Spencer Pratt’s (latest) heel turn

Spencer Pratt is no stranger to drama, he’s a former reality TV star, and arguably one of the most provocative. So it should come as no surprise that he’s found himself in yet another spat, this time with Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper. 

He withdrew his support for her and declared Alex the latest target of his wrath while in conversation on a TikTok live with Bethenny Frankel. According to Spencer, he’s pissed off because he asked Alex to promote his wife Heidi Montag’s song on her podcast and she initially ignored his messages, as did her husband, Matt Kaplan, before ultimately denying his request. 

“I asked Alex to post the song, and I texted her husband and I was like, ‘Hey, it would really help. I kept tagging her, messaging, and then she wrote to me, ‘We have a lot of people displaced at our house,’ and I’m like, ‘Post the song, girl.’”

When Alex ignored his ask, Spencer threw his support behind Alex’s former podcast cohost, Sofia Franklyn, who Alex has quite a tense history with, telling Bethenny:

“Now I ride with ‘Sofia With an F,’ that’s my team now. ‘Sofia With an F’ posted the song, did a dance.”

Then he made some veiled threats against Alex, who he claimed is the “only” person on his hit list currently, saying she could be in a lot of trouble for not supporting Spencer’s wishes and Heidi’s song.

“Respectfully, if I keep my platform, if I keep being an A-list, rich celebrity, she’s so f-cked, because I have beef with her now. Like she’s going to be targeted.”

This debacle is a pretty big development in the saga of the couple making it back into the spotlight in recent weeks, which was mainly the result of them using social media to document the heartbreaking experience of losing their home in the Pacific Palisades on January 7 in the devastating wildfires raging in parts of California. Heidi and Spencer were recently featured on Good Morning America where they did this emotional interview and spoke candidly about losing everything, over $3-million worth of property and possessions, all after being dropped from their insurance company, as so many others had been.

The two received so much love and support that Heidi’s 2010 album Superficial climbed to No. 1 on iTunes’ all-genre songs and albums charts 15 years after its release, beating albums by artists like Bad Bunny. She leveraged the current hype to release a new song called “Prototype” in hopes of generating enough money to help rebuild. 

For those of us who watched Spencer back on the days of The Hills, which was where he first earned the reputation of a TV villain for the massive role he played in the dissolution of the friendship between Lauren Conrad and Heidi, his beef with Alex may not come as a surprise. 

During the days of Spencer being an MTV star, there were rumours that he had a hand in leaking a sex tape featuring Lauren and her ex-boyfriend Jason Wahler, which is reportedly the main reason why Lauren cut ties with him and Heidi. All of this begs the question of how, even in real life, people can become stuck in the roles they were best known for in the reality TV landscape. And more importantly, how so much of the way we come to understand them as they navigate real-life situations is based off of who we know them to be on reality shows.

Having watched way too much reality TV in my life, I can think of a few of the most notorious villains. Immediately, people like Danielle Staub, Tiffany “New York” Pollard, Christine Quinn, and Jax Taylor all come to mind. And one thing they all have in common is how much their TV personas have spoken for them even outside of the TV landscape,  impacting everything from how they’re talked about in the media, their role in pop culture and whether they might be considered for casting on popular shows that really lean into the villain arc, like Traitors and House of Villains. 

I think a huge part of why Spencer’s initial efforts to solicit help from fans was so effective was because seeing him ask for help and being so vulnerable was a huge departure from his typically messy – for lack of a better word – persona. When he first made the plea to fans/followers, posting a series of photos of the couple’s home and asking people to stream his wife’s music on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, saying it would “make a huge difference”, people wanted to help. And it’s not every day that non-celebrities are able to help but fans were quick to answer his growing calls for people to buy the album to help not only him and Heidi, but also his parents rebuild the homes they all lost in the fires. 

So it’s no wonder that while Spencer’s initial tactics were effective, fans were off put by his calls becoming a bit more aggressive – which was way more in line with the Spencer we knew from The Hills. And it doesn’t seem to be landing well with fans – particularly the ones who knew him when he was on MTV. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that they’re viewing him as the same old Spencer first, rather than as a father and husband who has suffered devastating loss. 

Under the video of a portion of Spencer and Bethenny’s TikTok live which was shared to Threads, people shared their thoughts and reactions to Spencer’s beef with Alex. Some people questioned his tactics saying:

And then there was this remark, which highlighted Spencer’s villainous origins, connecting the dots between the person he showed himself to be on TV nearly 20 years ago to his present-day behaviour. 

As easy as it may be to chalk all of this up to Spencer’s inherent reputation as a transgressor, it’s important to extend a certain amount of grace, too, to everyone navigating some of the most difficult days of their lives, including Alex, who, as this person suggested, may have found it inappropriate to share a song while hosting people who had been displaced. 

We may have a hard time separating who we know Spencer to be on TV from the Spencer who, in real life, is facing the harsh reality that so many others are dealing with, and the daunting task of trying to rebuild. But now more than ever, the least we can do is make that distinction.