Justin Hartley's ex-wife, Lindsay Korman-Hartley, is defending him as his split from Chrishell Stause takes the spotlight on Selling Sunset.
On Tuesday, Korman-Hartley, 42, issued a statement on Instagram, in which she backed up the This Is Us actor, 43, as a "dear friend and devoted father to our daughter." The pair were married from 2004 to 2012 and share 16-year-old daughter Isabella.
"In a day when social media should be used for positivity… an inspiration towards movement in an honest and deserving way…I’d like to join in, by highlighting my appreciation for my family," began Korman-Hartley. "Today, I appreciate my ex-husband Justin for not only being exemplification of a solid man, but for being my dear friend and devoted father to our daughter. Simply put; for being family."
In the third season of Netflix's Selling Sunset, which debuted on Friday, Hartley — who never appeared on the reality show — and his divorce from Stause, 39, is discussed. Stause said she felt "blindsided" by the split back in November after two years of marriage.
Korman-Hartley continued in her statement to say despite any past "conflicts" she's had with her ex-husband, Hartley will always be part of her family.
"We derive our own opinion of people by experiencing life and time together, and we do our best to hold dear the ones that maintain consistent kindness, love, and generosity," the Passions alum wrote. "No matter what conflicts Justin and I had in the past, I appreciate what we have today and I am thankful for the family we have built."
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After Stause's divorce is introduced on Selling Sunset via office gossip in a dramatic cliffhanger, the following episode picks up with her coworker and friend, Mary Fitzgerald, comforting the former soap star in her hotel room.
"I’m just kind of in shock with it all. I’m trying to keep it together, but it’s just a lot all at once 'cause everybody in the whole world knows like at the same time that I knew. Have you ever been knocked over by a wave and you don’t know which way to swim to get up?” Stause says through tears, before adding in a confessional clip: "I don’t think anyone ever gets married thinking that they’ll get a divorce. I’m definitely a hopeless romantic, and I feel stupid even saying that out loud."
Over the weekend, Hartley appeared to become Instagram official with his rumored new girlfriend, his former The Young and the Restless costar, Sofia Pernas. On Sunday, Pernas, 31, shared a photo to her Instagram Story of a man leaning on a marble countertop, holding a cigar and an iced beverage in his hands: "Easy like Sunday mornin,'" she captioned the picture.
Hours later, Hartley, 43, posted a snap of himself sitting in a pool and holding a dog. Atop the photo, he wrote a nearly identical caption to the one written on Pernas' post. "Paisley like Sunday mornin,'" the text on Hartley's Instagram Story stated.
In January, Hartley brought his daughter to the 2020 Critics' Choice Awards, where he told PEOPLE Now about how he feels that Isabella will be heading to college soon.
“My daughter is going to be graduating high school in a couple years, so that’ll be interesting,” he said at the time. “Which means she is going to move away, which is heartbreaking but also totally normal and natural, and I’m just going to tell myself that it’s going to be fine. Yeah, we’ll just continue to be healthy and good.”
He also said that it was “awesome” that Isabella wanted to accompany him for the red carpet event. “It’s cool that she wants to come,” said Hartley. “… There’s that thing where you never know the day when you’re going to wake up and she’s like ‘I’m good.’ But it hasn’t happened yet.”
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