Spencer Pratt thinks Heidi Pratt’s reality TV background may be too much for the women of the Real Housewives.
“She’d upstage. I know that’s my love for her, but I truly think she’d upstage all these basic ladies,” Spencer, 40, told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Friday, September 15, adding that he’s “heard” people claim his wife is “too polarizing.”
Heidi, for her part, agreed when she was asked if she thought Andy Cohen was the reason for not being asked to join the cast. “I think so. He made a statement a while ago that he would never want me on it and that I wasn’t for their franchise, but I think that he’s so wrong,” she claimed, noting that it would “make sense” for her to be part of a show like The Real Housewives of Orange County or The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills now that she’s a mom of two.
Referring to her longtime feud with former costar Lauren Conrad, she continued: “I don’t know if [Andy] is just a Lauren fan or what, because I would think that he would appreciate the reality star that I am.”
Following the end of The Hills – which ran on MTV from 2006 to 2010 — both Spencer and Heidi have made a name for themselves in the reality TV landscape. After appearing on shows like Celebrity Big Brother, Celebrity Wife Swap and Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars 2, the pair returned for The Hills’ short-lived spinoff, The Hills: New Beginnings in 2019.
Now, in addition to parenting their two sons, Gunner, 5, and Ryker, 23 months, the couple have one of their “biggest dream team projects in the works.”
“It’s an idea Heidi and I’ve been saying, I can’t believe no one’s come to us for 10 years to do. And then this big heavy-hitter came with that idea,” Spencer teased to THR. “So the paperwork’s just getting signed and if it goes through it would all come together just like a vision.”
While some reality TV stars are considering joining the ongoing Hollywood strikes, Spencer and Heidi have made it clear they aren’t on board. After Bethenny Frankel urged her fellow reality TV personalities to join her in fighting for fair pay alongside SAG-AFTRA and WGA earlier this summer, Spencer and Heidi clarified via social media that they will go “on any show” and networks can “treat us however you like.”
Spencer clarified his thoughts on Friday, telling THR that he and Heidi “do support the WGA” but were “frustrated” when their name got “mixed up” with Frankel, 52.
“[She] made people think there really was a reality strike,” he explained. “I was clowning when I jokingly said, ‘I’ve been on strike. That’s why you haven’t seen me.’ No, I don’t have a TV show. That’s why you haven’t seen me. But Heidi and I have learned this so many times, the amount of pilots we’ve shot with big production companies and big producers, and how many times those pilots never get to air, once you’ve been in that game and know how hard it is to be a reality TV person on a television show, until you’ve been on the other side, you don’t get what a privilege it is.”
The WGA (Writer’s Guild of America) and SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), who kicked off their strikes in May and July, respectively, are seeking similar new contracts with the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) in regards to wages, the use of artificial intelligence and streaming residuals. In July, Frankel weighed in on the situation and claimed she hasn’t seen “a single residual check” for reruns of her past reality TV appearances.
“I’m well aware that unscripted talent aka ‘reality stars’ should have a union or simply be treated fairly and valued,” the Real Housewives of New York City alum said via TikTok video at the time. “The mentality that we were nobodies and that these streamers and networks have given us platforms and that we can capitalize on them is also moronic.”
