Fact: Selling Sunset is the best reality show of 2020.
Alright, that might not be a ‘fact’, but we’re sticking with it. After all, the Netflix show did give us the drama, the unaffordable houses and the memes we needed to stay sane in this dumpster fire of a year.
Naturally, whenever we develop a reality TV show obsession, we also tend to follow it up with the urge to uncover everything there is to know about it, from the cast’s star signs (it really explains so much), to just how much of the show is actually ‘real’.
Luckily for you, we’ve done that little deep dive and are ready to share our fun fact findings (we needed to do something while we wait for Selling Sunset season four!).
Below, 16 things you probably didn’t know about Selling Sunset (but mostly, Christine).
1. Christine and Chrishell were actually friends before the show pushed their ‘feud’ storyline
Real estate aside, much of the show has centred around Christine Quinn and Chrishell Stause’s issues with one another, which as it turns out, wasn’t as ‘instant’ as it appeared to be.
In fact, Christine spoke about her relationship with Chrishell on Real Housewives star Brandi Glanville’s podcast in mid-August 2020, revealing that a lot of the friction had been pushed by producers.
“From day one, obviously the producers had certain things in mind,” she said.
“They wanted us to clash obviously and at first, we didn’t. We got along great. We were friends. She was at my house. We were drinking, having a good time. I was getting to know her and the storylines came into play. We thought that we were good at separating things.”
She went on to explain that things got worse after Chrishell blocked her on social media.
“Then we realised, ‘Oh shit! This is affecting our real lives.’ I never wanted to fight with her. Are you kidding? Her and I had drinks. I made her dinner. I didn’t want that. That wasn’t me,” Christine said.
2. Mary and Roman married months before their Selling Sunset wedding
Following the show’s almost instant success, many fans began questioning whether the show was real, especially after it was discovered that Mary Fitzgerald and Roman Bonnet married in a civil union a year prior to their 2019 nuptials.
While it caused many to doubt the show’s authenticity, Mary herself set the record straight in a radio interview, explaining that while they were ‘technically’ married, there was nothing ‘fake’ about their wedding on the show.
“Our wedding was absolutely real,” she said. “We invited all of our friends and family. We didn’t tell anybody [about the civil union]. We just signed the paper for personal reasons, and then we wanted to wait until we could have our real wedding.”
“You see all of our family! How can you fake that? That was our wedding!” she continued. “People sign a certificate all the time before they do their actual wedding.”
3. Chrishell’s name has a wild backstory
There’s no denying that Chrishell is not exactly a common name, and as it turns out, the realtor-slash-actress’ moniker has quite the backstory behind it.
In fact, Chrishell explained her name back in season one of the show (we were clearly too distracted by all the shiny, shiny mansions to notice), saying that her parents made up it as an homage to the moment in which she was born.
As the story goes, her mother went into labour with her at a Shell gas station in her home state of Kentucky, and an attendant by the name of ‘Chris’ helped deliver the baby.
Chris. Shell. Chri-shell. BOOM.
Bonus fun fact? Her real full name is: Terrina Chrishell Stause.
4. Not everyone who works at the Oppenheim Group appears on Selling Sunset
If the premise of a real estate agency that comprised of two twin men and a group of model-esque women seemed a little strange, that’s because, well, it’s not actually real.
Don’t get us wrong, the brokerage is real and the Selling Sunset cast members are very real agents who work there, but there are a number of people who work at The Oppenheim Group who don’t appear on the show.
“The whole office is not in the show. We have a lot of people who work in the brokerage who aren’t featured,” Christine told StyleCaster.
“We did go through a casting process, where different people were on camera feeling it out. There were two additional girls who were in the pilot who decided not to do it. There are around an additional eight people who work there who aren’t on the show.”
5. Netflix doesn’t pay for the Selling Sunset cast’s hair, makeup or wardrobe
In case you were wondering who styles the very glamorous cast (hello, Christine’s amazing outfits), that credit goes to the stars themselves—and they pay for it too.
Christine, who hasn’t been afraid to hold back on these details, told Refinery29 that “Netflix doesn’t pay for anything”.
“I pay for my own hair and makeup and wardrobe and everything like that, and it’s worth it. I have fun with it, and I know that people love to watch it and be like, ‘What is she going to do next?’”
And she isn’t wrong.
6. Christine allows herself four hours to get ready for filming
The Libra of Selling Sunset, Christine’s Venusian dedication to aesthetics makes a lot of sense, as does the fact that she allows herself a four-hour window to get ready camera-ready.
“My hair takes a minimum about two hours, depending on what I’m doing to it,” she told People. “I give myself a four-hour window from when I have to leave my house.”
And her commitment doesn’t end there, with the real estate agent admitting she plans her outfits according to the houses she’s showing.
“I do a lot of coordination [for viewings]. You’ll notice, even in the show, when we were at Davina’s house [the $75 million listing], I knew what it already looked like,” she told Fashionista.
“I hadn’t seen the house inside, but I knew it was pink and girly. I knew it was soft. For me, I was wanting to bring a Clueless moment to that scene. I try to coordinate things with what we’re doing as much as I can, just because I think it’s really fun when you can coordinate with your backdrop.
“I’m realising I do wear my more expensive clothes when I’m at my better listings. I don’t know. That’s maybe something that I didn’t even notice I did. I think it just comes down to… You know the old saying, ‘Dress for the job you want to have?’ I feel like, really, it comes down to that. I was always dressing for the part I wanted to have.”
7. Christine bought the teenage girls that run her fan accounts laptops and iPhones
When asked what “the biggest misconception” about her was in conversation with People, Christine opened up about how she’s seen as a “one-note bitch” but that she’s actually quite “caring and emphathetic”, before revealing that she uses her Instagram giveaways to help young girls.
“I just think the misconception is that I’m just constantly this one-note bitch — and I am a bitch, don’t get me wrong. But there’s other elements to me. I’m super sweet and caring and empathetic, and I do a lot for people,” she said.
“I do give-aways on my Instagram where I just give away money to random people. I got a laptop for a 13-year-old girl the other day who runs all my fan accounts. I got an iPhone for one of the girls who runs another fan account, so I’m helping people go to school. I’m doing tons of stuff for girls, that people don’t ever see.”
8. Jason and Brett Oppenheim have a net worth of USD $50 million
When it comes to the Selling Sunset cast’s net worths, Jason and Brett Oppenheim (unsurprisingly) are right up at the top.
Worth an estimated USD $50 million (AUD $68 million), the brothers both made a name for themselves as lawyers before leaving their jobs to become the fifth generation of the Oppenheim family to go into real estate.
Jason, the president of the O Group, has since be named the no. 1 real estate agent from an agent-owned brokerage in the Hollywood Hills/West Hollywood region, and no.8 in the United States by The Wall Street Journal for 2020.
9. The Oppenheim Group have a lot of celebrity clients
While Chrissy Teigen might have playfully questioned the Oppenheim Group’s legitimacy by saying she’s “never seen any of these people” and neither have her real estate agents, it appears that the brokerage has a number of celebrity clients.
To name but a few: they sold Dakota Johnson’s dreamy house to her, they sold Alex Rodriguez’s Hollywood Hills home, listed Orlando Bloom’s mansion and sold Hollywood Hills’ properties to Meryl Streep, Nicole Scherzinger and Chloe Grace Moretz, among others.
10. Christine gave Davina a makeover in season three of Selling Sunset
Well, that extremely co-ordinated pink dress moment all makes sense now. Christine, the indisputable fashionista of the show, was the one behind Davina’s sudden style transformation.
“100 per cent, that was me. I take all credit,” she told People.
“I told her, ‘Listen, Davina, stop with the mum blazers. Please, let me dress you.’ She started coming over to my house, and I was like, ‘Here, put this on.’ She was like, ‘I don’t know, it’s too sexy.’ I’m like, ‘Come on, just do it.’”
Christine playfully joked that Davina “thought the show was about real estate”.
“Bless her heart. I can’t say that without laughing,” she said.
“When she realised, she was like, ‘Oh, wow. I realise I didn’t look good in season one.’ I’m like, ‘It’s ok, it’s fine. You learn.’ But it is a show, at the end of the day – so let’s put on a show.”
11. Some of the showings are straight up staged
The houses might be real, but some of the showings are done, well, for show. Multiple TikToks (of all things) have gone viral and exposed that, occasionally, the showings (and sometimes the clients themselves) are fabricated to work with the plot.
In one particular video that made its way across the internet, a TikTok user pointed out that her house was used for a staged showing in Selling Sunset season three, where the show claimed the client was a plastic surgeon.
“I’m trying to get a hold of my client, but he’s in Europe,” Christine says.
The TikTok user responded in her video by saying, “I wasn’t in Europe. I never met [Christine],” before explaining in the comments section that she is selling her house, but did not want to appear on the show. Et voilà, a fake client was invented!
On anther occasion, anonymous intel revealed that the flirty “tech entrepreneur millionaire” who Maya was trying to sell a house to in season one was nothing of the sort, and was actually a high school friend of hers who was “pretending to be romantically interested for plot”.
12. Heather modelled for Playboy in 2010
Before getting her real estate licence and joining The Oppenheim Group in 2014, Heather Rae Young was a model and Playboy playmate. She also posed for a spread in the magazine, and credits her success in real estate to her start there.
“After modelling and appearing in Playboy, real estate felt like a good transition for me because I’d met so many people and I’m really good at building relationships and making contacts,” she told the magazine in May 2020.
She continued: “If I hadn’t posed for Playboy, I wouldn’t have met the people who led me to where I am now. Playboy got me used to being in front of crowds and being good on camera… Playboy first catapulted me into a modelling career and the career I’m in now.”
13. Heather’s fiancé Tarek El Moussa is also on a real estate reality show
One of the major reasons why Heather’s now-fiancé Tarek El Moussa has yet to appear on the show? He’s actually on another popular real estate reality show called Flip Or Flop, which he co-starred in with his ex-wife.
That looks like it’s set to change, however, as Heather confirmed in August that he will be allowed to appear on a future episode of the show, since his network HGTV got to film his July 2020 proposal to the Selling Sunset star.
14. Christine’s wedding reportedly cost USD $1 million
From the fake snow to the real swans, Christine’s gothic winter wonderland was a sight to behold, so it’s no surprise it reportedly cost a pretty penny.
Christine and Christian’s wedding planner Lisa Lafferty told The Metro that it cost approximately USD $1 million (AUD $1.37 million), with the “special effects” driving up the price tag.
“I worked with a special effects company that actually does Hollywood movies. This team came in and brought a full snow machine they would use for a Polar Express type movie,” she said.
Christine, Queen of Extra, also had not one, but two, black custom Galia Lahav gowns, which reportedly accounted for around USD $50,000.
15. Christine was not happy with how her wedding was portrayed on Selling Sunset
The reason? The amount of filming that went into her fellow cast members’ drama.
“I was a little disappointed. It just didn’t really showcase the way that it was,” she told People.
“The wedding was the best day of my life and it was hard for me to watch it on the television show because that’s not really the way that I remember it.”
While she empathised with the producers wanting to “get certain storylines” in there, she was ultimately “disappointed” and cried when she watched it back, saying that she would include her vows, mingling with her co-workers post-ceremony and playlist if she could have.
“I was like, ‘This is not my wedding, this is not my wedding,’” she said.
In another interview with Glamour, Christine admitted that she’s contemplating uploading her own wedding footage to YouTube to do it justice.
“I was thinking of putting it up on YouTube: 15 minutes of just my wedding because I feel like that’s what people deserve to see!” she said.
16. Mary adopted her second dog with Jason while she was with Romain
As the cast members have mentioned multiple times on the show, Mary and Jason used to date (and, no, that’s not why he ‘gives’ her listings). And during their once-upon-a-time, year-long relationship, they adopted their first dog, Nico, which the show revealed in season one.
They’ve since not only continued to happily co-parent their first fur baby, but adopted a second dog, Zelda, after their breakup and while Mary was dating Romain.
“Jason and I got Zelda together when Romain and I were together,” Mary explained to the others in quick scene.
Jason added, “It worked so well sharing Nico that we just adopted another dog.”
Craving more? Check out the Selling Sunset cast’s before-and-afters and our round-up of excellent shows like selling Sunset.
