Shanna Moakler agreed to sit down for Travis Barker’s new documentary despite already having reservations about how the experience might turn out. She now says she wishes she had trusted those instincts.
During the September 10 episode of I Do, Part 2, Moakler told Jana Kramer that she regrets participating in Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear. “I regret a lot. Yeah, I wish I didn’t do it,” she said.
Moakler has not watched the finished documentary and said she does not want to. Her reaction instead comes from “bits and pieces” that other people have shared with her, which she said were enough to confirm fears she had before agreeing to the interview. “I knew in my heart I wasn’t going to be portrayed the way that I felt I deserved,” she said.
The Hulu documentary debuted August 13 after filmmakers spent nearly a decade following Barker’s life. Moakler and Barker were married from 2004 until their divorce was finalized in 2008, and her appearance focuses on their relationship and his struggles with addiction during that period.
Barker’s Memoir Had Already Left Moakler With Regrets
Moakler connected her reaction to the documentary with an earlier experience involving Barker’s 2015 memoir, Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums.
Barker had asked her to participate in that project as well. Moakler told Kramer that she regretted doing so because she disliked how she believed she was presented in the finished book. “It was really, really hurtful, honestly,” she said.
That experience had left Moakler promising herself that she would not put herself in the same situation again. She nevertheless agreed years later to be interviewed for Louder Than Fear, although she could not remember precisely when her interview was filmed. She believes it happened before Barker began his relationship with Kourtney Kardashian.
“I don’t know how he got me to go and do this documentary,” Moakler said. After hearing what people have told her about the finished film, she described herself as “a little disappointed” in her own decision to participate.
‘Louder Than Fear’ Followed Barker for Nearly a Decade
Directors Justin Krook and Michael Dwyer began filming Barker in 2017, initially expecting the project to take only a few years. Instead, they continued documenting him until 2026 as his life and recovery changed around them.
The Hulu documentary follows Barker from his early years and rise with Blink-182 through addiction, grief and the aftermath of the 2008 plane crash that killed four people and left him severely burned. It also documents his eventual return to flying and includes appearances from family members, collaborators and musicians from throughout his career.
Moakler appears while the film revisits a much earlier part of Barker’s life. She recalls learning about the extent of his painkiller use during their marriage, including a period when he was taking what she described as 20 to 30 pills a day.
The long production explains why Moakler could have recorded her interview years before the film finally reached Hulu. Krook told the Los Angeles Times that the extended timeline allowed the filmmakers to capture changes they could not have predicted when filming began, including Barker confronting his fear of flying.
Moakler Says ‘Meet the Barkers’ Created a Narrative That Followed Her
Moakler’s frustration with how she has been portrayed predates both Barker’s memoir and the new documentary. During the same podcast conversation, she pointed to the MTV reality series Meet the Barkers, which followed their family in the mid-2000s.
One recurring joke portrayed Moakler as constantly sleeping. She told Kramer that she was pregnant, caring for three children under five and filming for long stretches at the time, while the sleeping had also been treated as a comedic storyline by the show.
Moakler said that portrayal eventually became something much harsher in the public imagination, with viewers using it as evidence that she was a neglectful mother. “I was just like, ‘Oh wow, I didn’t see that coming,’” she recalled.
She does not regret making Meet the Barkers itself. Moakler has said she can still watch old footage fondly because it captures a younger version of her family, even if she disagrees with some of the conclusions viewers drew from it.
Her Memoir Will Cover Much More Than Travis Barker
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Moakler plans to address some of those old narratives in her upcoming memoir, but she stressed that Barker will occupy only a small portion of the book.
She told Kramer that she wants to write about modeling in Miami and New York, her Miss USA years, 1990s Hollywood, the Playboy Mansion, former fiancé Oscar De La Hoya and celebrities she encountered before reality television became the part of her life most familiar to viewers.
“It’s not just about Travis,” Moakler said, explaining that Barker appears in only a couple of chapters.
She also wants the memoir to address trauma, divorce, public humiliation and the process of rebuilding a life after relationships end. Moakler said many of the women who contact her are divorced mothers trying to understand how she navigated similarly public experiences.
“There’s a lot of my side that has never been shared,” she said. “And I’m eager to share that.”