'Selling Sunset' Star Vanessa Villela Reveals Why She Missed Half of Season 5

Vanessa Villela is opening up about the difficulties of filming the upcoming season of Selling Sunset.

The 43-year-old reality star spoke with Page Six and revealed the reason she wasn’t able to film a large portion of the fifth season.

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“Out of 11 weeks of filming, I was sick for five. I got COVID in August and we started filming right in that moment, so obviously they couldn’t wait for me,” she said.

“I had a very strong COVID case. My case, it’s still going actually,” Vanessa continued. “It’s called long COVID. I’m still dealing with it.”

After finishing filming for season 4, the cast immediately began working on season 5.

“I was sick for too long and you’re going to see a little bit of struggle with Vanessa in work,” she said of the upcoming season, adding that she suffered from brain inflammation and debilitating spells of dizziness.

“I went to film one day after I ‘recovered’ and while I was speaking, I started feeling like I was going to pass out and I started feeling super dizzy. They had to send me in an Uber to my house,” she recalled.

“I have [a hormonal imbalance] and I have other imbalances. My vitamin D is super low. My calcium is super low. My lithium mineral is super low,” she went on to say. “So it’s a lot that’s going on right now but I’m in very good hands.”

Vanessa also opened up about being cast on the reality show, calling herself a “big manifester.”

“I don’t know why but I felt like I was on Selling Sunset … Two days later, [producers] contacted me to ask me to do an interview for them,” she said.

“So, that’s how it happened,” she continued. “Jason and Brett followed my real estate career and they wanted to have me in their group and then everything came together.”

In case you missed it, check out who on the cast of Selling Sunset has the highest net worth!