Chrishell Stause has revealed that she has no idea why her ex-husband, Justin Hartley, chose to end their marriage while she was filming the third season of Selling Sunset.
The reality star was caught off-guard when she received a text message from Hartley informing her of their break-up. The This Is Us actor officially filed for divorce in November 2019 after two years of marriage, and they finalised it the following year.
In her new book, Under Construction, Stause reflects on her marriage as well as other past relationships, and opens up about what it was like to go through heartbreak in the public eye.
An excerpt of the book, published exclusively by E! News, revealed that Stause, 40, still does not know why Hartley did not wait to file for the divorce after she had finished filming Selling Sunset.
She wrote: “I still wonder why he wouldn’t have wanted to separate in private and wait to file for divorce a month later when Selling Sunset would be finished filming, but what’s done is done.
“I was terrified to put all that on camera. Nothing was exaggerated. It was horrible, and because it happened while I was in the middle of filming a reality show, it’s forever our there for the world to see.”
In the show, Stause tells co-star Mary Fitzgerald that Hartley had informed her of his filing over text, adding that “45 minutes later, the world knew” after TMZ broke the news.
“If that’s really what you wanted, there are better ways to go about it,” she said in the sixth episode of the third season.
“When I think of marriage, I think of, you know, you work on things with people if they’re not perfect – no one is, you work on it.
“You talk about it. You don’t throw it out… you don’t go out looking for greener grass. Sometimes you have to water the grass that you have, and that’s what marriage is.”
Stause continued: “It’s hard, it takes a toll on your self-worth where you just feel anger, ‘How could you do it this way?’”
In the excerpt, Stause wrote that she “never could have predicted how it came crashing down so forcefully”.
However, she and Hartley “can both laugh about it all now” and that they are “always cordial” with one another, she added.
The real estate agent also opened up about her other failed relationships, including with Glee star Matthew Morrison, who she described as a “d***” on Selling Sunset; Dancing with the Stars dancer Keo Motsepe; and Jason Oppenheim, the founder of The Oppenheim Group.
Stause and Oppenheim went public with their relationship in July last year, but confirmed they had broken up five months later due to “different wants regarding a family”.
