Annabel RackhamCulture reporter
Netflix
On the Netflix show Selling Sunset, Chrishell Stause (right) has fallen out with Emma Hernan (left), which has started a debate about friends’ partners
It’s supposed to be a TV series about Los Angeles’ biggest and most beautiful homes – but the people selling them often steal the show. And the latest episodes of Netflix reality series Selling Sunset, now in its ninth season, have started a debate about how to deal with a friend’s “toxic” partner.
Two stars of the programme – real estate agents Chrishell Stause and Emma Hernan – have been feuding on and off-camera over Emma’s boyfriend Blake Davis, who Chrishell dislikes.
It boiled over during an end-of-season reunion and led to online debates about how, or even whether, you can stay friends with someone whose partner you dislike.
We’ve spoken to a woman with first-hand experience of that dilemma and two relationship experts about what to do in this tricky situation.
Friends falling out
Netflix
Stause and Hernan became friends by starring on Selling Sunset together
In the show, Stause, 44, says she’s never approved of Hernan’s relationship with property developer Davis. She claims he “love-bombed” Hernan early in the relationship and that there were “huge red flags”. Love bombing often involves someone showering a partner with gifts, attention and various promises.
Hernan has told Netflix’s online publication she “doesn’t fault” Stause for trying to protect her but that she would like Stause to “step back and realise” her level of love and support. She has also said: “I have enjoyed my time with him… Everyone can say what they want – or they can either love him or hate him. But ultimately, it’s my choice who I end up with.”
Some of us will have experienced similar situations first-hand.
Hannah, who didn’t want to give her last name, told BBC News she fell out with her long-time friend, Georgia – not her real name – over a partner.
Hannah says Georgia “had a history of dating not very nice people” and moved away from London with a new partner who “proposed to her fairly quickly, I think within about a year”.
It felt like Georgia was “under his spell” – and then on a night out before the wedding, Hannah says, Georgia’s fiancé made sexual comments about Hannah. “He came over to me and started to tell me all the things he w
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