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The real estate agent -- whose final appearance was in the Season 7 premiere -- recalled "crying from the stress" of filming the Netflix series, saying that some days she could shoot from 12 to 14 hours.
Heather Rae El Moussa (née Young) is looking back at her experience starring in Selling Sunset.
While appearing on Monday's episode of The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast, the real estate agent slammed the show as "toxic," and explained why it was a "blessing" that she allegedly wasn't asked to return to the Netflix series after she left for maternity leave in Season 7.
"It was a blessing that I wasn't asked to come back because I'm so much happier filming my show with Tarek. We're co-producers on our show so we pick the hours," she said of her and her husband Tarek El Moussa's HGTV series, The Flipping El Moussas.
"With Selling Sunset, I never knew when I was going to be filming. It was last minute, and it took over my life. It was hard to do my real job -- real estate. It was hard to do anything else," she continued.
The reality star added that some days she could film for 12 to 14 hours.
"They just want more and more and more and you saw me on the show," Heather said. "I pretty much was level-headed almost the whole time. I was kind of friends with everyone, and I kept things pretty chill in my life."
"Yeah, it's very toxic," she added. "You're around a bunch of women that everyone wants to be stars on the show, No. 1. And they'll kind of do anything."
Heather said there would be days she'd come home "crying from the stress of filming."
The 35-year-old is an original Selling Sunset cast member, appearing on the show from the series premiere in March 2019 until her final appearance on the Season 7 premiere, which aired in November 2023.
"In the beginning it was just all fun, not crazy drama," Heather explained on Monday's podcast. "We were all friends. Any drama was just simple. Then it just got worse and worse and worse. They started adding in more girls. It just became out of control."
She was last seen in the first episode of Season 7, during which she and her Oppenheim Group coworker and pal Bre Tiesi showed TikTok star Josh Richards a home. She then left for maternity leave. However, Heather -- who welcomed son Tristan with Tarek in January 2023 -- claimed she wasn't asked to return to Selling Sunset following her departure.
When her final episode aired, she shared a photo of herself, Richards, and Tiesi posing for a mirror selfie on Instagram, and confirmed her official exit from the Netflix series.
"The trio you never expected… but always wanted ❤️🔥 Selling Sunset season 7 is out now & you'll get to peep me in a few scenes with these two @joshrichards @bre_tiesi 👀," Heather wrote in the caption.
"Everything happens how it’s meant to 🤍….. And we all have a plan. It's bittersweet to not be a part of SS anymore," she added. "But I do know that good or bad I wouldn't change the experiences I had. Let the drama begin 😳 I'll be no part of it ✌🏻Thank you -> next 🙏🏻."
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