The Truth About Selling Sunset's Amanza Smith's Ex-Husband

The cast of Netflix's "Selling Sunset" leads the kind of glamorous lives most of us could never even dream of. The hit reality show follows a group of LA-based real estate agents as they fall in and out of love, fight over petty drama, and of course, sell multi-million dollar mansions. But even amid all the glitz and glamour, real life still pokes through. During Season 4, Amanza Smith's ongoing issues with her baby daddy came to the forefront in a major way. As People reported, Smith was awarded full custody of the former couple's two children in October 2021, after her ex Ralph Brown abruptly disappeared from her life in 2019. 

The outlet reports that the pair — who divorced in 2012 — retained shared custody up until Brown's mysterious disappearance, which was the last time the "Selling Sunset" star saw or heard from him. Likewise, neither his daughter Noah nor his son Braker has heard from their father. Per People, Brown was not given visitation rights. Though Smith expressed that she and her children would never be "over" Brown's absence, she is doing her best to "move forward in a more positive way," as she told People.

As ScreenRant points out, viewers first learned of Amanza Smith's complicated relationship with ex Ralph Brown during Season 2 of "Selling Sunset." The former athlete played college football at the University of Nebraska and was the 140th overall pick in the 2000 NFL draft. He went on to play for the New York Giants from 2000-2004, and spent a few seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, the Cleveland Browns, and the Arizona Cardinals before retiring in 2009 (the same year daughter Noah was born), via ScreenRant. He wed Smith in 2010, and the pair welcomed Braker the following year before splitting in 2012.

Afterward, ScreenRant reported that Brown would go missing for short bouts of time, but he always returned — until August 2019. Smith told E! News that she and her children last saw him after he dropped Noah and Braker off at school. Per ScreenRant, the one-time athlete had career-related injuries, as well as money issues. In Season 4, Smith hired a private investigator to find Brown, only to discover that he'd signed over his parental rights as his body had "broken down." Smith put her children into therapy to cope with the devastation of losing their father and vowed to be there for them no matter what.

In a December 2021 chat with Today.com, Amanza Smith admitted that it's been tough to air out her personal life on "Selling Sunset." "It's a blessing and a curse that my drama was actually real — real enough to keep people tuned in," she acknowledged. "It was all very real, and it wasn't something that was super easy to share with the world. But when I got into the situation that I'm in, I already had signed the contract. We started filming season two, and then a month later my children's father disappeared." 

Smith may have thought twice about taking part in the show if her ex had disappeared prior to the filming. However, as she told Today.com, "Everything happens for a reason." In an October interview with People, the real estate star speculated that Brown may have been dealing with CTE, a brain condition that can sometimes impact football players after repeated head trauma. In 2020, she told host Amanda Hirsch on the "Not Skinny But Not Fat" podcast that Brown was a great father when he was around. "He was a very loyal, hands-on, dedicated, interactive father," she said, explaining why his absence has been especially hard on the kids, who used to spend half of every week with their dad. "I know it sounds so crazy," she added.