Taylor Armstrong

Taylor Armstrong (born Shana Lynette Hughes; June 10, 1971) is an American television personality who appeared in the first three seasons of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, starting in 2010. In 2019, a screen-capture image from Armstrong's time on the program became an Internet meme after it was placed alongside a photograph of a cat. That meme, often called "woman yelling at [a] cat," gained widespread viral popularity.

Armstrong was born Shana Lynette Hughes in Independence, Kansas, on June 10, 1971. Her family later left Kansas for Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Armstrong attended Union High School, where she was a cheerleader. She graduated from high school in 1989. She later changed her name to Taylor Ford and moved to Beverly Hills, California, after starting her own e-commerce business. She met her future husband, venture capitalist Russell Armstrong, at a local restaurant in Beverly Hills while waiting to be seated. The two married less than a year later and their only child, a daughter named Kennedy Caroline Russell, was born in 2006.

Armstrong first appeared in the public spotlight in 2010, as part of the cast of the Bravo reality television series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. During the series' run, Armstrong's appearance on the show was plagued by rumors of financial issues and domestic violence, and she later confirmed that she had been physically abused by Russell Armstrong and had to undergo reconstructive surgery for an orbital fracture after being hit by him. A discussion of the alleged abuse resulted in an on-camera altercation with other cast members that would, years later, become part of a popular internet meme, commonly called "woman yelling at [a] cat" or simply "the cat meme."

In July 2011, after the filming of the second season of Real Housewives, she filed for divorce, citing verbal and physical abuse. The next month, her estranged husband committed suicide; she found his body on August 15, 2011, dead from an apparent hanging, at a home he rented on Mulholland Drive following their separation.

Armstrong is currently married to John Bluher, an attorney, whom she wed on April 4, 2014 in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles.

Television