The Big Picture

• The on-camera The Family Stallone's dynamic is charming and follows Sylvester Stallone and his family.
• The absence of marital distress in The Family Stallone poses a problem in how the family is portrayed.
• The reality TV series blurs the line between reality and glamour even when the public knows the truth.

Sylvester Stallone has an admirable history in Hollywood. Since writing and starring in his first film, Rocky, in 1976, he has worked steadily in the film industry for five decades. In recent years, he has set his sights on the world of TV. In a November 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Sly notes how people assumed his career must be hitting hard times if he was now turning to reality TV. He said, rather than being a sign that his film career is slowing down, he views the series as the "ultimate home movie," where he finally gets to spend a significant amount of time with his family.

The on-camera Stallone family dynamic is charming. The sisters have a playful, robust energy that invites viewers into their world. Sly has undeniable charisma, especially when he has a crowd to play to. Jennifer Flavin Stallone works hard to appear as a loving wife and mother who likes to remain behind the scenes, a support system and coordinator for the family. Each scene embodies an affectionate and playful familial energy, and there are very few moments of discord shown.

What is bizarre about the united family front that is shown in The Family Stallone, especially what is seen in the first season, is the timing. Around the time the series picked up cameras for filming in late August 2022, Jennifer had filed for divorce from her husband. The pair having marital troubles during this time was public knowledge, and widely reported on. The couple even gave interviews about the end of their marriage, with Sly referring to their relationship as "irretrievably broken." Then, in September 2022, the divorce filing was suddenly dropped. The absence of this level of distress in the relationship shown in The Family Stallone poses a problem for the "reality" TV series.

Jennifer Files For Divorce as Filming 'The Family Stallone' Starts

Jennifer filed for divorce on August 19, 2022. Filming for the family's reality series started just before Sylvester Stallone's TV series, Tulsa King, wrapped Season 1. According to Sly's Instagram feed, which features a video of the crew wrapping up the last episode, the final day of filming for Season 1 of the series was on August 31, 2022. A "source" told People Magazine that when Jennifer filed for divorce "she felt she had no option." She felt "unheard" and was "very frustrated." Once news broke that Jennifer had filed, another insider source told People Magazine that the couple didn't have just one issue, but rather a host of issues that had accumulated over time. In her divorce filing, Jennifer had accused Sly of "intentional dissipation" of marital assets as a source of discord within the marriage.

When the divorce filing was made public, Sly shared a video on his Instagram of having a tattoo of Jennifer's face covered, replaced by the face of Butkus, the Rottweiler from Rocky. About a month later, he had another tattoo of Jennifer's eyes covered with the image of a leopard. This is a somewhat different facet of the man on the reality TV series who dotes lovingly upon his wife. The couple also listed their Beverly Park estate in Los Angeles in January 2021 for $110 million dollars (the property eventually sold to singer Adele for $58 million). It seems like the sale of such a valued property might have played a role in Jennifer's concerns about marital assets. In the second season, the couple tell their daughters that they are also selling their Hidden Hills property in Los Angeles and moving permanently to Palm Beach, Florida, a property which Jennifer had originally requested sole use of as part of the terms of the requested divorce.

In late September 2022, the couple seemed to have reversed course and decided to reconcile. Also in September 2022, TMZ confirmed that when Sly and Jennifer were married in 1997, the pair had no pre-nuptial agreement in place. When talking to People Magazine after the couple's seeming reconciliation, an insider source also focused on the division of marital assets as a reason for the pair patching things up, noting that in a long-term marriage like theirs, if the couple wanted to end the relationship, "dividing up the assets would be difficult." The couple seems to have had many different reasons to reconcile, and any relationship requires adjustments after a certain amount of time has passed. However, this is not the couple that viewers are shown on The Family Stallone.

In the first episode of Season 1, the series opens on the set of Tulsa King in Oklahoma, as Sly prepares to travel home for a quick visit before having to return to the set to finish the season. After he is wrapped for the day, Sly speaks in a confessional for The Family Stallone about how his filming schedule has kept him away from his family, and that he is looking forward to spending time with his daughters. At home in California, Jennifer sits down with her daughters, Scarlet Stallone, Sistine Stallone, and Sophia Stallone, to discuss how she misses her husband when he is away and how she still gets "butterflies" whenever she sees him. Sources close to the family were discussing a frustrated wife finally at a breaking point with her husband at the same time these scenes were being filmed. It invites the question, how much is being faked on this "reality" program?

A Picture-Perfect Family Stallone

Reportedly, the couple have been working on their marriage and now have better communication. This is admirable. And it really wouldn't be a matter of interest anymore, if not for the bizarre choice to completely ignore these events in their marriage as they filmed a reality TV program with their daughters. In The Family Stallone, the couple speak highly of each other and reflect fondly on their love for one another. Rather than simply owning that the relationship was in a tumultuous place, it seems a decision was made to grin their way through filming together. The series does not even hint that the couple were on the brink of divorce when filming picked up for Season 1. This is an interesting choice, given the widespread commentary in the media about their relationship struggles.

In the second season, the couple framed their relocation to Florida as a response to being empty nesters in need of a new adventure. Scarlet was also attending university in Miami at the time, and their two older daughters lived together in New York. The couple explained that it is more convenient for everyone to gather together in Palm Beach, since it is a much shorter flight to Florida from New York than Los Angeles. It is easy for viewers to be lulled into the narrative the family offers, that the couple has never been happier now that they are filming their reality program together. However, for viewers aware of the discord in the marital relationship at the time filming started, it is difficult to buy in to this version of events. It leaves them feeling like they have been presented a fictional version of "reality" in The Family Stallone.

'The Family Stallone' Is "Reality" TV Through a Hollywood Lens

The clearly crafted narrative about where Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer are at in their relationship on The Family Stallone blurs the line between reality TV and Hollywood glamour. When speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in November 2022, Sly was asked if the divorce drama would be featured in the family series. His response was, "Of course, it's part of the show." Obviously, once the editing process began, a choice was made that their brief separation would not be discussed.

In an interview with Collider, Sly mentions that the family would be present in the editing room for the episodes each season so that they could override an editor who might want to include footage that doesn't "work" for the family. To completely ignore the marital discord that was widely reported on at the time is a clear example of exactly how crafted the "reality" that viewers are shown on reality TV can be.

Rather than openly admitting that they have struggled in their marriage, the Stallones preferred to present a united front to the world. The only sign of discord between the couple that is shown in the series is Jennifer's occasional passive-aggressive jokes at Sly's expense and his begrudging tolerance of them. Sly also admitted in interviews and in the series that he has often prioritized his work on set over his marriage and family commitments. But these examples hardly add up to the brink of a divorce.

Families have a right to privacy during tumultuous times. But it is a brazen move to film a reality series during such a time and behave as though the relationship is not only fine, but kind of perfect, actually. Look at the havoc Kyle Richards seems to have caused on her reality series Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills by only hinting at the relationship troubles she was having with husband Mauricio Umansky, while also flaunting her budding and enigmatic relationship with country singer Morgan Wade. It is unsustainable for a series to claim to be a reality program that purports to follow people living their daily lives if the viewers and the subjects both know that the footage is fiction, to begin with.

All episodes of The Family Stallone are available to stream on Paramount+.

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