Reality stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, famous for their time on MTV’s “The Hills,” lost their home in the California fires, but not everyone is feeling sympathetic.
The couple sat down with “Good Morning America,” recalling the shock of their loss.
“Spencer was like, ‘Grab anything you want to keep,’ and I was like, ‘How do you choose?’ My brain actually stopped working because I was so overwhelmed with so many things you can’t replace. So I grabbed my kids’ teddy bears,” Montag said through tears.
Pratt added, “The worst was… our kids’ room. That is so magical. We do story time every night. It’s such our routine. So much love is in there. Our son’s bed started burning in the shape of a heart. The fire just started as a heart. I was like, ‘This is out of body, insane.’”
Their home was located in the Pacific Palisades, where devastating fires broke out on Jan 7, leveling homes and businesses. Both the Palisades Fire, and the nearby Eaton Fire, remain active, according to Cal Fire.
The couple say their home and possessions were uninsured, and noted they were one of many Southern California residents who were dropped from their policy.
As Montag explained to the outlet, “We were ‘house poor’ as they call it. We have a house, and everything else is a hustle, is a grind, so we’re definitely counting every dollar that we make.”
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Fans have supported the stars, including sending Montag’s debut album, released in 2010, to the top of the iTunes charts, where it reached the No. 1 spot for both song and album this week.
“The fan support has been such a light in such a darkness for us, and it’s life-changing,” Montag said.
Not everyone was as kind in the comments on the couple’s interview, however.
“Buy another house. Stop crying,” one person wrote on “Good Morning America’s” Instagram page.
“He’s wearing a Heidi shirt,” another wrote, calling it “shameless promotion during the worst imaginable tragedy, they’ll never change sorry not sorry.”
Many echoed this sentiment, saying, “This is so sad, but there’s so many people that lost everything not just celebrities. come on people interview anybody but celebrities!!”
But others still had compassion for the stars, won over by their honesty after their heyday as reality TV “villains” on “The Hills.”
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“They are so different now. Humble & relatable!” one person said.
“Me being Spencer and Heidi’s biggest fan was not on 2025 BINGO card but here we are,” added another.
On social media, the parents of two boys, Gunnar, 7, and Ryker, 2, have shared images and video of what’s left of their house.
“It’s a place that you love, that you live, that’s a refuge from the world and to have that be gone is a really difficult concept to continue to daily deal with,” Montag said as she teared up again.
“I feel like a ghost. I don’t have a single photo now before an iPhone existed,” Pratt said. “I don’t have any of the dumb little things that are on your shelves. They’re all gone. Not a single, nothing.”
