On season one of Selling Sunset, Chrishell Stause (who at the time went by Chrishell Hartley) walked into the Oppenheim Group for her first day. While the ladies of the Oppenheim Group are a tough crowd to please (well, mostly Christine Quinn), the crew seemed impressed by Stause’s high-profile husband, This Is Us actor Justin Hartley. Stause revealed that they were nearing their one-year anniversary and added "I love him to death." Little did she know (little did we all know) that two seasons later, her divorce would become a major plot point in the series.
Chrishell Stause and Justin Hartley dated for four years and were married for two. Their relationship seemed like your typical love story: Girl meets boy, falls in love, and lives happily ever after. Unfortunately, that last part was not to be. Let's travel back in time to see how it all started—from Stause's first engagement in 2007 to another high profile actor, to where she and ex-husband Hartley currently stand.
2007: Stause breaks off engagement from Glee star Matthew Morrison
Chrishell Stause met Glee Star Matthew Morrison in 2006. The two moved quickly and were engaged in 2007. However, they quietly broke off the engagement. According to The Daily Express, Morrison felt they rushed into it too quickly. "When I was 27, I proposed to my then girlfriend, but I didn’t do it for the right reasons," he recalled in 2010. "I was thinking, 'This is the age when I should probably start having kids so this is what I should do.'" However, clearly neither Morrison nor Stause were ready for this type of commitment.
During the first season of Selling Sunset, Stause touched on her engagement to Morrison, without revealing his name. During the episode, Stause was concerned that her co-star Mary Fitzgerald might be rushing into things with her then-25 year old fiancé, Romain Bonnet. "I didn't know who I was at 25, and I didn't know what I wanted because actually, if I ended up with the person I was with when I was 25, I would want to kill myself," Stause shared. She added, "Yeah you can Google that! You were a d*ck! Sorry!"
2012: Hartley filed for divorce from first wife
Justin Hartley filed for divorce from wife Lindsay Korman in 2012, according to the Cheat Sheet. The pair had met on the set of the soap opera Passions in 2003. By 2004, they had married and welcomed a daughter. Hartley and Korman currently co-parent their now 16-year-old, Isabella Justice Hartley.
2013: Stause and Hartley meet
Stause was busy filming for Days of Our Lives, while newly-single Hartley was filming for The Young and the Restless. A co-star of Hartley introduced the two and there was an immediate connection. Their first date was a concert. Hartley recalled the magical moment to People in a 2017 interview. "I drove her home and called the next day. We haven’t been apart since. I knew right away [and] was like, 'Oh boy, here we go.'" That night Stause kissed him on the cheek and texted her friend the following day that she had "found him."
May 2016: Stause said she couldn't love Hartley more
Stause tweeted an adorable photo of her and Hartley. "I couldn't possibly love him more," she wrote.
August 2016: Hartley proposed to Stause
After three years of dating, Hartley proposed to Stause. As the Soap Opera Digest cover read "Breaking News: Real-Life Y&R Duo Engaged!"
March 2017: Hartley gushed over Stause during an interview
Hartley gushed about Stause during an interview with Harry Connick Jr. “It’s a special thing, isn’t it, that when you find that one person—and it sounds so cheesy,” he told Connick Jr. "Some people are like, ‘Oh, there’s one person for everyone,’” says Hartley, who added, “But when you meet that one person, you realize like ‘What the hell have I been doing my whole life? This is the person.’”
October 2017: Stause and Hartley get married
Stause and Hartley tied the knot in front of 75 of their closest friends and family in a rustic and romantic ceremony in Malibu on October 28, 2017. People magazine covered the event.
February 2018: The Hartley family stepped out together
Married life for the couple seemed to be going well. Stause posed courtside with Hartley and her-now stepdaughter, Isabella, at a State Farm All-Star game.
April 2018: Stause and Hartley's movie came out
Stause and Hartley's movie together, Another Time, was released in April 2018. The film follows Eric (Hartley), a top investment manager, who falls in love with Julia (Stause) during a work project. However, Julia is engaged to another man and Eric must travel back in time to meet her before she becomes engaged. Another Time is currently streaming on Hulu.
May 2018: Stause shared how much she loves being a step-mom
Stause shared how excited she is to be a step-mom. On Mother's Day, she shared two photos of her and Bella as they got ready for the wedding. "Love you Bella," she wrote.
November 14, 2019: Stause and Hartley attended a Golden Globes party together
Stause and Hartley were photographed together smiling at the Hollywood Reporter's Golden Globes party.
November 22, 2019: News broke that Hartley filed for divorce from Stause
News broke that Justin officially filed for divorce from Chrishell on November 22, 2019. However, he listed their date of separation as July 8, 2019, according to Entertainment Tonight. In response, Chrishell filed for a dissolution of the marriage, citing irreconcilable differences weeks later.
December 2019: Stause posted a cryptic Instagram post
A month after the split, Stause shared a cryptic message to Instagram, which many believed was about Hartley.
May 2020: Hartley started dating co-star Sofia Pernas
Hartley was spotted kissing his former The Young and The Restless co-star, Sofia Pernas, as she dropped him off at a doctor’s appointment in Southern California. A source confirmed to Us Weekly that Hartley and Pernas are dating.
July 2020: Stause's maiden name is restored
Documents obtained by ET show that Stause and Hartley participated in a voluntary settlement conference on July 13, 2020. During this conference, Stause's name was changed from Chrishell Hartley to her maiden name, Terrina Chrishell Stause.
Also in July, Stause's Selling Sunset co-star, Christine Quinn, spoke about the couple's marriage during an interview with Page Six. "We all just thought maybe they were having communication problems for a while," Quinn told the outlet. "We heard that they were in therapy, so obviously there were some issues going on with them."
After seeing the interview, Stause took to Twitter to clear things up. "I just learned Christine is giving press 'information' about my divorce. Let me be VERY clear. She knows absolutely nothing about the situation," Stause wrote.
She added in a follow-up tweet that it's "so frustrating and unfortunate that someone would use someone’s personal painful situation to get press for themselves. I can’t say I am surprised, but please check the source. She has absolutely zero knowledge of the marriage we had."
August 2020: Selling Sunset season three dropped on Netflix, giving fans a closer look at Hartley and Stause's divorce
Selling Sunset season three premiered on Netflix, offering up some new details about the couple's divorce. During one episode, a very emotional Stause opened up to her costar Mary Fitzgerald about her divorce. "I found out because he texted me that he had filed," she said, adding "Forty-five minutes later, the world knew."
Stause explained that after receiving that text, she had barely communicated with Hartley. "I talked to him right after because I thought that must be a joke," Stause recalled. "But that was kind of the end of the communication." She explained on the episode that the divorce was just as much of a shock to her as it was to the general public. "Because of the crazy way this went down, people want answers. And I f—ing want answers," she said.
After the show’s release, a source told Us Weekly that Hartley was "irritated that [Chrishell was] airing their private information publicly and knows there is more to the story than is being told." A different source also told the outlet that month that Hartley "is a great, stand-up guy, and he wants to move on with his life in a classy way" and that his friends are "glad" that his estranged wife is "no longer in his life."
September 2020: Stause revealed she's "excited to mingle"
Stause joined the season 29 Dancing with the Stars cast. During an interview with ET, she confirmed that she is single. "I'm completely single and because of COVID, I haven't done much mingling," Stause told the outlet, but added that she's "excited to mingle" when the time comes. She also revealed that she's "had a few" potential suitors slide into her DMs. "There's a few [people you might know], but I'm not going to tell you who," she hinted. Overall, the messages have been a "nice surprise."
October 2020: Hartley revealed he's happy with his personal life
Almost a year after filing for divorce, Hartley told Bevy Smith on Radio Andy that he's "really happy" with his personal life. He also spoke about the news surrounding the divorce. "You can’t—you really can’t just believe something because you read it," he said.
December 2020: Stause begins dating Keo Motsepe; Hartley shows Pernas off on Instagram
Following the finale of Dancing with the Stars season 29, Stause began dating professional ballroom dancer Keo Motsepe. The new couple announced their relationship via Instagram.
With Stause's new relationship out in the open, Hartley decided to make his relationship with Sofia Pernas social media official, too. He posted their first photo together on Instagram minutes before they rang in 2021.
January 2021: Stause and Hartley's divorce is finalized
Us Weekly revealed in early January that the couple's divorce has officially been finalized. "Both parties entered into a confidential settlement as to terms of the divorce, including spousal support," a source told the outlet. Another source revealed that they did not sign a prenup.
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