“Selling the OC”’s Kayla Cardona ‘Wasn’t Surprised’ By Alex Hall’s Critical Mental Health Comments (Exclusive)
Cardona tells PEOPLE she felt that Hall's apology for the disparaging remarks "was not genuine"
Warning: This post contains spoilers from season 3 of Selling the OC.
Kayla Cardona and Alex Hall clash over comments the latter made on an unnamed podcast in Selling the OC’s drama-filled new season.
Speaking with PEOPLE ahead of the docusoap’s season 3 release on May 3, Cardona said she “wasn’t surprised” by disparaging remarks Hall made concerning her mental health that surface during the fifth episode.
“It's been an ongoing thing with her,” Cardona said. “I think you guys only see what you saw on the show. She's been constantly speaking that way about me for quite some time. I wasn't surprised, to be quite honest.”
In the following episode, Hall tells Cardona she’s sorry and proposes that the pair start over with a clean slate. However, Cardona says the two Oppenheim Group agents currently are not friends.
“At that moment, I do feel like her apology was not genuine,” Cardona told PEOPLE. “Of course, I was proven right after we were done filming. She continued to speak badly about me on her social medias and we are not on speaking terms.”
The storyline begins at a beach outing, when Ali Harper tells Cardona that Hall commented during a podcast that another agent “needs to go to a mental institute.”
Brandi Marshall chimes in, “Whoever she was talking about, she said that they were bats--- crazy.”
The scene then cuts to Cardona talking to camera, explaining that several people had sent her a teaser from an unreleased podcast in which Hall was “slandering a nameless realtor” and suggested Hall was talking about her.
Marshall then questions Hall about the podcast interview.
“It has nothing to do with any of you,” Hall insists. “And if it did, I would say it to your face.”
“So, it’s not about Kayla?” Alexandra Jarvis asks, to which Hall responds, “It’s not about anybody. It’s irrelevant who it’s about.”
"It’s not about any of you guys, so you don’t have to worry about it,” Hall adds.
Later at the O Group office, Jarvis tells Cardona the full episode of the podcast has been released. She proceeds to play a soundbite in which Hall says, “Kayla and I don’t speak. Uh, she’s bats--- crazy, um, off her f---in’ rocker, like needs to be medicated.”
In a subsequent scene, Harper confronts Hall at an Oppenheim Group open house.
“You lied about that podcast,” Harper says. “You said she needed to be medicated, and you said, 'I’m talking about Kayla.' You said that she was crazy nine times.”
“I genuinely didn’t know that I was referring to her in that instance,” Hall replies.
“So, you had amnesia?” Harper asks.
“No, I’m just very busy,” Hall claims. “I know I said it now. Her name came up, and I’ll address it with Kayla.”
While it’s never revealed what podcast the cast members are referring to, Hall said Cardona needed a "reality check and maybe a psychiatrist" while speaking to PEOPLE in 2022.
After their friendship was strained by a season 1 incident when Cardona allegedly attempted to kiss Tyler Stanaland, who was married to Pitch Perfect star Brittany Snow at the time, Cardona opened up about the tension.
Related: Fans Think Alex Hall Is Shading Brittany Snow After Actress Slighted Selling the OC Stars on Podcast
"I do not have a relationship with Kayla. Nor do I wish to have a relationship with Kayla," Hall said, adding, "I would rather not be her coworker, but you can't pick those."
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Hall and Stanaland have navigated a close friendship on the Netflix series following Stanaland’s divorce from Snow. Stanaland and Snow tied the knot in March 2020 and separated in September 2022, finalizing their divorce the following June.
Hall and Stanaland shared a kiss at the end of season 2, and the show’s third season follows their attempts to pursue a romantic relationship.
"[What] a select few of us saw with our own eyes multiple times is not what the viewers saw," Hall said of her and Cardona's interactions with Stanaland during season 1. "So all I can say is that my actions, my reactions were valid and in no way, shape, or form compare to the behaviors that her and my friend Tyler have encountered."
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