Mary Bonnet didn’t hold back about the downsides that came with appearing on nine seasons of Selling Sunset.
“This show actually hurt my real estate business,” Mary, 45, revealed exclusively to Us Weekly while discussing her current work with animal advocacy. “I went into Selling Sunset thinking it was going to help — and in the beginning it did.”
Mary recalled when things changed in her professional life.
“The behavior [became a problem]. Basically what I’ve been told is that other agents would use some of the girls’ behavior against saying, ‘Is this who you want representing you?’ And I was not a part of that,” she noted. “I was trying to stop it but it’s still used against me.”
The real estate agent joined Selling Sunset when it premiered in March 2019. Mary shocked viewers when she made the decision to step away ahead of season 10.
“It hasn’t hurt Jason [Oppenheim] but he’s removed from all the drama. Anything they did — even though I was removed from it — still impacted my career. I lost a lot of clients and I lost a lot of deals because of it,” she recalled. “Even though the market is very, very bad right now, I did just get one of my previous clients that wanted to list with me now. So I’ve got a four and a half million listing coming up.”
The reality series became an overnight success for Netflix as viewers were introduced to employees at high-end Los Angeles real estate brokerage The Oppenheim Group. Since its premiere, the show’s stars have faced challenges in front of and behind the scenes due to Selling Sunset’s popularity.
“If it was more positive then I absolutely [would return to reality TV],” she told Us. “I would never be good on The Housewives or anything like that. It’s not me and it would eat away at me. I don’t like conflict and I know people love drama but I just feel like it is soul-sucking.”
She continued: “I would love to do another show because I loved being on TV. I never thought I would but I loved parts of it. But I also want to be able to use my platform for something positive and something good.”
Mary has been able to use her voice to uplift causes she believes in — such as raising awareness about the animal shelter crisis in Los Angeles.
“There’s many, many ways that people can help either by fostering, adopting or with donations to the rescues. Because shelters are not allocating the funds to the dogs. There’s a huge crisis,” she told Us. “But what people can do if you don’t have any of those available is go to volunteer at a shelter — even if it’s just to go and take photos or videos of the animals and post them.”
Mary’s concerns about kill shelters led to her ongoing rescue journey, saying, “There’s a big misconception that shelter dogs are damaged. They are the most appreciative and loving animals. Even if it is just to foster for two weeks. They are so appreciative and so loving and they just want kindness and love.”
She concluded: “We need people’s help. Whatever people can do to need help — even if it’s just raising awareness themselves or reposting a dog if you see one that’s still available. You don’t know who will see it.”
