The reason for Nicole Young‘s exit from Selling Sunset was finally revealed when season 9 showed her bringing up Chrishell Stause‘s deceased parents and their struggles with addiction.
During the new batch of episodes, streaming now, Nicole, 39, and Chrishell, 44, got into an argument at a group dinner over the former’s false claims about Emma Hernan having an affair with a married man. The duo went back and forth trading insults when Chrishell brought up her previous allegations about Nicole’s alleged drug use.
“Honey, you’re confusing me with your parents, OK?” Nicole said before the whole table turned against her. “You seem to be obsessed with drugs.”
Amanza Smith and Emma, 33, were the most vocal in opposition of Nicole and her comments, while Mary Bonnet tried to deescalate the situation. Amanza, 48, slammed Nicole’s comments for being in bad taste, pointing out that Chrishell’s parents “are dead.”
“I hope you are on drugs because this is fucking inexcusable,” Amanza added.
Nicole stood her ground while pointing out Chrishell’s dig about her allegedly overdosing on cocaine in the past.
“She’s talked about [her parents] being addicts,” Nicole fired back. “It is OK for me to continually be called a drug addict. You talked about your parents doing drugs.”
Emma called Nicole “sick and evil” before the group kicked Nicole out of the restaurant. The next episode showed Brett and Jason Oppenheim dismissing Nicole from her job due to her insensitive comments.
Us Weekly previously confirmed that Selling Sunset had to hit pause on filming due to issues between Nicole and Chrishell.
“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,” Nicole told Us in a statement in January. “I’m still debating whether or not I want to continue filming in this kind of environment, especially with so many infuriating double standards.”
Nicole added: “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.”
Later in the season, Nicole spoke to Mary about her decision to move from Los Angeles to Nashville. Nicole recently told Us that she was curious how viewers would react to the new episodes.
“We’ve seen the new season. We already shot the reunion. It’s a lot,” Nicole shared earlier this month. “I think I’m very curious to see viewers’ reactions, because things kind of get flipped upside down, especially when you see how things kind of end up in the reunion.”
Nicole teased that viewers might have some new favorites, adding, “I think some people’s favorite people might change in both directions. It’s gonna be very interesting to see.”
Chrishell, for her part, previously agreed about the show being “very explosive.”
“Cameras pick up exactly where we left off,” she told Us in March. “It is satisfying for people watching. With story lines that were left a little open-ended … you’re definitely going to get a lot of resolution.”
Selling Sunset is currently streaming on Netflix.
