Chrishell Stause: The Real Villain Of ‘Selling Sunset’ – And Why Christine Quinn and Nicole Young Deserved Better Than What They’d Been Handed

Friendships can be pretty complex, especially female friendships. According to Psychology Today, often seek deeper emotional connection, validation, and shared vulnerability, treating friends more like family than men might. Stereotypes (catty, competitive), media portrayals (like Mean Girls), and societal marketing can foster insecurity and competition, making genuine connection harder. I know that in my previous blog entry, I put a great emphasis on how important female connections are, and I still stand by it. But maintaining these longstanding relationships can get…interesting. The very depth that makes female friendships powerful and vital also creates more potential fault lines, leading to their reputation for complexity.

While there’s a need for human connection amongst women, there’s also drama and fakeness involved with what comes with it. Mean Girls was ALL about that, and it’s a movie that even after almost 22 years since its release, is considered to be a classic and a work of art that women look up to. And don’t get me wrong, the movie really IS that good. But the friendships portrayed in it, ones that are filled with never-ending catfights and chaos, isn’t anything that women in real life should aspire for themselves in real life.

And yet, it seems like women, no matter what age they are, do aspire for chaos and destruction in their lives. Some even initiate the “violence” with others on purpose. Maybe that’s why I myself don’t have many female friends in this phase of my life. I just don’t want the chaos. I have zero interest in it. I have zero time for it. Life is chaotic and complicated enough as it is. Why add more to it? Research shows that having a close group of female friends improves confidence, happiness and good health. One thing I learned about friendships throughout the years, however, it’s that the quality of friends matters rather than the gender.

There are many, many television shows and movies that feature the dramatic chaos that can erupt between friends in the female spectrum. Media makes its mark on drama and chaos. It’s what keeps audiences engaged, and it does so by leveraging fundamental aspects of human psychology and storytelling, primarily through emotional engagement, vicarious experience, the drive of conflict, and social connection. These elements tap into our natural curiosity and desire for meaning, which are often missing in everyday life. To break it down more thoroughly:

Key reasons why drama is so effective at retaining audience interest include:

• Emotional Resonance and Empathy: Drama creates emotional investment by allowing audiences to connect with characters on a personal level. Viewers feel empathy for characters’ struggles and triumphs, which makes the story more personally meaningful and fosters a sense of not being alone in their own experiences.

• Conflict and Tension as Narrative Drivers:Central to drama are internal and external conflicts (e.g., character vs. character, moral dilemmas) that propel the story forward and create suspense. Tension builds through escalating stakes and unresolved issues, keeping the audience on edge and eager to see the outcome, sometimes even triggering a release of neurotransmitters like dopamine and adrenaline.

• Vicarious Experience and Escapism: Media drama allows viewers to safely experience intense, exciting, or challenging situations without real-world repercussions. This offers a powerful form of escapism from the mundane aspects of daily life and satisfies a basic human need for stimulation and adventure.

• The Pursuit of Meaning and Closure: Real life is often confusing and lacks clear-cut answers or “poetic justice”. Drama, by contrast, presents events with a meaningful structure and a satisfying, even if sad, conclusion or sense of closure. This structured narrative helps viewers process complex emotions and explore moral and ethical questions in a controlled environment.

• Social Engagement and Shared Experience:Watching drama provides a shared experience, whether it’s discussing the latest plot twists with friends, engaging in online fan forums, or feeling a sense of community with others who enjoy the same content. This social aspect enhances engagement and loyalty to the media property.

• Curiosity and the Need for Answers: Drama often employs narrative devices like cliffhangers and mysteries that exploit our natural curiosity. The desire for answers and closure on “who did what, and who’s right or wrong” keeps viewers hooked and ensures they return for the next episode or installment. 

Ultimately, drama is a powerful storytelling mechanism that mirrors the complexities of human existence, providing both entertainment and a means for self-reflection and connection. 

One TV series that absolutely lives off of drama is Netflix’s Selling Sunset. Since its 2019 debut, the series has followed female real estate agents in their 30s and 40s navigating their work at the Oppenheim Group in the Los Angeles area while they also live off of their personal lives. For the most part, the women’s conflicts and personal lives were showcased, and not very much of them working. Even when they were working, they were either fighting or discussing a dramatic fight that they were involved in. After 9 seasons, it’s gotten pretty exhausting to follow. But I’m also kind of embarrassed to admit: I’m pretty hooked.

One real estate agent that wasn’t a girl’s girl, or didn’t seem like one, this past season (season 9) was Nicole Young. She became a cast member of the show in 2022, but has worked at the Oppenheim Group since 2014. She’s one of the luxury real estate firm’s top agents, and she joined the show after Christine Quinn, Maya Vander and Vanessa Villela had left for good. As soon as she joined, she was feuding with Chrishell Stause. Young had even accused Stause of taking credit for her past listings. She was, however, good friends with Mary Fitzgerald, and had even officiated her 2019 wedding to French model Romain Bonnet.

Stause, at one point, had accused Young of being on drugs. Of that moment, Young said, ‘When she first said it, I felt like I’d just been hit by a train. I was so shocked. I was like a deer in headlights. It took me a moment to even process what she had said, and I was gutted. I was just absolutely gutted.’ Young later did a drug test to prove otherwise. While she proved that SHE wasn’t on drugs, as Stause said, things only got worse between her and Stause. In season 7 of the series, Nicole spread rumours that Emma, who was best friends with Stause at the time, was sleeping with a married man. In response, Stause made it clear she had no plans to work with Young in the future. Young’s screen time was limited later on. In a statement to Us Weekly in January, Young said, ‘I had a call with production two days ago during which they told me I have absolutely not been fired from the cast but they chose to pause my filming schedule until next week in order to protect me from situations on set that had become very contentious. I’m still debating whether or not I want to continue filming in this kind of environment, especially with so many infuriating double standards. Selling Sunset has been a great opportunity and a wild ride, but it is not my life or identity. I have a big, beautiful life outside of the show… and thankfully in the real world, my life and personality can’t be edited or misconstrued to portray me negatively to fit into a produced storyline.’

Season 9 revisited the entire fiasco of Stause calling Young for allegedly, in her own words, being a crackhead, which Young later proved to be totally false and untrue. At a dinner party with all of the agents in tow, Young said to Stause starting up the fire again, ‘Honey, you’re confusing me with your parents, OK? You seem to be obsessed with drugs.’ The entire party blew up at Young for her choice of words, especially Emma as she defended her friend. Stause then went on to say that she’d quit working at the Oppenheim Group if Young continued working there. Thereafter, Brett and Jason, the owners of the agency, dismissed her. That marked the end of Young’s arc. She briefly reappeared at the end of the season to tell Fitzgerald she was moving to Nashville with her family. At the reunion, it was revealed she still worked for the agency but wasn’t featured on the show.

Throughout Young’s entire run since she became a permanent cast member, she was made out to be the villain. I, on the other hand, would say that she’s more of a misunderstood or polarizing figure rather than a traditional antagonist. Supporters and Young herself argue that her actions are driven by a refusal to “bow over,” a commitment to her own truth, and a response to being targeted by other cast members. To break it down more thoroughly:

Arguments Against the “Villain” Label

Some viewers and the star herself offer reasons why the “villain” label may be inaccurate or unfair:

• Standing Her Ground: Young views herself as someone who is strong enough to “stand alone” and maintain her truth rather than following the group mentality. She has stated that anyone in the cast who is independent or challenges others is often painted as a villain by production because it is the “path of least resistance” for the storyline.

• Response to Provocation: Some fans believe Young is often the one being provoked. For instance, in her feud with Chrishell Stause, some viewers argue that Stause was the initial instigator by making serious accusations of drug use. Young was reportedly “gutted” by these claims and even took a drug test to defend her reputation.

• Direct Communication: Supporters appreciate that she is not afraid to speak her mind or “call it like she sees it,” which they contrast with other cast members who may just nod and agree to avoid conflict.

• Lack of Malicious Intent: Young has explicitly stated that she has never had “evil intentions” and is not someone who plots, schemes, or strategizes drama. She describes her reactions as “snapping back” rather than calculated manipulation.

• Professional Background: Before joining the show, Young was a long-standing agent at The Oppenheim Group (since 2014) and had a successful career as a marketing consultant for multinational corporations. Some suggest her initial hesitation to join the show was due to her professional nature, and her current struggles on camera may stem from discomfort with the reality TV format. 

Counter-Perspectives

Despite these arguments, Young remains highly polarizing due to specific incidents:

• Below-the-Belt Comments: Critics point to her bringing up Chrishell Stause’s deceased parents during an argument as a moment that crossed a professional and personal line.

• Refusal to Apologize: A major source of frustration for both the cast and viewers is her frequent refusal to take accountability or offer apologies when the group feels she has gone too far.

• Embracing the Role: Interestingly, Young has leaned into the controversy by selling “in my villain era” merchandise, suggesting she may be capitalizing on the label rather than just fighting it. 

Perhaps the fateful party dinner that got Young “fired” from the Oppenheim Group was the most dramatic we’ve seen on the show since Christine Quinn was part of the cast. Since she left the show in season 5, as well as working for the agency altogether, Quinn started her own company. While things are looking ahead in her career, her personal life hasn’t been easy as she’s gotten divorced from the father of her child, Christian Richard, after a domestic dispute. Most recently, Quinn was criticized for commenting on Erika Kirk ‘bring everywhere but with her kids,’ as she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Many who commented agreed with her stance.

Just like Young after her, Quinn wasn’t never the villain; she PLAYED  the villain role intentionally at first, and very well might I add, embracing it for the show’s drama and her own memorable presence, but later felt production edited her unfairly as one-note, hiding her vulnerability, especially during motherhood, leading to her departure from the show. While fans saw her as a character, Quinn felt the portrayal became limiting and untrue to her full self as seasons progressed, creating conflict with the show’s narrative. To break it down more thoroughly:

Why She Embraced the Villain Role Initially

• Intentional Character: Quinn openly stated she was hired to be the villain and enjoyed creating a memorable, dramatic character to give audiences a reaction.

• For the Show: She understood her role was to create intrigue and drama, making the show “addictive” and ensuring she stayed relevant. 

Why She Felt She Became Only the Villain

• One-Note Editing: Quinn felt the editing focused solely on conflict, failing to show her vulnerable side, her pregnancy, or her experiences as a mother.

• Lack of Voice: She claimed producers wouldn’t let her respond or have her side of stories shown, making her seem consistently antagonistic.

• Feeling Unfairly Portrayed: While she loved the initial concept, she grew to dislike the limited portrayal as it didn’t reflect her full personality. 

Her Departure

• Quinn left after Season 5, citing issues with the portrayal and wanting to focus on her business and family, feeling the show no longer served her well. 

Essentially, Quinn initially CHOSE to be the villain for entertainment, but as the seasons progressed and the show’s popularity grew, she felt the reality of the show’s production turned her into a caricature.

The reason why Young’s comments towards Stause were made into a big deal was that Stause’s parents died within a year of each other due to their previous drug abuse related illnesses – lung cancer. Since their respective passings, Stause has been a great advocate for encouraging others to get screened early. In 2022, she commemorated World Cancer Day by writing on Instagram, ‘Today is #worldcancerday and it was 2 years to the day that I found out my mom was suffering from the same lung cancer that took my dad the year before. PLEASE get your checkups and second opinions. 🙏🏼. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t wish we caught it sooner so we could have maybe had more time together. My heart is with all of you that have lost someone to this terrible disease. My parents were always the life of the party🥰 I had a dream last night with them laughing so vividly. 🥰 I wish we took more pictures and videos when we were together. I wish I didn’t hold a grudge so long on things when they were just trying their best. If anyone is reading this and mad at a loved one- Life is truly too short. Please let it go if you can. Try and see things from where they are coming from and the tools that they have. I miss you everyday.’

While I could empathize with Stause and the pain Young’s particular comment on her parents’ deaths, especially in knowing what her childhood had entailed with her parents selling drugs just to make ends meet and get by, I just couldn’t understand why the entire ordeal was made into such a big part mess. I personally wholeheartedly believe that the entire fiasco was set up by producers. What Young said was despicable, yes. But it wasn’t intentional. It didn’t need to be made into such a big deal. Anything for TV ratings, I suppose.

To be completely honest, the more the latest season of Selling Sunset progressed, the more I started believing that Stause was the real villain of the series all along. She was the one who was never a girl’s girl. She only seemed to have been that when it benefited her, and it became clearer during the reunion episode with the whole cast. By that point, she and fellow agent Emma Hernan were no longer friends as Stause didn’t support Hernan’s relationship, Blake Davis.

The once unbreakable bond between the two women began when Hernan joined the show in season 4. Almost immediately, they became inseparable, often supporting each other. Things changed, however, once Hernan began dating Davis. Stause made her feelings of him known. She strongly disapproved of him and his alleged problematic language/intentions. She voiced her concerns to Hernan, showing a fundamental difference in morals, making the friendship unsalvageable for her. Stause emphasized that the person she once called a friend deserved better than what she was settling for. Since then, Stause created boundaries, while Hernan expressed sadness and a desire for resolution but felt immense damage was done. The dissolution of their friendship was a major topic at the Season 9 reunion, where both expressed hurt, with Stause feeling her friendship with Hernan, and even with Chelsea Lazkani (who is also estranged from Hernan), was broken due to the situation with her boyfriend.

Everything leading up to the reunion, as well as the reunion itself, was sad, and even more so, frustrating to watch. I could really feel Hernan’s heart breaking. All she wanted was to love and be loved; to be supported and respected…unconditionally. With Stause, however, everything about her seemed so conditional and utterly disgusting. Hernan said of where she herself stood in the falling out, ‘There’s only so much that I can do. I have shown nothing but love and support from the day that I met her, and there’s nothing that’s changed on my end. Unfortunately, there’s a lot that’s continuing to transpire that’s really, really sad. It’s not OK, but I will continue to hold my head up high. I’ll be the supportive friend to every other person in my life and I’m gonna stay true to who I am.’

Stause, on the other hand, had a whole other side to it. In an interview with Variety, she said, ‘When I met him, there were so many red flags that happened in one short meeting. I found real things to be dangerous with his personality. He recently posted about how he was going to sue my dick off. This isn’t a normal person. Anybody who meets this man is not going to want their friend to date him. Of course, he wasn’t like that on camera. He acted one way to me. Then, he came on camera and flipped the script. He just would say these extremely problematic things. I have a deep core issue with people who think that way, so it was upsetting. Even though he was being nice, he compared people being nonbinary to mental illness. That’s my partner, whom I love dearly. For a long time, I tried to have a lot of sympathy for her and be there for her,” she says. “I tried to do all the things as a friend. She would call and tell me how scared she was of this, or when they would break up, she would tell me the worst things that he would do. Like any friend, I’m there for her and helped her through it. Then she goes right back to him. She’s posting from his yacht and not answering my call. At first, I put all of it on him. She was kind of innocent in it. Over time, I had to understand that they are aligned, and that is her choice. But it’s not something that I want in my life… I don’t want to be friends with her anymore. She’s made it very clear what her morals are, and we do not align.’

Stause wasn’t the only one to call out Hernan’s relationship. It was labelled as “toxic” by numerous people. And yet, no matter how horrible her boyfriend might’ve been, I truly coplant help but feel sad for Hernan as the storyline with her boyfriend unfolded, especially during the reunion. For the entirety of the episode, Hernan couldn’t even look at Stause in the eye. And when she did, she was on the verge of tears. She was too heartbroken to have to face the one person that should’ve been there for her no matter what; even if that person didn’t agree with her life choices.

Maybe this behaviour that Stause had showcased towards Hernan, both face-to-face and on social media, has to do with the fact that she’s more than a decade older than her and she feels she has more of a control over her. No matter the reason, the situation made me realize that it was never Christine Quinn OR Nicole Young who were villains of the show, but Stause herself. She’s perceived double standards (complaining about gossip but engaging in it), creating drama while claiming to want peace, questioning coworkers’ partners (like Emma’s Blake), and her perceived manipulative framing of situations, especially around her relationship with Jason and boundaries with colleagues like Sandra and Nicole, leading to accusations of being self-centered or not a team player, despite her “good girl” image. To break it down more thoroughly:

Reasons for the “Villain” Label:

• Double Standards: Critics point out her complaints about coworkers gossiping (Sandra) while she shares details of her personal life (like Jason’s past) and engages in workplace drama, feeling she doesn’t see her own hypocrisy.

• Drama vs. Peace: She expresses a desire for peace and sets boundaries (e.g., avoiding certain dinners) but simultaneously fuels conflicts, like questioning Emma Hernan’s relationship with Blake Davis due to his political views, which others see as creating drama she then avoids.

• Manipulative Framing: Some feel she manipulates narratives, such as how she presented her breakup with Jason Oppenheim and her issues with Nicole Young, making herself appear more victimized than she might be.

• Self-Centeredness: Her actions, like skipping a group dinner to avoid tension, are viewed by some (like Nicole and Amanza) as selfish and not team-oriented, even though they are for her mental health.

• Shifting Role: As the original villains (like Christine Quinn) left or mellowed, some viewers feel Chrishell has stepped into the dramatic role, using her perceived vulnerability for storylines. 

Counterarguments (Why She’s Not the Villain):

• Producer Influence: Some cast members, like Christine Quinn, argue that producers intentionally create scenarios to instigate drama and manipulate emotions, making it hard to pinpoint a single villain.

• Setting Boundaries: Her desire for peace and boundaries is seen by others as rational and mature, especially in a toxic environment, and coworkers’ negative reactions feel like microaggressions. 

Ultimately, who is the “villain” is subjective, but these points highlight why some viewers and castmates perceive Chrishell’s actions as villainous, contrasting with her sunny image. 

Following the release of the reunion episode, Stause announced that after 9 seasons as a main cast remember, she was leaving the show for good. My personal reaction to it was: HALLELUJAH!!!!! I just couldn’t stand her utter elegant fakeness and crocodile energy. She’d always play the victim whenever she had to. But the fact of the matter is that in her 9 season 9, if there’s anything we could learn from her is that no matter how much someone tries to hide their true selves, their true colours eventually do come out. That’s the thing about villains… they’re not very good actors.