Fans who queued up the newest season of Selling Sunset on Netflix will sure to have noticed that Heather Rae El Moussa is no longer part of the show.
Netflix’s hit reality series Selling Sunset explores the frantic, lucrative, and oftentimes cutthroat world of Los Angeles real estate. The cast consists of a collection of realtors employed with The Oppenheim Group, which primarily services high-end clientele.
Why Did Heather Leave Selling Sunset After Season 7?
Heather Rae El Moussa was one of Selling Sunset’s original cast members when the show debuted on Netflix in 2019. In fact, she served as one of the series’ main points of focus. But with the arrival of Season 8’s September 6 premiere, El Moussa was nowhere to be found on Selling Sunset.
As a guest on The Skinny Confidential podcast, Heather Rae El Moussa confessed that appearing on Selling Sunset was interfering, in a big way, with her regular day job as a real estate agent, sharply noting that the show “took over” her life:
“With ‘Selling Sunset’, I never knew when I was going to be filming. It was last minute, it took over my life, it was hard to do my real job — real estate. It was hard to do anything else.”
She additionally revealed that not only was she ”not asked to come” back to Selling Sunset after Season 7, but that the stress of trying to burn the candle at both ends frequently reduced her to tears.
El Moussa appeared in a recurring capacity during the seventh season of Selling Sunset. She was on maternity leave for the bulk of the season’s run and only cropped up sporadically.
Is Heather Still on Selling Sunset?
As of Selling Sunset’s current season, Season 8, Heather Rae El Moussa is no longer part of the series.
And it doesn’t seem like she has any intention of returning either. Heather Rae and her husband, fellow reality TV staple Tarek El Moussa have jumped ship from Netflix and kicked off a new series on HGTV called The Flipping El Moussas.
This series takes the form of more of a home renovation and flipping program rather than a straight real estate show. El Moussa indicated that working on her own reality show, which she co-produces with her husband, has made her “so much happier” than she was on Selling Sunset:
“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.”
Moreover, the couple now has a young son, Tristan, born in early 2022, to consider. It’s likely fair to say that living a less stressful work life with The Flipping El Moussas has made it easier for the two to fulfill their duties as parents.
Selling Sunset can be streamed exclusively on Netflix. The Flipping El Moussas was renewed for Season 2 in 2023 but has yet to air on HGTV.
