Heather Rae El Moussa says 'Selling Sunset' was 'very toxic' and it was a 'blessing' she wasn't asked back

• Tarek and Heather Rae El Moussa appeared on Monday's episode of "The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast."
• During the episode, she discussed her experience on "Selling Sunset," saying it was "toxic."
• She also said it was a "blessing" Netflix didn't ask her to appear on season eight of the show.

Heather Rae El Moussa got candid about her experience on "Selling Sunset."

Heather and her husband, Tarek El Moussa, appeared on "The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast" with Lauryn Evarts and Michael Bosstick on Monday.

During the episode, Evarts and Bosstick asked both about their experience being reality stars. The pair appeared on reality shows separately, with Tarek starring on HGTV's "Flip or Flop" and "Flipping 101 With Tarek El Moussa" and Heather on Netflix's "Selling Sunset," before starring on their HGTV series "The Flipping El Moussas" together.

Tarek looked back at his career in reality TV as a positive business venture, while Heather said "Selling Sunset" became "toxic" as time went on.

Heather said 'Selling Sunset' became more stressful the longer she starred in the series

"It's very toxic," Heather said of the environment on "Selling Sunset" on the podcast. "You're around a bunch of women. Everyone wants to be stars on the show, you know, number one. And they'll kind of do anything."

But Heather said the show wasn't always stressful.

"In the beginning, it was just all fun," she said. "We were all friends. Any drama, it was just, you know, simple. And then it just got worse and worse and worse."

"There would be days I came home to him, like, crying from the stress of filming," Heather said. She said her filming hours were unpredictable, which made working stressful, particularly because she had to commute from her home with Tarek in Orange County, California, to Los Angeles for the series.

"With 'Selling Sunset,' I never knew when I was going to be filming," she said. "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."

Heather also told Evarts and Bosstick that dealing with the reactions from fans once the show aired added to her stress levels.

"You film it, you go through it," she said. "It's your real life. And then the show comes out, you have to watch it and deal with all the stress again. And then you have to hear from all the fans, and you get attacked for almost everything you do."

Transitioning to a career at HGTV has been a 'blessing' for Heather

Heather went on maternity leave at the beginning of filming for season seven of "Selling Sunset," as she gave birth to her and Tarek's son Tristan in January 2023. Tarek also has two children, Taylor, 13, and Brayden, 8, with his ex and former "Flip or Flop" costar Christina Hall.

Netflix didn't ask Heather to return to "Selling Sunset" after her maternity leave ended. Heather told E! News in February 2023 that it was "frustrating" she hadn't heard from Netflix, but on "The Skinny Confidential," she said it was a "blessing" she wasn't asked to keep filming the show.

"I'm so much happier filming my show with Tarek," she said, particularly because they have more creative control over it. "We're coproducers on our show, so we get to pick the hours."

Heather also said she's been thrilled to find she loves designing homes on "The Flipping El Moussas" more than she imagined.

"I'm thriving," she said. "I'm obsessed with what I do. I'm now designing homes. I'm flipping homes with him. I have a whole new craft, and I'm so much more passionate about this."

Season two of "The Flipping El Moussas" is set to air sometime in 2024.