After the wild rumor, in which Sean claimed Austin and his wife propositioned him for a threesome, shook up Season 3, the cast spoke out, with Austin saying that he believes Sean felt like he had to stick with his "lie" and "take it to the grave."
Spoilers ahead for Selling the OC Season 3.
One wild rumor dominated the new season of Selling the OC, leading to an explosive confrontation between two cast members which almost turned physical.
In Season 3, which dropped on Netflix on Friday, Sean Palmieri claimed that his then-Oppenheim Group coworker, Austin Victoria and his wife, Lisa, propositioned him for a threesome one night.
The rumor shook up Season 3, before the drama led to a near-physical confrontation between the former friends.
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View StoryThe drama began after Sean was having drinks with his coworkers, Alexandra Jarvis and Kayla Cardona. He said his friendship with Austin ended after Austin and his wife, Lisa, tried to have a threesome with him when he was over for dinner one evening.
"Austin and I were chill. I do think that him and his wife are a bit too flirty for my taste sometimes," Sean said. "They're a little bit flirty. ... They're a flirty couple."
"First off, this guy's married," he added. "My headspace would never think to go there."
Sean went on to share more thoughts in a confessional, telling the Netflix cameras, "I'm not here to judge underlying parts of someone's relationship. You can be open, you can do whatever you want. ... I'm not here to judge. But he has been very interesting towards me in the past. He has made moves on me. And your wife is touching me, saying, 'You're my favorite in the office.' ... That could lead to hints. I choose to stay away from some of these situations."
Meanwhile, during the same scene, Austin detailed Sean's allegations to his wife while they were on a date.
"Remember that night when we invited Sean over?" Austin told Lisa. "You made cookies that night. So he came over, we cooked him dinner, we played Oculus ... and then he went home. Apparently, his story is much different."
"His story is he came over, we 'drugged him' with marijuana cookies and tried to have a three-way with him. That pisses me off. My daughters are upstairs. That guy has some sick s--t going on in his head to even come up with that scenario."
The situation really took a turn when Austin confronted Sean about his claims while at the office. Although they closed the door when they took their conversation outside, all of their coworkers were able to hear the majority of what was happening.
At first, both Austin and Sean appeared to act like they didn't know what the other was referring to, before the latter finally gave in, telling his side of the story.
"You told me when we were friends, you gave me all this stuff you and your wife were into," Sean said. "I don't care if you're doing these foursomes, flipping ... You made a move, and because I'm not into it, you're mad I'm not into your perverted ways."
Austin denied Sean's allegations while he was talking, claiming he's "never had a threesome," before throwing jabs of his own.
When Sean tells people Austin and his wife tried to have a threesome with him, all hell breaks loose in the office.
— Netflix (@netflix) May 3, 2024 @netflix
Selling the OC Season 3 is now playing. pic.twitter.com/1o6Su0o5nr
"You're disgusting. You think everyone hits on you," he said. "You're not hot, bro. I would never want to f--king hit on you. You're the last person I would ever hit on. ... My f--king kids were upstairs!"
"You hit on me. You said, 'If I wasn't married, the things I would do... I said, 'Austin, I'm not here for this kind of stuff,'" Sean hit back, to which Austin claimed Sean was being "delusional."
"You're making up rumors that my wife and I wanted to f--k you!" Austin said, and Sean fired back, "You literally told me you and your wife are experimenting, and are you are open to certain things, and bringing a guy in, and I said, 'Good for you.'"
Sean claimed the alleged proposition is why he "stopped talking" to Austin. The two continued to get more heated, before Austin started to step into Sean's space, and lightly shoved him back.
Their coworkers intervened before the interaction could escalate any further or turn physical.
Season 3 ended with Sean attempting to confront Austin and Tyler Stanaland. Austin walked away from him, but Sean and Tyler proceeded to go at it, and the rest of the group joined in, taking sides.
"I didn't want it to end like this, man," Sean told Tyler, before he left.
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View StorySean ultimately left The Oppenheim Group, announcing his exit in November. The month before, Tyler revealed his departure, sharing that he would be working with his father again at the rival Douglas Elliman firm.
Meanwhile, the cast -- sans Sean and Tyler -- spoke out about the threesome rumor drama in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, with Austin again doubling down on his denial of Sean's claims.
"Everything was fabricated, everything was a lie that was said," he said. What truly happened the night that he came over to my house, we were just texting back and forth, my wife and I, we're gonna have dinner, she was gonna bake some cookies and I just got an Oculus -- a VR, I'm a big gamer -- so Sean and I are texting back and forth. He asked if he could join us. I said, 'Sure,' so he joined us for dinner. My wife baked some cookies -- she does a lot of baking, she's, like, in her Martha Stewart era -- and then Sean and I played Oculus."
"It was a boring night, and then he went home. That was it," he recalled, saying that he didn't hear about the rumor until several months later. "There was nothing more to it, and then a rumor started I would say, probably, six months later is the first time I heard it -- and the first rumor I heard was just that Lisa and I we're a very flirtatious couple, so getting vibes or whatever, and then it continued into this thing where we're into three-ways and blah, blah, blah... so, it's all a lie. I'm a family man. I have kids. I'm not into that; never was, never will be."
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View StoryWhen asked whether they think Sean simply "wanted to cause some drama" for the show by allegedly creating his story, Austin nodded his head. "That's what I come back to," he explained.
"I didn't go around and ask people to have my back," he added. "Sean was going around asking people to back him up ... in this feud, or whatever you wanna call it. I didn't tell anybody that. I know my truth."
Alexandra Jarvis appeared to be the only cast member who defended Sean in the interview.
"I completely disagree with that," she said of Austin accusing Sean of making up a story for the show. "I'm probably the closest one to Sean and have been for a while. He and I became closer friends during season 2, and I feel like he has been completely honest and straightforward. Obviously, everybody has different opinions. There's a lot of chefs in the kitchen and I don't know... I think that there's definitely gonna be some confusion, I think for the audience, as to what's going down. And no, Sean did not do any of this for screen time."
Meanwhile, Austin said he hasn't spoken to Sean since their explosive confrontation at the office.
"I wanted to talk to him one-on-one," he explained, adding, "I wish I would have been able to speak to him because I want to believe -- and I choose to believe -- that Sean wasn't-- he wouldn't have done that, you know? The Sean I knew, the friend that I invited into my home, the person that I would allow to babysit my children, was a friend and someone that opened up to me, and I opened up to him."
"We were friends that become family," he added. "So, I like to believe that the lie just kind of grew legs and turned into something that it wasn't, and then Sean just felt like he had to stick with it and take it to the grave. But, you know, I don't know if I'll ever know the truth because we no longer speak."
Selling the OC Season 3 is streaming now on Netflix.