help of Michael Lohan ... yes, actress Lindsay Lohan's father. Apparently, they went to the same Long Island high school. "[She was] in my younger brother's class," Lohan told E! News. "I must say that I was pleasantly surprised when I met her because she was nothing like people made her out to be." Tan Mom reached out to Lohan through mutual friends, he said. "If she stays with 'the program' she will beat her addictions."

Lohan was even photographed personally escorting Tan Mom into the facility, carrying her luggage like a true gent. He was on the verge of scoring some rare nice guy points — until Jezebel reminded everyone that he, Tan Mom, and a slew of other D-listers are all represented by the same PR firm. Fishy? You decide. 

Tan Mom returned to the headlines in 2017 when, in an ironic turn of events, she flipped out over a sunburn her daughter allegedly suffered during recess at school. Krentcil already had beef with the school (it was a staff nurse who called the police on her after her daughter mentioned going to the salon with her), and this incident pushed her over the edge. "She was totally burned. I packed her [sunscreen] and she came home like a french fry," Tan Mom told the New York Post. "After what they did to me, they didn't put lotion on her? This time, I'm going after them."

Krentcil told the Post that her lawyer was getting ready to launch a case against Lincoln Elementary School over both the sunburn and what she described as the "harassment" of her then-11-year-old daughter, Anna. "They always ask her, 'Are you OK [at home]?'" she alleged. "Teachers made fun of me in front of my kids." Tan Mom also called out the local police force, claiming its unsupervised interrogation of Anna back in 2012 was unfair. It's unclear whether her lawsuit was ever filed, but the fact that yet another UV drama thrust Tan Mom back into the limelight proved, if nothing else, that the universe has a sense of humor.

Tan Mom became persona non grata in her neck of New Jersey following her arrest and subsequent rise to notoriety. Speaking to the New York Post, Krentcil revealed that she had been banned from all Nutley area tanning salons. "They put up wanted signs: 'Do not let this woman tan here,'" Tan Mom said. One chain that blacklisted Krentcil was Beach Bum Tanning, which flat-out refused to let her use any of its 50-plus locations. "Absolutely, we would not allow her to tan," owner James Oliver confirmed in 2012. What does Tan Mom do when she's refused entry to tanning salons? She buys her own salon.

In 2017, Krentcil told the Post that she'd invested "$15,000 into the salon Sun of a Beach" in Nutley as part of a workaround for the widespread ban. She also claimed that she took out an additional $25,000 loan "to become a co-owner," although one of the actual co-owners of the place told the same outlet that he was still considering her offer. While it sounds like a natural fit, Tan Mom (who revealed that her once-daily tanning habit has shrunk to just three days a week) may want to work on her industry talking points. "I love the sun — it's healthy," she said, adding, "This whole [dangers of] UV bulls*** — you can die from anything." Thanks, Dr. Tan Mom.

Another revelation that's come out of Tan Mom's association with Howard Stern, who reportedly pays the Wack Pack member out of his own pocket ("He keeps me alive," Krentcil told the New York Post), is that her home is... well, a little bizarre. In 2017, Stern staffer Memet (or "Lemet" as Tan Mom inexplicably calls him) Walker visited Krentcil at her home, and it was a day he's unlikely to forget anytime soon. "It looks like a haunted house when you walk up to it," he told Stern. "It does look like the house from Psycho."

The visit got off to a great start when Tan Mom was asked to say "Test 1-2-3" into her microphone, and instead came out with the following: "This is Patricia. I hate marriage and my exes come around and stuff like that. But I just want to elaborate that my landscapers and everything haven't done anything for me." Things got even weirder when Walker stepped over the threshold. During his tour of Tan Mom's humble abode, he was shown some antiques that are "from the war," Krentcil claimed. Which war, you're probably wondering. "The 1800s," Krentcil said when Walker inquired. "It goes back to the Holocaust." The less said about that, the better, right? 

The majority of Tan Mom's post-arrest endeavours haven't really worked out the way she hoped they would, but in 2018, she tasted sweet victory in the most unlikely of circumstances — the bronzed Jersey girl won a beauty pageant. Krentcil went head-to-head with "Pale Mom" (Lori Reynolds) in the contest, which was organized for RVN TV by boxer turned D-list celebrity huckster, Damon Feldman. Howard Stern (surprise surprise) reached out to Feldman about the possibility of Tan Mom competing in his Beauty Battle series, and the rest is a wacky footnote in pop culture history.

Much (if not all) of the credit belongs to makeup artist Linda Fanelli, who got Tan Mom in ship shape for the beauty contest. "I had planned out what I was going to do for her — I didn't get to practice on her, so that was fresh," Fanelli (who was left "in charge" of Tan Mom for the day) told Page Six. "I took her tanning in the morning," Fanelli confirmed. "She was really happy she won. [...] I really feel like she looked amazing."

Unscrupulous music producers will pounce on any poor sap who's become an overnight sensation if there's a few quick bucks to be made, which brings us right to occasional actor and shameless opportunist, Adam Barta. Known as the viral duet king, Barta has facilitated unlistenable tracks for the likes of Honey Boo Boo, and Octomom. He first teamed up with Krentcil in 2013 for "It's Tan Mom," her first single. The pair has recorded multiple songs since, and we've listened to them all so you don't have to. You're welcome.

Tan Mom's second single "Life of the Party" was met with just as much confusion as her first. "Remind me again why this needs to exist," one YouTube user said in the comments section of the mind-boggling music video, while another dubbed Krentcil the "Tommy Wiseau of the music industry." Next up was 2018's "Free 2 Be Me," which found a fan in none other than Jimmy Kimmel. The late night host revealed that he liked Barta's chorus, but wasn't so keen on Krentcil's parts. According to Howard Stern, Tan Mom was "furious" about Kimmel's review. "There is no song without me," she said. "What does Kimmel have, like a vengeance against me or something?"

Tan Mom's latest Auto-Tune atrocity is "Money Maka," which she'll be performing live at Damon Feldman's Celebrity Boxing 70 event in November 2019. It's going to be "a treat in the ring that will steal the show," she promised Page Six.

Some shocking news came out of Nutley, N.J. in June, 2019 — Tan Mom was fighting for her life. A year on from her beauty pageant victory, Krentcil got pneumonia. Her condition became critical and she had to be put into a coma, Adam Barta told Us Weekly. Krentcil's musical partner also revealed that Krentcil had plenty of support in this scary moment. "Her whole family, including kids from up in New Jersey, have relocated temporarily to be by her bedside in Florida," Barta said.

The family asked for everyone to keep her in their prayers, and, according to Tan Mom, that's what helped her pull through. "When I was in a coma it was so sad to not be able to laugh with my family, Adam and my friends at The [Howard] Stern Show," she told Us Weekly shortly after coming out of her coma. "This is a new chapter for Patricia Marie, and [I] can't wait to share my story with Howard and the world."

She's been sharing that story with Page Six, and it sounds like she had a pretty close call. "My whole body died — I was proclaimed dead," she said. "It was so sad." A family member confirmed Tan Mom's account, revealing that it was a "life or death" situation at one point. "Her heart stopped," the source said. "She had CPR done. It was dire."