Everything We Learned About Justin Hartley and Chrishell Stause's Divorce in Selling Sunset
This is us...still confused as ever about what the hell happened between Justin Hartley and Chrishell Stause.
After the This Is Us star shockingly filed for divorce from Chrishell in November 2019, we're not proud to admit that our first thought was, "Oh, this better be included on Selling Sunset." Hey, we said we're not proud.
In the nine months since the bombshell split, the details of what went wrong in their two-year marriage remained under wraps, and so we waited. And waited, season two of the Netflix reality hit not even touching on the breakup until the preview for its third season.
And so we waited. Until Aug. 7, when the series returned. And then we waited. Until the middle of the season, when episode five ended with the revelation we all knew was coming, kind of like how you know the deaths of Bruce Wayne's parents are coming in every single Batman movie.
So after months of anticipation and speculation, we finally got to the big D, and while we didn't end up actually learning all that much about what really went down behind-the-scenes, what we did see was still riveting and must-see reality TV.
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Since the 10-episode season dropped, there's been a lot of he-said-she-said regarding the split, mostly because of what was and wasn't revealed on-camera by Chrishell. (Though he was oft-mentioned and referred to, Justin never actually appeared on the show.)
"At this moment there are so many things that I'd like to say, but none of them are going to be good right now," she explained toward the end of the season. "I'm just trying to keep my mouth shut because I was married to someone that's a public figure. I have to be extremely careful what I say legally."
So what did we learn about Justin and Chrishell's divorce? Well, let's start with the break-up text streamed 'round the world.
That's right, according to Chrishell, she learned that her husband was going to file for divorce less than hour before the public did via a text message. (At least Joe Jonas called Taylor Swift to call it quits, you know?)
In episode six, Chrishell's co-worker and close friend Mary Fitzgerald went to visit her at the hotel she retreated to after the Oppenheim Group found out about the split from a Google alert Christine Quinn received about the TMZ article. (Side-note: Does Christine have an alert just for Selling Sunset or for all of her co-stars? Discuss!)
When Mary asked when Chrishell learned Justin was going to file the official documents, Chrishell dropped the line of the season: "Um, I found out because he texted me," she said, "that we were filed. Forty-five minutes later, the world knew."
No one tell Jason or Brett Oppenheim but we dented the floor with how hard our jaw hit it after that reveal.
In the same conversation, a distraught Chrishell also told Mary some other information about the days leading up to the news, which we were definitely curious about considering Justin claimed their date of separation was July 8, 2019, despite the fact that they made appearances as a couple numerous times after.
"We were totally fine that day. I mean, I thought we were totally fine," Chrishell said at first, before admitting, "We had a fight over the phone that morning and I never saw him since. We didn't talk things through and before we had a chance to figure anything out, he filed."
Chrishell then hinted that it wasn't the first fight they'd had where Justin threatened to pursue a divorce.
"In a fight, that's his go-to," she explained. "You know, like, ‘'I'm out, I'm out.' I hate that kind of impulsive stuff, but I always just thought, you know, that's just an issue that we work through it."
But work through it they never did, as Chrishell went on to say she "talked to him right after 'cause I thought that must be a joke but that was kind of the end of the communication. What am I supposed to say? What do you say after that?"
That would be the last time they spoke.
As for Chrishell's thought process when it comes to why Justin filed? The soap star seems to think his newfound This Is Us fame may have played a role.
"I think a lot has changed in the six years we were together and in the two years we were married, a lot has changed and…I didn't care about that stuff," she said in episode six, referencing his skyrocket to notoriety after the NBC series' 2016 debut. "And I met him before all of that...one day that's gonna go away."
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In a talking-head interview, she later added, "It just sucks because I feel like outer elements have reared their ugly head and inserted themselves into our relationship that, you know, these aren't normal things. It's not normal to meet somebody and then they become wildly famous or they become wildly rich or all these things. It's like, I don't, at the end of the day, think that those things matter. And I can understand, like, God forbid, 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."
Future episodes see her continue to dissect the issue.
"I get it, that's a lot to change in your life, all that money and fame and all that stuff," she opined, "but it shouldn't change how you treat people."
Chrishell also opened up about putting her own plans and goals on the back-burner to support Justin.
"You work so hard to, like, make choices to prop someone up and support their life and what they want and now all of a sudden, I'm like, 'Wait a minute, what do I want?'"
And when it comes to how Justin chose to go about filing for divorce, Chrishell marinated on in episode seven, revealing a bit more information about their last conversation leading up to the split.
"I don't really know that there's a sign that somebody's going to file for divorce with no face-to-face conversation," she said. "When I got home that night, everything was fine. But we got into an argument. When I look back on it, part of me thinks he had made a decision and I wasn't given a say in this. Part of me can't wrap my brain around the fact that he would make much such a hasty decision without sitting me down and talking to me. But then the other part of me uses that to realize, like, he had made a decision. He didn't want to be talked out of it."
But the most heartbreaking scene came when Chrishell sat down with fellow real estate agent Amanza Smith and discussed having to abruptly lose her relationship with Isabella Hartley, Justin's 16-year-old daughter with his first wife, Lindsay Korman.
"I love her so much and I had to write a letter to her," Chrishell said as she began to tear up. "I don't want to be crying."
Earlier in the series, Chrishell had dropped hints that she had put pursuing motherhood on hold, and in episode three, leading up to the split, the 39-year-old opened up about changing her plans for Justin.
"I definitely would have thought that I would be a mom at this point," she said, "but I love him. He's my person, so things change."
Having reached the other side of the split, Chrishell now seems to be viewing things differently.
"I know its lame and cliché to say that everything happens for a reason, but it does make me think of things that I bended on for him," she told Amanza. "I had a plan but then I met him. And I loved him so much, so I changed my plan for him. So it just makes me think then maybe there's a bigger plan for me."
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While that bigger plan hasn't shown itself quite yet, more details of the ultra-secretive split are continuing to emerge.
"Because of the crazy way in which this went down, people want answers," Chrishell noted. "And I f--king want answers."
Same, babe. Same.
Selling Sunset is streaming on Netflix.
