Mary Fitzgerald Admits She and Jason Oppenheim Have an "Interesting History"
Selling Sunset wouldn’t be the same without a little friendly competition. But there’s no denying tensions run high when it comes to Mary Fitzgerald.
In season 3, Christine Quinn, Maya Vander, and Davina Potratz voiced their strong belief that brokerage owner Jason Oppenheim favors Mary over the other realtors and gives her more leads and listings than anyone else. Not surprisingly, the president and founder of The Oppenheim Group begs to differ.
To give you better context on the debate, read more about Mary and Jason's relationship and what they think of the favoritism claims:
Jason and Mary dated at least half a year.
In season 1 of Selling Sunset, Jason hosted an engagement party for Mary and her now-husband, Romain Bonnet. In typical fashion, no topic was off limits at the dinner table, including details about Mary and Jason’s past romantic relationship.
According to Jason, the two dated for at least six months. “I mean, it depends if you count the breakup period. Six months to a year,” Jason said on the show. “Yeah, we had a lingering kind of period. We lived together,” Mary added.
Jason then explained that he and Mary once lived together in his current home, where the engagement party was taking place, “for a few months.” But their separation wasn’t cut and dried. “We broke up but still dated. Interesting history but it works,” Mary said.
When fellow realtor Chrishell Stause asked why they broke up, the former couple agreed it was for the best. “That’s probably more on me. We were good friends before and we’re much closer now,” Jason explained. Mary echoed this sentiment and added that there was a “transitional period.”
A post shared by Mary Fitzgerald (@themaryfitzgerald) on Feb 9, 2020 at 1:26pm PST
What’s more, after Mary “found the most amazing man,” a.k.a. Romain, she and Jason were on such great terms that they decided to adopt two dogs together — Zelda and Niko. Both dogs make frequent cameos on the show.
Jason asked Mary to be part of The Oppenheim Group.
There wouldn’t be Selling Sunset without The Oppenheim Group. In 2013, Jason decided to start his own brokerage out of his house with only a desk and an assistant. Although he expected to lose clients and business, the 43-year-old experienced the opposite and rapidly gained success. Eventually, he was able to move his workspace into a proper office and took the next step to hire agents.
“I had this big office and I built it out and I had absolutely no agents. So, I just started talking to my closest friends and seeing who was interested in real estate,” Jason tells Good Housekeeping. “Kind of just curating a close, family-oriented group of friends that were all people who … were ambitious and hardworking, committed to the success of this company.”
One of these friends was Mary. According to her LinkedIn, she became a realtor in 2008 in the South Bay area of California before moving to London for a few years. In 2014, Mary returned to L.A. and joined The Oppenheim Group to work alongside Jason.
Jason doesn’t believe he gives Mary special treatment.
Despite Christine and Davina believing that Jason is oblivious to his favoritism towards Mary, he wants to set the record straight.
“I don’t give her special treatment,” he tells us. “When it comes to business ... it’s strictly a response to their production, the amount of money that they bring into the brokerage, their level of experience and expertise, and my level of trust in them.”
The former attorney also noted that “no other brokerage gives agents listings or buyers,” which makes The Oppenheim Group unique. That said, Jason can see how it may appear to others. But he also points out that the show doesn't disclose the company's numbers.
“I understand that there can be frustrations from other agents because they see that Mary is being involved in and brought on to many of my listings,” he reveals to us. “While I don’t share the financials with everyone because that’s confidential, I think that everyone would admit based on just the obvious work that she’s done, that she’s bringing more money into this brokerage and selling more properties than anyone else.”
Referencing Mary’s wedding venue as an example, Jason says that the show didn’t mention the fact that the property was previously listed with “one of the top agents in the country” for months but didn't find a buyer. When Mary acquired that listing on her own, she “sold it in a matter of weeks” and impressed the billionaire client so much that “he gave her another property at $8 million” and she sold that too.
“The facts speak for themselves,” he explains to us. “She’s just on a tear right now and she’s extremely successful. I think it minimizes what she’s accomplished when people suggest that she’s somehow being rewarded for our relationship and not because of her hard work and success.”
Mary shuts down rumors about her past with Jason.
In the latest season, Mary returned from her honeymoon ready to conquer the real estate market. The 39-year-old officially tied the knot with Romain and sold her aforementioned wedding venue in the process. Although several colleagues credited her success to her relationship with Jason, Mary quickly dismissed these comments.
A post shared by Mary Fitzgerald (@themaryfitzgerald) on Apr 12, 2019 at 9:26am PDT
“Jason and I have been friends for probably 15 years,” she said on the show. “We dated for maybe a year of that. These girls are trying to take away all of my success and my hard work, saying, ‘Oh it’s because they dated.’”
Mary continued: “No, I bust my a-- and I work for it. I think it’s extremely rude and disrespectful to try to take my accomplishments and all of my hard work away from me because I’m a successful woman and they just want to throw it back on, ‘Oh she’s probably sleeping with him.’ No!”
Jason loves working with Mary.
In the end, Jason’s only focusing on the positive, like working with his closest female friend. While he admits that he's had to learn how to manage a personal and professional relationship simultaneously, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I would prefer to work with my best friend any day of the week,” he tells us. “It’s awesome working with Mary, it really is. I think if anything I’ve just been impressed with her level of commitment and her ambition and her level of success.”
Jason continues: “It’s always great for a brokerage to see an agent of theirs becoming successful and working so hard. But it feels ten times better when that agent is also your best friend and you get to see them become successful. It’s so rewarding for me. I absolutely love it. I’m her biggest supporter and her biggest fan.”
Well, that settles that!
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