Why You Don't See Tarek El Moussa and Justin Hartley on "Selling Sunset"

Photo credit: Jerod Harris - Getty Images
Photo credit: Jerod Harris - Getty Images

From House Beautiful

The real-life relationships of Heather Rae Young and Chrishell Stause are prominent plot points on the hit Netflix reality show Selling Sunset. In the trailer for Season 3, which dropped this weekend, we witnessed Heather walk away after her co-workers after they teased her about her relationship with HGTV host Tarek El Moussa. We also saw Chrishell open up about "the crazy way" that her divorce with "This Is Us" star Justin Hartley went down.

In spite of all of the soapy drama, another eight episodes passed with neither man physically appearing on camera. The reason why appears to be the same. Heather previously told House Beautiful that Tarek did not appear on the show due to his contract with HGTV. Now, new comments from Selling Sunset's executive producer Adam DiVello shine a light on the situation with Justin.

"He was never able to be on our show in the first place,” Adam told The Wrap. “We (previously) reached out to his people and the network that he’s on and everything, trying to get him to be on our show, because I know [Chrishell] really wanted him to be on it. And they were newlyweds and they were living a new life and had just bought a new house. You know, she had a big, huge, fun part of her life happening that she couldn’t show on TV, on the show."

"So I think she was bummed out about that," he continued. "I think we all were. But I think just because of the contracts—or whatever the case may be—that he wasn’t allowed to be on our show."

Tarek's contract didn't prevent him from actually going to Christine Quinn's "gothic wonderland wedding," which was filmed for the Season 3 finale. He was simply kept off-camera.

“In the case of Christine’s wedding, I think Tarek came by at some point. I think it was even after dinner," Adam added. "And just like hung out with her for a while, because they wanted to hang out and have some fun."

When asked about possible footage of Heather's recent engagement to Tarek, Adam left open the possibility that the HGTV star may finally appear on camera in a potential Season 4. (Justin allegedly told Chrishell he had filed for divorce via text, making an appearance by him unlikely.)

“We certainly don’t want to miss things when we’re [on production hiatus]," he told The Wrap. "So we try to get as big of events as we can."

Heather, however, has been able to tape Flipping 101 with Tarek. The happy couple previously confirmed that their surprise engagement was filmed by HGTV.

Whatever ends up happening, Heather is "learning so much about flipping homes" from Tarek. And from the sound of it, the couple is laying the foundation for yet another adventure together: their very own show.

"I'm learning through Tarek how to design homes, how to flip homes, how to knock down this wall to make it this," Heather told House Beautiful earlier this year. "Things that I never knew before. And he walks me through how to do all that. I would love to keep learning with Tarek, and he learns from me — my L.A. style. We would love to do a show together. It just has to be the right time."

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