Justin Hartley and Chrishell Stause: The Way They Were

Credit: Matt Baron/Shutterstock

Justin Hartley and Chrishell Stause: The Way They Were

This is now. Justin Hartley and Chrishell Stause called it quits in 2019 after two years of marriage. According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, the This Is Us star submitted the papers on November 22, 2019. While he claimed in his docs that the twosome split the previous July, Stause listed their date of separation as the same day he filed for divorce. “I found out because he text[ed] me that we were filed. Forty-five minutes later, the world knew,” the real estate agent claimed during season 3 of the Netflix series Selling Sunset. "I talked to him right after [he filed] because I thought that must be a joke. That was kind of the end of the communication. What am I supposed to say? What do you say after that? Like now I have to find a place to live, now I have to scramble and figure this out." [jwplayer qy6nOvu6-l3ahXupL] Stause added that she was going through a “roller-coaster” of emotions at the time. “It takes a toll on your soul, where you just feel like ... the anger!” she said. “Like how could you do it this way? And the sadness, like, I love him so much. This was my best friend.” While Hartley stayed mum on the split, a source told Us at the time that he wasn’t thrilled with his ex talking about their divorce on Selling Sunset. “Justin has not watched the episodes but has been alerted to what is said,” the insider said in August 2020. “He’s irritated that she’s airing their private information publicly and knows there is more to the story than is being told. His close friends and family know what really happened, as does Chrishell, so ultimately it’s her choice of what is put out there.” Hartley and Stause married in October 2017 after dating for four years. Not long before they split, the actress opened up to Us about waiting to expand their family. “We don’t know [when] yet,” she said in May 2019. “I have a stepdaughter (Justin has a daughter), so we’ve got our hands full with high school.” While Hartley and Stause never expanded their family, it took them more than one year to finalize their divorce. Us exclusively revealed in January 2021 that a judge signed off on the paperwork. “Both parties entered into a confidential settlement as to terms of the divorce, including spousal support,” a source told Us, confirming that the twosome did not sign a prenup. Scroll down for a timeline of the Young and the Restless alum and the Days of Our Lives star’s relationship — and post-split drama:

Credit: Matt Baron/Shutterstock

Justin Hartley and Chrishell Stause: The Way They Were

This is now. Justin Hartley and Chrishell Stause called it quits in 2019 after two years of marriage. According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, the This Is Us star submitted the papers on November 22, 2019. While he claimed in his docs that the twosome split the previous July, Stause listed their date of separation as the same day he filed for divorce. “I found out because he text[ed] me that we were filed. Forty-five minutes later, the world knew,” the real estate agent claimed during season 3 of the Netflix series Selling Sunset. "I talked to him right after [he filed] because I thought that must be a joke. That was kind of the end of the communication. What am I supposed to say? What do you say after that? Like now I have to find a place to live, now I have to scramble and figure this out." [jwplayer qy6nOvu6-l3ahXupL] Stause added that she was going through a “roller-coaster” of emotions at the time. “It takes a toll on your soul, where you just feel like ... the anger!” she said. “Like how could you do it this way? And the sadness, like, I love him so much. This was my best friend.” While Hartley stayed mum on the split, a source told Us at the time that he wasn’t thrilled with his ex talking about their divorce on Selling Sunset. “Justin has not watched the episodes but has been alerted to what is said,” the insider said in August 2020. “He’s irritated that she’s airing their private information publicly and knows there is more to the story than is being told. His close friends and family know what really happened, as does Chrishell, so ultimately it’s her choice of what is put out there.” Hartley and Stause married in October 2017 after dating for four years. Not long before they split, the actress opened up to Us about waiting to expand their family. “We don’t know [when] yet,” she said in May 2019. “I have a stepdaughter (Justin has a daughter), so we’ve got our hands full with high school.” While Hartley and Stause never expanded their family, it took them more than one year to finalize their divorce. Us exclusively revealed in January 2021 that a judge signed off on the paperwork. “Both parties entered into a confidential settlement as to terms of the divorce, including spousal support,” a source told Us, confirming that the twosome did not sign a prenup. Scroll down for a timeline of the Young and the Restless alum and the Days of Our Lives star’s relationship — and post-split drama:

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Lovebirds

The couple confirmed their romance in January 2014. They first met when Chrishell was working with Justin’s ex-wife, Lindsay Hartley, on the set of All My Children. The two began dating years later.

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The Future Hartleys

Hartley popped the question in July 2016 after dating Stause for two years. The couple announced the news on social media with Stause sharing a picture of her engagement ring while lounging outside and tanning. "You guys think I need sunscreen?" she captioned the photo.

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Wedded Bliss

The couple said, “I do,” on October 30, 2017, in front of friends and family in an outdoor wedding. Justin's This Is Us costars Mandy Moore, Chrissy Metz and Milo Ventimiglia were in attendance. His daughter from his first marriage, Isabella, 15, was part of the bridal party and shared in the couple’s special day.

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Biggest Fan

The soap star was Hartley's biggest fan, even if others called him their Man Crush Monday. “I’m his biggest fan,” Stause told Us in March. “And so I get a kick out of when people see how great he is. I see it as a positive because he really is. … On social media, I’ll post things because I feel like I’m a fan as well, and I will do Man Crush Mondays for him.”

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Coffee King

In March, Hartley told Us about his go-to daily activity that he loves to do for his wife. “I’m an early riser, so when I hear her coming down the stairs in the morning, I turn on the coffee maker for her and get espresso going,” he said. “She really loves that I do that.”

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For the Love of Cheese

The 38-year-old actress admitted in March that her man knows the way to her heart … through cheese. After filming a movie in New Orleans, Stause flew to meet Hartley in New York and when she arrived he had a cheese board waiting in their room. “If you know me, that is like my love language. … That’s the sixth on the love languages, if you didn’t know,” she told Us at the time. “So he had a cheese board waiting for me and a bottle of wine. And it was just so sweet and so nice, and just like one of those things.”

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Nothing Like Kevin Pearson

She told Us in May that her husband is nothing like his This Is Us character … thank goodness. “Thank God because he wouldn’t be a very good husband,” she said. “There’s parts of Kevin that are good, but I don’t think I’d want to be married to him, you know? So luckily, Kevin gets all of his charm, but I get both. I also get the good husband’s side. So, I win!”

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More Love to Come

On their one-year anniversary, he couldn’t help but gush about his wife. “The best day, the best friends and family, the best wife! Happy first anniversary to my @chrishellhartley!! Let’s do 300 million more!” he wrote on Instagram in October 2018.

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Winner Winner

“Well #ThisIsUs didn’t take home the trophy but I am taking him home so looks like I am the big winner tonight!” she captioned a sweet photo with her man at the 2019 Emmys in September. “I now also win the cheesy caption award if there is an award for that-double winner! 😜😜 (Sorry guys, they serve alcohol here) 🤪😆🙌🏽💗."

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Calling it Quits

On November 22, 2019, Us confirmed that Hartley had filed for divorce from Stause after two years of marriage. The NBC star cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the split and listed July as their date of separation.

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Social Media Activity

Stause shared a cryptic quote on Instagram in November 2019, days after her split from Hartley made headlines. “It’s hard to watch people change right in front of you. But it’s even harder remembering who they used to be,” the message read. She also updated her Twitter and Instagram bios with positive quotes.

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This Is Contentious

While the Bad Moms Christmas actor listed their date of separation as July 8, 2019, the Selling Sunset star cited the date that Justin filed for divorce as their date of separation: November 22, 2019. According to the paperwork, Stause is seeking spousal support from and asking her estranged husband to pay for her attorney’s fees, but Justin does not believe he owes his wife of two years any money.

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Looking On the Bright Side

Hartley opened up about appreciating life following the split while attending the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour in January 2020. “We have hectic lives and everyone’s busy and rushing all over the place and trying to occupy space and time and get to the next thing and you have to slow down every once in a while and just kind of realize where you are, appreciate what you’ve done and reflect a little bit and be like, what’s going on here? And make sure you’re OK,” he told reporters. “Surround yourself with good people. That’s a good thing to do as well.”

Four months later, Stause exclusively told Us Weekly that she is trying to “focus on the positive side of things.” While promoting her new season of Selling Sunset, she told Us: “Transitions are hard … thankfully there is a lot to focus on right now.”

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Still Emotional

Stause, however, got emotional on season 2 of her Netflix show. In a teaser, the Kentucky native could be shown crying over her split from the actor. She also got choked up while promoting the show in an interview with Entertainment Tonight in May 2020. "Where the show picks up, that was my life and unfortunately you are going to follow the journey of that — the good and the bad. When it gets to the bad, I am going to go under a rock and I am going to go off the grid.” She added: "I obviously really, truly love him and it's unfortunate the way that everything happened and the timing of everything. I still had a month to plot shooting the show when this all went down. Hopefully we can get to a place where one day we will look back at this and laugh. I don't know, hopefully. It's very unfortunate and relationships are hard."

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A Huge Shock

During season 3 of Selling Sunset, which dropped on Netflix in August 2020, Stause claimed that she found out Hartley filed for divorce via a text he sent. Within 45 minutes, their split was in the news. During the new episodes, she said she was confused by the way he filed without speaking to her first.

"When I think of marriage, I think you work on things with people. They’re not perfect, no one is. You work on it. You talk about it," Stause said in a confessional. "You don’t go out looking for greener grass. Sometimes you have to water the grass that you have, and that’s what marriage is."

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Not Having it

After season 3 of Selling Sunset premiered on Netflix in August 2020, a source told Us exclusively that Hartley wasn't pleased with the way his estranged wife discussed their split on the show. "Justin has not watched the episodes but has been alerted to what is said," the insider added. "He's irritated that she's airing their private information publicly and knows there is more to the story than is being told. His close friends and family know what really happened, as does Chrishell, so ultimately it's her choice of what is put out there."

In an August interview with the Los Angeles Times, however, Stause defended her choice to share her personal story on TV. "It does give a little bit of purpose to the pain," she said.

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The Drama Continues

Following the premiere of Selling Sunset, Stause raised eyebrows when she was caught "liking" tweets alleging that Hartley may have cheated on her before filing for divorce. Despite speculation, a source close to the actor told Us that any rumors were "absolutely false" and that the former couple was having problems before their November 2019 split.

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Family Man

The Smallville alum's ex-wife Lindsay Korman-Hartley spoke out in his defense after the cheating allegations, noting that she's "thankful" for everything her ex does for her and their daughter, Isabella. The teenager later shared her mom's post to her Instagram Story.

"Today, I appreciate my ex-husband Justin for not only being [an] exemplification of a solid man but for being my dear friend and devoted father to our daughter," Korman-Hartley wrote on Instagram in August. "Simply put; for being family. We derive our own opinion of people by experiencing life and time together, and we do our best to hold dear the ones that maintain consistent kindness, love and generosity. ... No matter what conflicts Justin and I had in the past, I appreciate what we have today and I am thankful for the family we have built."

Stause seemingly responded, sharing a quote on her own Instagram Story shortly after Korman-Hartley’s post.

"Be the woman who fixes another woman’s crown without telling the world it was crooked,” the quote read. Below it, she added, “Women who build each other up are my tribe."

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Supportive Friends

Hartley’s friends are happy that his ex “is no longer in his life and he can move on,” a source shared with Us exclusively in August. “He is doing well right now, and while it’s been disappointing that he is being dragged into story lines on reality TV, he knew that he should expect this.”

Additionally, the insider noted that Stause was “very jealous” of the women he interacted with, even if they were “strict work relationships.”

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Official

Us broke the news in January 2021 that Hartley and Stause’s marriage was officially over. The former couple’s agreement — including the details of their prenup — are confidential. “Chrishell has moved on with her life,” a source told Us at the time, adding that she “is looking forward to new beginnings” with boyfriend Keo Motsepe. Hartley, for his part, has been seeing Sofia Pernas since May 2020.

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Subtle Shade?

Hartly quietly married Sofia Pernas in May 2021 and gushed several months later that "everything is easier" with the actress by his side.

"It's incredible when you're not forcing things. It doesn't have to be that hard," he told Haute Living in December 2021, seemingly hinting at his past romance with Stause. "You just meet the right person and you just go, 'Oh, this is amazing. It's just so wonderful!' You're so attracted and so attached to this person. You just love this person so much. ... I want to rise to the occasion because she's so great. She does make me want to be a better person, and [this kind of love] certainly does complete me."

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Red Flags

Stause opened up about the pair's marriage and divorce in her 2022 memoir, Under Construction, acknowledging that "there were definitely signs that things were far from perfect" before the twosome called it quits.

"The last thing I want to do is rehash old wounds but being so far away from it now I can see that what happened was a gift. Now I understand much more clearly how I deserve to be treated," she wrote. "When someone is in love, it's hard to convince that person that the relationship isn't right. Even if he's waving red flags like a bullfighter to everyone around you, you're the girl striding right up to him, oblivious to any impending danger. You're too distracted and in your own world to listen. ...  If you're a naturally optimistic person like I am, it's hard to look for warning signs when you're falling in love. You're hopeful, and no one's perfect, and everything in you wants it to work."

The former actress also noted that "nothing was exaggerated" when the split played out on Selling Sunset season 3. "I was terrified to put all that on camera. ... It was horrible, and because it happened while I was in the middle of filming a reality show, it's forever out there for the world to see," she recalled.