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It’s been just over two weeks since the California wildfires broke out and destroyed thousands of homes. Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt were among those whose home burned down. Right after it happened, Speidi got to work. Spencer, as he is wont to do, has been documenting their experience via social media. He also urged people to stream Heidi’s 2010 record, “Superficial” on the streaming platform of their choice to help them generate a little bit of revenue from it. They got a bunch of their famous friends to share videos of them dancing to it on TikTok and Instagram and managed to get Heidi to the #1 spot on iTunes.
Hustling is pretty much Spencer and Heidi’s entire deal. That influencer life ain’t cheap. While they were both on those rich kid MTV reality shows, they spent the money they earned quickly, so they have had to work the system since. They know it, too, as Spencer recently acknowledged in both an interview with Variety and via a TikTok post. Oh, and apparently he makes a boat load of money from TikTok.
After tragedy, Spencer Pratt is giving fans a glimpse of what it’s like to be a content creator. A week after his and Heidi Montag’s family home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. burned down in a wildfire, the Hills alum spoke about his earnings from social media.
“I made, like, $4,000 on TikTok this week,” Spencer told Variety in an interview published Jan. 17, “but on TikTok Live, where people can just give to me direct, I think maybe $20,000. So that’s phenomenal, and life-changing. That’s the power of individual supporters, people just backing you and getting behind you.
The 41-year-old continued, “And that’s the most powerful when you don’t have to rely on ads or AI and algorithms when just actual human beings just want to give. It’s unbelievable and incredible.”
Spencer’s interview was published a day before TikTok stopped working for some 170 million U.S. users due to a law that was to shut it down for national security reasons. The Chinese-owned group said Jan. 19 said in a statement on X, “In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service.”
The news comes after President-elect Donald Trump called for the app to remain available, saying on Truth Social, “I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.”
Spencer had shared on social media Jan. 8 that his and Heidi’s house had been lost in the Palisades Fire, one of several wildfires that erupted in Southern California earlier this month and which has destroying most of his neighborhood. The reality star, who shares with Heidi sons Gunner, 7, and Ryker, 2, also posted videos of their family’s evacuation and the destruction of their home.
“I know people are like, you’re rich, you will be fine (Yah i wish),” he wrote on TikTok. “Everything in our house was paid for by Heidi and I hustling any way we could.”
Holy sh-t, he made *how much* through TikTok last week?! Maybe I need to rethink this whole not having TikTok thing. Perhaps I’ll start charging to do dramatic readings of my posts or something. I can kinda do accents! But in all seriousness, that lifestyle seems so stressful to me, even though I know there are people who thrive in it. Knowing that my income is based on my relevance would give me constant anxiety. I respect that Heidi and Spencer are so up front about how they’re constantly hustling. And now they really need the money, so we’re going to be seeing a lot more of them for the foreseeable future. I bet they’re totally pitching a new reality show right now about how they’re surviving and rebuilding after the fires.
I have to say that I am genuinely shocked that they are still together and seem quite settled and happy together still. Honestly, I don’t understand their lifestyle, but I am glad that they, and Heidi particularly, seem relatively stable. I remember Heidi’s total plastic surgery overhaul and being so concerned for her. It was so extreme and shocking. Again, I don’t get being a SM influencer and I don’t have TikTok- I am an old and happy to be one- but anyone who came out of the brutal reality world of the 2000s has my sympathy and I kind of cheer for them all. That was a truly ugly toxic time to a young woman on tv.
This the same guy that referred to himself as a rich, A-list celebrity while he was throwing a tantrum over a podcast not wanting to play his wife’s awful song?
First time in a long time that I got such secondhand embarrassment.