Emma Hernan is thankful she had her boyfriend by her side while weathering shocking affair claims after the most recent season of Selling Sunset.
“I was very grateful because he knew what happened and what they did to me. He was super upset and very supportive and felt awful for me,” Emma, 33, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting Mel’s Diner on Sunset now serving her vegan cheeseburger empanadas. “Especially because he went and filmed and put himself out there as well, and they cut everything.”
Emma, who has not publicly identified her partner, was upset when she saw scenes relating to her personal life not making the cut, adding, “There’s a few scenes where I have a bite mark on my arm and they try to play it like they don’t know who it is. But we all know who it is. There’s a few scenes that if you go back in the season and kind of pay attention to what they did now, it’s super messed up.”
It took several seasons for Emma to open up about who she was dating — to disastrous results.
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“As it is, I’m not super comfortable showing my personal life and relationship. Then I go ahead, I do it, and regardless, your relationship is going to be judged,” she noted. “I want people to connect with me and I want people to see my real life and know what I’m doing. Then they cut my real life and go to this life that has zero truth to it and then I don’t even know about it!”
Shortly before season 8 was released earlier this year, Emma was surprised to find out that Nicole Young brought up rumors that she was allegedly sleeping with a married man. Emma has since denied the claims, and Nicole has apologized. The offscreen drama came as a surprise to Emma after she filmed numerous scenes with her unnamed boyfriend.
“I have been super private about my relationships my entire life. Even before the show, I’ve always been a private person when it comes to relationships,” she recalled. “But producers came to me and they said that they really wanted to see my love life and who I’m dating. I opened up my life, and what happened was the complete opposite from what we filmed.”
Emma isn’t ruling out allowing cameras to capture more footage for season 9, which is currently being filmed.
“We’ll see what happens next season! I know producers are very interested in getting my dating life onto the screen, so we’ll see what happens with that,” she told Us. “[My boyfriend is] definitely more reserved. But he was very supportive of whatever I wanted. He did film and we looked at a couple properties together on screen. But ultimately, he was pretty disappointed with what they did to me, which my family was as well.”
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She continued: “When you love somebody and you go through something and you see them hurting, of course you’re going to be protective of them. That was kind of the scenario that came out. It was very unfortunate what they did to me because it changed a lot of people’s perception of the show and my life.”
The real estate agent is grateful for her boyfriend’s constant support. While speaking with Us, Emma revealed how she met her mystery man — and what she loves most about him.
“He had messaged me prior to the show, so we had been friends for quite some time, and then we met last December,” she recalled. “He’s very close with my family, so that was something that was lacking in my prior relationship and something that I’m fortunate about and grateful for in this one.”
Emma isn’t just happy in her personal life. She’s also thriving professionally as she celebrates her vegan cheeseburger empanadas officially being served at Mel’s Diner.
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“I’ve been asked to put my empanadas in many different restaurants before. I wanted my first restaurant partnership to be something that was iconic, and it doesn’t get more iconic than Mel’s on the Sunset Strip,” she shared with Us. “Mel’s is also really special to me and my family because we live super close by and it’s my dad’s favorite restaurant. So every time he comes to Los Angeles, Mel’s is the place that we walk down to, and my dad gets a vanilla milkshake to start his morning and it’s his favorite thing to do. I thought what better partnership than to have my empanadas at my dad’s favorite restaurant.”
She continued: “They’re going to be on the menu indefinitely, and we launched with the Sunset location and then we’re going to continue to launch at all the other locations. They’re adding it on the menu in a super cute way. We have this whole design. It’s going to be on there forever, and the only other two people on the menu are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lana Del Rey, so I’m in great company!”
Selling Sunset is currently streaming on Netflix.
With reporting by Lanae Brody
