Josh Flagg On Why There’s “Not Even A Shot In Hell” That He’d Work With Pal Sonja Morgan

By Lea Palmieri @littleleap
Published Oct. 21, 2021, 4:34 p.m. ET

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What if the least interesting part of Josh Flagg’s life is the fact that we’ve been watching him all this time on Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles, where he’s served as an original (and perfectly snarky) cast member for 13 seasons now? He’s great on the show, of course, but lately it feels as though we’ve gotten a peek into an even more interesting life he’s leading, all in front of our eyes.

His talent in the real estate arena has been well documented, so when it comes to the property of one of his pals, the one and only Sonja Morgan, why isn’t he stepping up to sell that pesky Manhattan townhouse of hers? When I asked him over Zoom earlier this month, he quickly replied, “God, no. I would never work with Sonja. She’s insane.” And in case that wasn’t enough of a confirmation, he added, “[Not for] all the money in the world, not even a shot in hell.”

It seemed like a no-brainer, after earlier this summer he posted a series of Instagram videos chronicling her stay at his Los Angeles home, which was filled with even more chaos than you might imagine. But where they both shined is in an interview where he, as her actual real-life friend, asked and received answers we’ve never heard in relation to Sonja even after all her years on The Real Housewives of New York. But when I asked Flagg when he’s finally getting his own talk show, he said, “I don’t know, the minute somebody offers it to me.” Uh, hello? This is TV gold people!

“I really only interview my friends,” he said of his hobby, which also included recent installments with Tori Spelling and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Crystal Kung Minkoff, who even shared with him first that she would be returning to the Bravo series for a second season. “I don’t really interview people that I don’t know, although I’m always willing to interview somebody. But I want to become their friend first, so I can see if they’re even good interview material,” he said, and teased future interviews with Who What Wear creator Katherine Power and Lala Kent. “I need to get some dudes on the show, I don’t know why the fuck I’m friends with so many women.”

It may also be in E!’s best interest to find a place for Flagg on any upcoming awards season red carpets, as his questions expertly toe the line between the gossipy stuff we all want to know and interesting, insightful facts about his famous friends/guests, that often he as their also-famous friend is privy to. When I ran the idea of red carpet host by him, he said, “Yeah, I’d love to. I’m really close with Melissa Rivers so I think that would be a lot of fun.” Rivers recently gifted him a set of Cartier salt and pepper shakers that previously belonged to her mom Joan, and when I asked if they were featured in a nice place in his home he deadpanned, “No, I sold that shit.” No, of course he didn’t really. In reality, he said, “I love those, it’s really sweet because I’m really into dinner parties and entertaining and things like that and so was her mother. So that was one of the better, sweeter gifts I’ve ever gotten from someone. We give each other nice gifts.”

Not that he’s expecting you to bring a gift when he invites you over though. “Just something I can drink is usually good,” he shrugged, before adding, “I love caviar so hey, if you wanna come.” Plus, when it comes to bringing a host gift to parties he’s attending, Flagg admitted, “Honestly, I’m really bad at this. My husband says, ‘We have to bring a gift,’ and I’m like okay whatever, whatever, I’m too busy, I’m not thinking about it. But I really should get better at that. I think generally the go-to is to go into the cellar and get a bottle of wine. It’s just easy and you don’t have to think about it. And then I can drink it while I’m there so that’s good too.”

He’s no stranger at making himself at home, as we’ve recently seen him dip in pal Suzanne Somers’ outdoor bathtub in his birthday suit, confirming of the fixture, “Yeah, it’s fantastic. I love that bathtub out there. I mean, you’re just buck naked in the wilderness. It’s amazing.” This season of Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles has figured out a way to navigate the pandemic in ways few other shows have achieved. It’s not completely dismissed: people are shown wearing face coverings, taking precautions, expressing apprehension about having strangers filing through their fancy homes. However, the show hasn’t dwelled on it in a depressing or crippling way. Instead, they’ve shown how in this particular time, business is truly booming. “I was just surprised we could put a show together in the middle of a pandemic, but I guess the world has moved on,” Flagg said. “I was a little worried how we were going to do this in the beginning of the pandemic. I was like, ‘How the hell is everyone going to film a television show?’ but it worked out. There was nothing really good or bad that happened, to be honest with you. It was just business as normal.”

It’s also been business as normal for him since the late summer when he joined the team at Douglas Elliman. “We’re going to be building out a 1500 square foot, maybe actually 2000 square foot suite for all of us on my team and it’s going to be beautiful,” he said. “So I’m just sitting in my temporary office right now which is not so bad, and it’s better than working during the pandemic in your dining room.”

And despite the transition being smooth, perhaps the actual announcement was a little less so. When I asked if perhaps there had been a leak about this news, he couldn’t help but smile and ask, “What makes you say that?” After I shared I had been browsing the comments on his Instagram post about the move, which featured many of the MDLLA cast members chiming in, Flagg grinned, “You’re very astute. Nobody’s asked me about that.” So…did Fredrik Eklund leak the news and beat him to announcing it himself? “I didn’t say that, but I said you’re very astute,” is all Flagg would give me. We moved on to discussing Eklund’s jump from the New York installment of the series to LA, which seemed entertaining to all involved…at first. “Who found it entertaining?” Flagg questioned. “I didn’t.”

He is, however, enjoying his friendship with former frenemy Josh Altman, as the two have even been traveling together lately. “Yeah, we’re having a lot of fun together,” Flagg said. “We were at the market together literally grocery shopping together, and I kept having this visual, like if only we had one of his babies and I was like holding it while he shops… people are going to think we’re lovers or we’re husbands or something with our child.”

For now, Flagg has enough on his hands with dog George. “We literally have a fucking polar bear in our house. I made a mistake, I think. I love him to death, but I said, ‘Get me the biggest dog you have.’ I did not think it was going to be 90 pounds. I thought it would just be a really cute large fluffy dog. I don’t know how parents do this stuff.” He admitted he’s 100% down to trading pups with fellow cast member and friend Tracy Tutor, explaining that he no longer visits them as frequently as “It makes George jealous. He smells them, so I’m kind of being a neglectful uncle.”

What he’s not neglecting is his real estate job, saying of the current market, “I haven’t seen any signs of slowing. It’s just going, it’s not stopping. I mean, great; I’m not complaining, you know? It’s just incredible. People just have tons of money now suddenly in the middle of the pandemic, and people are spending and interest rates are low, so hey. Keep going.” Though he also knows when to take a break and head out on a vaca of his own, too. “I’ve never had a problem with taking business vacations, busy or not busy,” he said. “I like to enjoy my life. I’ll talk about it with Josh all the time, like, ‘I can’t go away for three weeks.’ And I’m like, what’s the point in making this kind of money if you can’t enjoy it? But he’s a workaholic, and I am too, but I can do it from different parts of the world. And I have no problem telling a client, if I hired you for something, would you be available 24/7? No, people need to enjoy their lives as well. Everybody does.”

Flagg is also enjoying his life when playing host, as he recently did for the Project Angel Food charity, throwing a gala in his backyard which raised nearly $150,000. It’s just slightly more extravagant than a normal night at home. “We have a lot of dinner parties at the house. We do a lot more intimate dinners. Mostly we have like 14 people in the dining room and we have a chef come in,” he said of a typical event at his home.

Flagg also said that despite MDLLA not typically receiving a reunion at the end of each season, he would “absolutely” be into that idea. For now, perhaps he will address any current drama in his upcoming book, releasing next year. I asked if it was about his life or real estate and he joked, “It’s all about Fredrik Eklund. I’m trying to make it a horrible seller. Bottom of The New York Times Bestseller List.”

Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles airs Thursday at 8 pm ET/PT on Bravo. 

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