What’s real and what’s fake on ‘Selling Sunset’ season 3?

Season 3 of Netflix’s Original reality show Selling Sunset recently dropped. Marketed as unscripted and one hundred percent real, the wildly popular series has garnered some negative criticism as viewers are beginning to question the legitimacy of this statement. 

It’s no secret that, while marketed as real, even reality television is often scripted to tell half-truths, or complete fabrications. Hollywood has to make money and sometimes the truth just isn’t interesting enough. 

When it comes to Selling Sunset though, the show is based around a bunch of high-end real estate agents selling some of the most expensive properties in Los Angeles. Seems pretty believable, right? Well, maybe not. 

The Netflix series is currently under fire as falsified details about the personal lives of the agents have surfaced. Netflix, it seems, took several liberties of truth-bending to ensure maximum dramatic effect for the cameras. Speculations about the legitimacy of the agents’ professional careers have even been raised. 

Can you believe anything that Selling Sunset markets as real? Here is what we know about the truth and lies being projected in Selling Sunset: Season 3. 

Are they even agents? 

Chrissy Teigen recently took to Twitter, publicly calling out Selling Sunset, questioning in no uncertain terms whether the women in the show were actually real estate agents working in the Los Angeles area, or whether they’re really just actors. 

Known for her unapologetic behavior on Twitter, Teigen claims herself to be somewhat of an L.A real estate aficionado, tweeting that she “ looks at Los Angeles real estate a lot”. She then goes on to say that she has never seen any of the women on Selling Sunset working in the field, and neither of the high-end agents Teigen and her husband, John Legend, normally deal with. 

Jason Oppenheim of the Oppenheim Group where the Selling Sunset agents work personally responded to Teigen’s tweet. He says “Chrissy, thanks for watching our show! Regarding your agent’s knowledge of members of my team, I respectfully don’t know him either although that doesn’t mean he isn’t successful and didn’t just sell you a stunning home in Weho (seriously, I love your new house).”

Chrishell Stause also reportedly confirmed in Women’s Health that she is a legitimate, real-life real estate agent. “I’m actually a realtor,” exclaimed Stause. Points to Netflix for keeping this aspect of the show real. 

Christine’s Wedding

Spoiler alert: during the season 3 finale, Chrishell Stause ends up in somewhat of a confrontational moment with her co-stars regarding the details of divorce proceedings with her husband This is Us star, Justin Hartley. The dramatic moment takes place at Christine Quinn’s wedding. During the rather tense moment, unkind words are unleashed upon Stause at the hands of her co-stars. 

Consequently, cameras follow Stause as she stalks out of the wedding reception early. According to Christine Quinn, however, this particular part of the episode was fabricated for the cameras. 

On the Too Tired to Be Crazy podcast, Quinn bravely reveals that her co-star was present for the entire wedding. “Chrishell was at my wedding. She didn’t walk out. I didn’t see her walk out.” Quinn continued, “She was there the whole night—unless she walked out and came right back. She was there ’til the end.”

Fabricating identities

Not only is Netflix bending the truth about the realtors working at the Oppenheim Group, they’re also fabricating stories about the men they’re connected to romantically as well. Recent information has surfaced that proves Christian Richard is not who Netflix claims he is. 

There isn’t a lot known about Christian Richard, Christine Quinn’s new man. That’s because he doesn’t actually exist. His actual name is Christian Dumontet. Selling Sunset projected the idea that Dumontet is Ivy League-educated and met Quinn during the sale of a house not too long ago. Both of these details have been fabricated for the camera. 

Quinn actually met Dumontet through a friend. The couple had been dating for several months already and were actually house hunting together when Dumontet purchased the $6 million home in the Hollywood Hills. Selling Sunset depicted a different reality, projecting the idea that the two met because Quinn was the agent responsible for selling Dumontet the home. 

Christine Quinn also said on camera that Dumontet “went to MIT”. The inference audiences are supposed to take from this statement is clearly that Dumontet is an MIT graduate. This is definitely not the case. Dumontet graduated from a college in his home state of New Jersey. He did, however, work on a project with an esteemed MIT graduate, but we have to say, the connection of MIT here is shady, at best. 

Despite the discovery of several fabricated aspects of the show, Selling Sunset’s creator, Adam DiVello, vehemently says that everything viewers are shown is legitimate. DiVello believes that allowing his talent to be themselves on camera increases the chances they’ll be likeable and audiences will relate to them. Adam DiVello previously produced The Hills and Laguna Beach.

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