Two months after Alex Hall confirmed her split from boyfriend Ian Young, she is breaking down what really happened — and why it was the “hardest” split she’s had.
“I’ve been crying on and off all day,” Hall, 35, told Selling the OC stars Fiona Belle on the Tuesday, January 6, episode of her “Pretty Dirty With Alex Hall” podcast.
The reality star confessed, “That’s the story of my life recently,” revealing she planned to detail exactly what transpired between her and Young before they parted ways last year. (Hall confirmed in November 2025 that she and Young were no longer an item after he made his Selling the OC debut during season 4.)
“It comes in waves,” Hall said of the emotions she’s felt over the past few months. “This has definitely been one of the hardest seasons of my [life]. It’s been the hardest breakup, which is crazy because I got divorced with two kids.”
She pointed to their brief move-in together, Young’s alleged texts with his real estate agent and more as the reason they called it quits before the holidays.
“The gaslighting was crazy,” Hall revealed.
Us Weekly has reached out to Netflix for comment.
Scroll down for everything Hall revealed about the end of her and Young’s relationship:
Why This Split Cut Deeper Than Her Divorce
Hall explained that her divorce from Neil Flores was “so hard” because they shared two children, but recalled not being “in love with my husband anymore.”
“Going through a breakup with somebody who you have this vision of every single thing you’re going to do — it’s like the beginning of the love,” she said, comparing her relationship with Young, whom she just moved in with before their breakup, to her ex-husband. “So with me being married for seven years, [that was] the end of that chapter. I had already wrapped my head around it.”
Hall recalled her divorce breaking her because “I was breaking up my family so I had a lot of guilt around it.”
With Young it was different, because they were heading toward an engagement and happily, ever after. “But with this breakup from Ian, my heart is shattered and in a million pieces on the floor,” Hall said.
Tyler Stanaland, Alex Hall. Courtesy of Netflix
The House Added to Their Stress
During season 4 of Selling the OC, which premiered in November 2025, fans watched as Hall and Young signed the paperwork on their house in Temecula, California. The pair prepared to move from Orange County to the new city to start their lives together — including Hall’s children living with them in a full-time capacity.
When the cameras stopped rolling, Hall said that she realized the house was like a Band-Aid to deeper issues she didn’t initially see.
“I have overanalyzed every detail of our relationship,” Hall confessed on her podcast. “When we got back together that third time, when we bought the house. That’s like the honeymoon phase for us.”
The cast of Selling the OC have been turning heads for their complicated — and very flirty — relationships in and out of the office. Tyler Stanaland’s intimate friendships with Alexandra “Alex” Hall and Polly Brindle, for example, raised some eyebrows when the show premiered in August 2022, as Tyler was married to Brittany Snow during […]
She said there was “love bombing” coming from Young and she remembered he was constantly singing her “praises.” Hall recalled, “[He would] compliment me and he liked me. Those are the things I held onto.”
Although she “could tell that he loved” her, Hall claimed, “He reacted a certain way when the relationship got deeper and more meaningful and more vulnerable and ultimately pushed me away. Which is f***ed up.”
Hall said she was “committed” and “so excited” when they bought the house together, but didn’t feel the same commitment level reciprocated.
“I was taking it so seriously and I thought he was too and everything just came crashing down when it became real,” she alleged.
Seeing the Patterns
“Before we even moved in together he started changing,” Hall claimed on the Tuesday podcast.
She said that when she decided to uproot her life, she expected Young to “respect that,” but instead she felt like it “backfired.”
“I’ve known him for years,” Hall explained, revealing she found a “pattern” with Young after all their breakups and makeups. “
She alleged, “There is a serious, serious switch with him after the three-month mark. He completely changed. It was like he didn’t like me.”
As she saw the shift in Young, Hall said she noticed she also started to change herself to make him “happy.” She remembered, “I would lessen myself. I was the only one compromising.”
Selling the OC’s Alex Hall denied throwing shade at Brittany Snow after her recent interview on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. Hall, 35, shared a video via Instagram on Wednesday, March 27, that many fans believed was in reference to Snow’s discussion of her divorce from Hall’s Netflix costar Tyler Stanaland. “Imagine talking s—t about […]
Young Had an Alleged Inappropriate Relationship Pre-Split
Hall shared that ahead of her and Young’s split — and before they officially moved in together — she discovered he was having an “inappropriate relationship” with his real estate agent, whom she had recommended to sell his house.
Hall told Belle that it all came to a head when she discovered deleted messages from the woman named Brittany on Young’s phone while they were on a trip to the mountains with her kids.
After Young went off with Hall’s son for an outing and left his phone behind, she got worried and unlocked it to find one of his friend’s numbers to call and check on the pair.
Hall revealed she found “101 deleted messages from Brittany,” admitting that her heart “sunk” when she saw them. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ Then I started shaking,” she noted.
Hall was already on edge over how Young had been communicating with the real estate agent, telling her listeners that one time she was in the car with Young and he didn’t want to answer a call from Brittany. When he did, he quickly told her that she was on “speaker phone” and Hall was in the car, which Hall thought was alarming.
When she found that they’d been texting more than an average realtor and client, she was sick to her stomach.
Young eventually told Hall that he “didn’t f*** her,” so he didn’t see why she was so upset. Hall, however, admitted she didn’t trust him. (Young allegedly told Hall’s mom when he was drunk that he did hook up with the woman when he and Hall were on a “break.”)
Alex Hall. Courtesy of Alex Hall/Instagram
The Trust Was Broken
After the incident with Young’s real estate agent, Hall did move in with him in hopes they could work on their relationship. “It just spiraled from there,” Hall said of their dynamic after the trust was gone.
“I questioned everything,” she said, adding that she began looking at who Young was following on social media and saw “all of these OnlyFans girls.”
She Allegedly Experienced Verbal Abuse
Hall recounted one time after they were living together that Young answered a call from a woman whose name she didn’t recognize. When Hall asked who it was and to put her on speaker, it made her feel like she was “going insane.”
When the woman eventually was on speaker, Hall asked when was the last time she spoke with Young “out of curiosity.” The woman allegedly responded, “I don’t want to get into the mess of this.”
After Young hung up, he allegedly “screamed” at Hall and called her a “f***ing c***.”
“He would say, ‘You’re a psychopath. Get the f*** out of the house. I’ll give you your money, just leave,’” Hall claimed.
She eventually realized, “I don’t feel safe,” so she pulled the plug on their relationship.
“I wanted him so bad. I wanted him to change so I didn’t have to leave. He wasn’t changing,” Hall confessed. “I would’ve done anything [to save it].”
