It’s a big month for those of us who thrive on reality television. On the tail end of the Vanderpump Rules ‘Scandoval’ drama, we were gifted the Selling Sunsetseason six drop from Netflix. Next week: we’re gearing up for the latest summer season of Love Island. Everything just feels right with the world when we have some midweight entertainment to bathe in.
The most pleasant surprise of all was that the latest instalment of Selling Sunset, the property show which is more about the insanely uncomfortable looking designer outfits and the arguments between the cast, than it is about the houses, is that it’s good – really good. There had been concerns from fans that without Selling Sunset’s resident villain, Christine Quinn (who left at the end of series five), the show could be entering its flop era. But season six is some of the best drama we’ve had yet and this is, in part, thanks to new recruit Bre Tiesi. The latest agent to join the Oppenheim Group arrives with a ‘don’t give a fuck’ attitude and a backstory which is quite simply written for reality television. Not only is she six-weeks postpartum when she struts into the infamous industrial chic Oppenheim Group office, she has also just given birth to Nick Cannon’s eighth child. She finds out during filming that he has just welcomed his ninth child with LaNisha Cole, by reading it online - news which leaves her reeling.
When Grazia catches up with Bre she sets the record straight about opinions on what she describes as her ‘unconventional’ relationship with Cannon, who has twelve children in total with six women, two of which are with Mariah Carey. Bre and Nick's son Legendary Love was born in June last year. On the show she is quick to tell the other agents, including a judgemental Chelsea Lazkani, that she doesn’t believe in monogamy. On the phone with Grazia, Bre refers to Cannon repeatedly as her ‘partner’, and adds that the online opinions she’s been on the receiving end of since the season dropped aren’t anything new.
‘I've been getting ripped apart for the last almost two years now. Because of because of who my partner is,’ she tells Grazia. ‘But I think for me, I'm so secure in my in my relationship with my partner and who I am as a person, I just can't let it affect me. Obviously, it's not always fun, you know, it is hard to hear 24/7 that your partner's a player or you're crazy, you're brainwashed, all the awful things that people say because they don't understand. They obviously don't know the ins and outs, they don't know the details. They don't understand how we do things and why it works. Nor do I care to explain any of that. So I never will.’
Having first been approached to join the show in 2020, Bre finally felt the time was right to film last year, despite having given birth six weeks before filming started. It was a wrench to be away from her son, not least because she was breastfeeding and determined to continue. During one scene in episode two Bre uses a breastpump at her desk. This was an intentional move, to do it on camera. ‘I felt like it was really my identity, especially in that moment, this was something I was really going through,' she says. '[It was] something that was so new to me, and something that as women, we’re often shamed for doing what is completely natural. Yeah. And as everyone can tell, I don’t live my life the way people want me to. So I wanted to be very open with my [breastfeeding] journey, and how I felt about it, and that it’s okay, and we should be embraced. And I’m not going to go either in a room to feed my child or a bathroom or any of those places, and you have a problem with it. I do not care. It was very important for me.’
The rest of the team, says Bre, was very supportive, and she has grown particularly close with Chrishell and Emma Hernan, who joined the show last season. She’s openly not a fan of Chelsea or Nicole. And, like the rest of us, she is slightly confused by the appeal of Jason Oppenheim, who has dated three of the agents on the show: Chrishell, Mary and Nicole. ‘It's very funny to me. I don't necessarily understand it,' says Bre, laughing. 'But you know, most of the girls work well together. They're not bothered. I'm not bothered. He collects quality women. That's what Jason does!’
Of course no Selling Sunset agent would fit in without an impossibly tiny and expensive wardrobe, and Bre says she came prepared to serve looks. She says she had a ‘business forward’ brief on her moodboard she worked on with her stylist (though it’s hard to imagine anyone dressling like these women do for any other day job). This season is more extreme than ever: it’s all gold lamé, diamanté bras and micro minis. It’s part of the camp fun though, Bre agrees. ‘I’m obsessed with fashion, and there is pressure to bring the outfits and dress a certain kind of way.’ She admits that she works with a stylist, though not all of them do. ‘I tried to really channel how I would actually dress at the office with a little bit of flair and how I would dress out in public, but also how I would dress my postpartum body.’
And with that, Bre is off to continue shooting season seven , which she confirms is already underway – and she is a part of. ‘Fans try and walk into the office, we have tour buses going past every day: it’s crazy. But I love it.’