Ready for romance? Chrishell Stause has taken “baby steps” into dating again after her messy divorce from Justin Hartley — but won’t reveal who’s slid into her DMs.
“I have to say I have had a few [messages],” the Selling Sunset star, 39, told Entertainment Tonight on Wednesday, September 2, after being announced as one of the competitors on the upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars. “I don’t know how to answer that, I feel so weird. But yes, that has been a nice surprise. There’s a few [people you might know], but I’m not going to tell you who.”
Us Weekly confirmed in November 2019 that Hartley, 43, filed for divorce from Stause after two years of marriage. A source said at the time that although the This Is Us actor “had been having problems with the marriage for a while,” the couple’s split “was a big surprise to everyone around Justin and Chrishell in terms of their friends.” In May, Us exclusively revealed that Hartley had moved on with former Young and the Restless costar Sofia Pernas.
Though she’s dipping a toe back into the dating pool, Stause isn’t ready to make any big commitments yet, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m completely single and because of COVID, I haven’t done much mingling,” she said on Wednesday. “I’m excited to mingle. … I haven’t taken the next step.”
Despite the ups and downs she’s faced in the last year, including the recent loss of her mother to cancer, Stause is “in a really positive space.” Her optimistic outlook is a welcome change after fans watched her struggle through the third season of her Netflix reality series, which debuted in August, where she revealed that she learned about her divorce via text message.
“I f—king want answers,” she told costar Mary Fitzgerald through tears in the aftermath. “I know people are saying we were only married two years, but it’s like, we were together for six years. … When I found out, I was minutes before leaving the house for work, so I immediately just grabbed a few things and I just got out of there as fast as I could.”
While Stause’s turn on Selling Sunset has continued to make headlines in the wake of her split, an insider told Us in August that Hartley is “irritated” with the way details of their private life were portrayed on the series, claiming “there is more to the story than is being told.” As she continues to heal, Stause is ready to put the drama behind her.
“So much has been said that there’s nothing else I want to say about [the divorce], and I think that’s a really good place to be,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “I want to be in a place where everybody just moves on. I’m excited to move past that chapter and onto the next.”
