Spencer Pratt And Heidi Montag Face Harsh Reality

One year after devastating wildfires reduced their Los Angeles home to ashes, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are still grappling with the fallout.

The reality TV couple admits they cannot afford to rebuild and remain displaced, facing financial strain, emotional aftershocks for their children, and an uncertain future that has reshaped both their family life and ambitions.

Twelve months after the flames tore through their neighborhood, the couple is confronting a hard truth. In an interview with Gold Derby, Montag revealed they simply do not have the means to reconstruct what was lost.

“Unfortunately for rebuilding, we just don’t have the finances. We barely could pay the mortgage on that house,” Montag said.

The admission showed just how fragile their situation was even before disaster struck. The home represented years of hustle and sacrifice.

“We spent our whole careers to put a down payment on it. So we’re unfortunately in a place where we aren’t looking to rebuild and we’re not really sure where to go. We’re kind of displaced at the moment,” she continued.

Montag also pointed out that they are far from alone, noting, “A lot of the community is in the same position, and that’s just unfortunate. People don’t realize that a lot of people can’t rebuild. A lot of families bought their houses 40 or 50 years ago when it was a much cheaper part of LA.”

She added context about how dramatically the area has changed over time. “It’s only recently become this enclave of luxury housing. It was never Beverly Hills before. A lot of these were generational homes that were passed down, and they can’t rebuild,” she said.

For her own family, the outlook feels bleak. Montag shared, “Unfortunately, for us right now, it’s just not looking hopeful.”

While finances weigh heavily, the emotional impact has been just as profound, especially for Pratt and Montag’s youngest child.

“The family is doing well. I think it’s really hard for my 3-year-old. He keeps asking to go home and I’m like, it’s not there. He says, ‘I’ll push it back up. I’m strong,’” Montag shared.

The innocence of a child trying to “push” a house back into place captures the heartbreak of the situation. According to Montag, reminders of the fire are constant.

She shared, “Every animal he sees, he says, their house burned down. So it’s really continuing to affect him a lot.”

Even as the adults try to move forward, the disaster lives on in small, painful moments.

The couple has also spoken about the chaos of evacuating as the wildfires advanced. Appearing on “Good Morning America,” Montag described the panic and impossible choices they faced.

“Spencer was like, ‘Grab anything you wanna 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,” she said per the Daily Mail.

In the end, survival mattered more than belongings. Still, the loss of a sanctuary lingers.

She said, “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 dealing with.”

Before the fire, they were already struggling to maintain their lifestyle. Montag explained, “We were house poor, as they call it, we have a house and everything else is a hustle, it’s a grind. So, yeah, we’re definitely counting every dollar that we make. We’re working really hard. We take one trip a year.”

The flames may have destroyed walls and furniture, but they also exposed just how tight things had been behind the scenes.

Out of the devastation, Pratt has found a new purpose. On the one-year anniversary of the fires, he announced his campaign for mayor of Los Angeles at a Palisades protest tagged “They Let Us Burn!”

“The system in Los Angeles isn’t struggling, it’s fundamentally broken. It is a machine designed to protect the people at the top and the friends they exchange favors with while the rest of us drown in toxic smoke and ash,” Pratt said.

His frustration with city leadership was unmistakable. He said, “Business as usual is a death sentence for Los Angeles, and I’m done waiting for someone to take real action.”