'Selling Sunset': Chrishell Stause learns of divorce from Justin Hartley in a text: 'It's hard not to feel worthless'

Spoiler alert: This story contains details from Season 3 of Netflix's "Selling Sunset," released Friday.

This is then.

"This Is Us" star Justin Hartley's divorce from real-estate agent Chrishell Stause plays out like a soapy drama in Netflix's real-estate reality show "Selling Sunset." Stause, who sells high-priced Los Angeles-area properties, is a major focus of the series, now in its third season.

The series, which debuted in 2019, centers on the West Hollywood-based Oppenheim Group and its stunning female agents. Listing agreements are their game, but disagreements among the staffers, and their sometimes turbulent personal lives, provide the drama. Like Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing" franchise, it satisfies viewers thirsting for gorgeous, high-end real estate and excitement.

Hartley, 43, filed for divorce from Stause, 39, his second wife, in November 2019, after two years of marriage. (The season ends shortly afterward, with the wedding of agent Christine Quinn on Dec. 15, 2019.)

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In the opener, their relationship seems intact. Stause says she and Hartley are in their "dream home." In the third episode, Stause's colleague Mary Fitzgerald says her marriage embodies what she wants for her own, with husband Romain Bonnet.

"I knew right away when I met Justin he was gonna be my husband," Stause says. "I knew, so much so, that I text one of my bridesmaids that I found him."

"Justin and I just lucked out," Stause tells Fitzgerald. "I feel like I found my best friend."

Things come crashing down soon after: In the final minutes of the fifth episode, titled "Bad News Travels Fast," Stause's co-workers are alerted to a TMZ report that Hartley had filed for divorce. Her colleagues are in disbelief, and Stause is, too.

When Fitzgerald visits Stause at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, she asks what happened. "I don't know," Stause responds.

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She says she received a a text from Hartley saying divorce papers were filed. "45 minutes later, the world knew," she says. Hartley's reps declined comment.

"We had a fight that morning over the phone, and I never saw him since," Stause says. "We didn't talk things through and before we had a chance to figure anything out, he filed ... In a fight, like that's his go-to. Like, 'I'm out, I'm out.' I hate that kind of impulsive stuff, but I always just thought that's just an issue (but) we'll work through it."

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Stause tells agent Amanza Smith, who visits as she's settling into a new home, that she believes "a lot has changed" during the arc of their six-year relationship. To the camera, she hints that her ex's new-found notoriety with the debut of "This Is Us" in 2016 affected their marriage.

"It just sucks, because I feel like outer elements have reared their ugly head and inserted themselves into our relationship that – these aren't normal things," she says. "It's not normal to meet somebody and then they become wildly famous, or they become wildly rich."

She disagrees with the way he went about the split: "Your feelings obviously changed for me at some point, but I just feel like that's how you would treat the garbage that you throw out."

"It's hard not to feel worthless in this moment in this moment. It's hard not to feel like everyone's laughing at you," she admits in Episode 7, during which she seeks refuge at her older sister Shonda's home in St. Louis.

But later in the episode, Stause appears to be mending. She makes light of her plight while recalling how she previously sold Cutco knives.

"It could be worse getting kicked out of my home," she tells her sister's family. "I could be selling knives door-to-door, guys."

By the end of her visit, Stause, who says she was homeless growing up, seems hopeful. "Remember where we came from," her big sister tells her. "You've lived in a car. This is nothing. You got this."

And a newly toughened Stause agrees. "This is not something that I ever wanted for myself, but I have been through a lot in my life," she says. "So I know that I have a strength inside of me. I know that I will get through this."

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By the finale, she's returned to work, joking she'll wear her wedding dress to Quinn’s wedding (the dress code for guests is white). Although Stause is uncertain if she'll be emotionally well enough to attend, she ends up going.

She makes it through the ceremony, but ends up taking off her mic and walking out when a co-worker, Davina Potratz, says she can't blindly support Stause because she doesn't "know any details" of the split.

"Chrishell, to be fair, obviously Justin has his own side, right? That's all I'm saying," Potratz says. "You didn't get married to get divorced. You know that, right?

Unable to take another minute, Stause exits.

"There are two sides to every story, and maybe it's time that I start writing a new one."

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Selling Sunset': Justin Hartley, Chrishell Stause divorce plays out