In the third season of "Selling Sunset" — out on Netflix now — Chrishell Stause's divorce from "This Is Us" star Justin Hartley is extensively profiled.
(Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for "Selling Sunset" season three!)
The hit Netflix reality series follows the lives of prominent real estate agents working at the glamorous Oppenheim Group in the Hollywood Hills. The new season does a gut-wrenching and poignant job of profiling the experience of going through a divorce, especially one that is so public.
“It was a little bit of a struggle for me to decide to go forward and have the cameras there for these really raw moments,” the 39-year-old actress and real estate agent told the Los Angeles Times in a new interview.
“But I am really, really, really proud of my second career in real estate. So I thought if I was losing something that I thought was half of my life, how is it going to help me to throw away the other part of my life that I’ve worked so hard to build? If I walk away from that too, what am I left with?”
Here are five things we learned about Chrishell Stause's divorce from Justin Hartley in "Selling Sunset":
1. He texted her news of their divorce.
"I found out because he texted me that we were filed," she tells co-star Mary Fitzgerald during the first scene from the sixth episode, titled "One Text Changes Everything."
"Forty five minutes later, the world knew."
Late, she adds, "If that's really what you wanted, there are better ways to go about it."
TODAY reached out to Hartley regarding this claim and his team declined to comment.
2. She moved out right away with only a suitcase.
During that same scene, Stause explains exactly where she was when she got that infamous text, and what happened next.
"When I found out, I was minutes before leaving the house for work," she says during a confessional. "I immediately just grabbed a few things and I just got out of there as fast I could. I don't think I really knew where I was going or what I was gonna do but I just had to leave."
(In later episodes, we see her move into a new apartment, with paparazzi at her doorstep trying to snap photos of the traumatic transition.)
3. She wrote a goodbye letter to his daughter.
In another scene from that episode, Stause reveals to co-star Amanza Smith that she wrote a goodbye letter to Hartley's 16-year-old daughter Isabella, whom he shares with ex-wife Lindsay Hartley.
"I love her so much and I had to write a letter to her," she explains before breaking down the tears.
4. She went to be with her sister in St. Louis.
In episode 7, Stause goes to be with her older sister, Shonda, who lives in St. Louis.
"People that were in our wedding found out through TMZ. That's so disrespectful," Stause says after her sister picks her up from the airport. "You couldn't have given me a heads up? I'll never, ever be able to comprehend how this is how someone would choose to handle something like this in the public eye."
"Like, you go to therapy and you talk about it, or you talk about it with family members and you have a plan in place," she continues. "You don't just make a decision and then text someone. I can't even believe these words are coming out of my mouth! I'm still in shock. That doesn't even sound like real life, what I just said. That is insanity."
"It was just me fighting for something that was a lost cause because he didn't even care enough to sit me down and tell me," she tells her sister. "All that money and fame ... it shouldn't change how you treat people. I would have done anything for him."
Later during her trip, she uses her sister's family as a touchstone to envision her future in a more positive light.
"Sometimes in L.A., we get too caught up in things that are supposed to matter that really don't and being here, this is exactly what I think really does matter and really is something to be so proud of," she shares during a confessional.
"They have been married so long and they have this beautiful family. I just think it's really hard to be around because that's what I wanted and that's what I am realizing I don't have, but it helps me be inspired to know that it might be out there. It just may take a different path than what I was thinking."
5. Some of her co-stars refused to support her.
In the last episode of the season, Stause attends the lavish wedding of Christine Quinn, only to be bombarded by some of her co-stars.
After Fitzgerald advocates for the cast to support Stause during the reception, Davina Potratz stirs the pot by saying she isn't sure she could do that because they "don't know any details" about the divorce.
She says, "Everyone has their own side in every situation," later adding, "Obviously, Justin has his own side, right?"
"You didn't get married to get divorced, you know that right?"
As the conversation continues, Stause gets very upset and says, "I don't want to do this anymore," takes off her microphone and storms out of the wedding.
The third season of "Selling Sunset" ends with her alone in her new home, looking out into the vast landscape of the Hollywood Hills before her. Reflecting on Potratz's comments in a final confessional, the season concludes with Stause making a promise to focus on herself moving forward.
"Getting confronted by my co-workers is frustrating, but you know what? Maybe Davina is right," she says. "There are two sides to every story and maybe it's time that I start writing a new one."