Selling Sunset didn’t give viewers the Nicole Young and Emma Hernan confrontations they were hoping for — so the costars are telling their respective sides of the story off screen.
Emma, 33, went first on Wednesday, October 9, when she finally broke her silence on social media about Nicole, 38, accusing her of having an affair with a married man.
“Since I wasn’t even given the chance to address these LIES on screen, I am taking matters into my own hands by sharing the truth,” Emma captioned the Instagram post. “Please swipe to see the receipts showing February 14th while filming Nicole was told clear as day ‘there was no affair’ and she chose to film an entire season spreading lies.”
Emma provided a text conversation allegedly between her costar and an unnamed source where Nicole was told the rumors she was spreading weren’t true.
“To clarify, this all was a complete lie intended to diminish my character and reputation for a pathetic and desperate attempt at a story line,” Emma added before Chelsea Lazkani replied, “Nobody likes a dumb villain. #NicoleIsTrash.”
Chrishell Stause, who has her own feud with Nicole, weighed in as well, writing, “True CLOWN behavior.”
Season 8 of Selling Sunset, which premiered in September, left cast members divided after they watched the episodes early and saw Nicole speculating about Emma’s personal life. Nicole has stood by her decision to bring up a topic she heard from a “credible source” that she thought was fair game because allegedly Emma filmed scenes addressing those rumors.
Nicole tried to back her point up on Wednesday when she shared her own stack of receipts, writing via Instagram Stories, “Since we are posting screenshots now, you all should have the full context.”
The real estate agent uploaded screengrabs of several conversations between her and a woman named Jennifer — who Nicole claimed is the wife of the man Emma allegedly had an affair with off screen. Nicole pointed out that one text chain was from the “day after we filmed S7 finale” when Emma was allegedly confronted by the woman named Jennifer. The other was “day after this woman and I filmed a scene for S8” that was never aired in which Jennifer expressed concern that Emma would sue her for bringing up claims on the show.
Nicole also included a final screenshot of Jennifer texting her and Emma in September, which read, “Hey Nicole and Emma, I have no intention of being in the middle of any issues you may have with one another, so this is the only text I will send, but I want to make one thing clear, as my name was mentioned on an episode of your show relating to an allegation made against Emma. I have never said Emma had an affair. I know for a fact that did NOT happen.”
Emma previously shut down accusations that she was involved in an affair with a married man.
“Nicole’s so-called ‘source’ reached out to me directly saying she never said what Nicole had been saying,” Emma said in a statement to Tudum in September, claiming that Nicole was sent a text message from the alleged source that said, “There was no affair.”
Emma went on to question why Nicole brought up gossip about her, adding, “Nicole was made aware by that source that the rumors she was spreading about me were absolutely not true, and despite knowing she was spreading lies, she continued to do so on camera over the following months. I am so disappointed that she would do such a thing to another woman.”
As for Nicole’s side of the story, she admitted she wasn’t initially “comfortable” with mentioning the rumors on the show.
“I only talked about this because I assumed that Emma knew [that the rumor had been circulating]. I’d also been told there were going to be certain things that would be shown to support that,” Nicole noted to Tudum that same month. “For example, at the party featured in the season 7 finale, the woman who brought this information to me confronted Emma —it was a filmed event when both Emma and I were mic-ed up. This was not something I just came up with.”
Nicole apologized to Emma for “bringing it to the camera” without her knowledge.
“It would undoubtedly have been a smarter decision to not share this information because — without any of the context — it looks pretty bad. I also do very strongly and very confidently stand behind the fact that this is information given to me by a credible source,” Nicole continued. “Again, I don’t mean that as an excuse. I own the fact that I said it, but this is not something I made up, and I’m not a liar. That’s unfortunately where I feel like I’m in the defensive position because all the online things that happened before.”
Selling Sunset is currently streaming on Netflix.
