Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag.
Jon Kopaloff/Getty ImagesWhile many celebrities have been criticized for asking for donations following wildfire devastation, Spencer Pratt And Heidi Montag narrate Us why they are not bothered by the ‘backlash’.
“We’re very used to negative things, so it’s pretty standard,” Pratt, 41, said exclusively We weekly on Wednesday, January 15. “If people want to send their own money to whoever they want, it’s like buying a celebrity’s merchandise, buying their movie tickets. People can do whatever they want with their own money, and thank God there are people willing to support us and send us whatever we want.”
He added: ‘No one is obliged to do this, and it is not a tax. People can say what they want and are entitled to their opinion. But all the people who are messaging, asking to send money, they’re asking to do the Amazon wish list. … These are their choices.”
Pratt and Montag, 38, lost their Los Angeles home during the ongoing wildfires that devastated Southern California earlier this month. The natural disaster engulfed thousands of hectares and resulted in at least 25 deaths. Many residents, incl The hills alums, evacuated the city limits on government orders.
Pratt and Montag left the area with their sons Gunner, 6, and Ryker, 2, with only a few personal belongings. After losing most of their belongings, a few TikTok followers created a GoFundMe campaign on behalf of Pratt and Montag.
“When this first happened, that first day, they created a GoFundMe on their own and it continued to work wonderfully and wonderfully,” recalls Pratt. “And then they turned it over to us. We are so grateful to them for doing that and for creating the Amazon wishlist.”
Montag further emphasized that neither she nor Pratt wanted to solicit contributions.
‘Then our friends Brandon And Courtney [from TikTok] said, ‘We don’t care what you say. We know people who will donate money to you and even if it’s just one donation it’s going to help you,” she said Us. “So we didn’t expect anyone to donate. I haven’t posted it, but we’ve had so many people wanting to give $5.
According to the GoFundMethe Pratts have raised over $134,000 to date and part of the generosity is only $5, but it’s not the amount that matters; the gift itself means so much more.
“People say, ‘Oh, they’re asking for money.’ That’s a coffee for someone, so someone bought us a coffee,” he explained. “It’s just about volume, so it may seem like it’s all money, but scroll [through and see] it’s just people sending you a latte.”
“There are people who say it is a larger number and I thank everyone.”
Pratt further theorized that the alleged backlash came from those who wrongly believe that celebrities are all extremely wealthy.
“No one thought we were rich celebrities until three days ago and it’s starting to get frustrating. Like if you Google ‘Spencer’, literally [says] ‘Broken, no net worth,’” Pratt said Wednesday. “My net worth on the site you are looking for for the past 15 years… is $1,000. So now our house is burning down, my parents’ house is burning down [and] now we’re rich celebrities, which is infuriating because, respectfully, the media has never called us celebrities [and] never called us rich.”
He added: “It’s this strange divide that we get to interact with real rich celebrities, and it would be great if we were… but we don’t, people know that.”
According to Pratt, they are “just haters” who taunt him and Montag.
‘There’s no one with brains [who] thinks we’re rich celebrities. It’s like these are just haters trolling,” he said. “The people [who] support us and follow our lifestyle on social media, they see that we are not rich celebrities. They see what we do every day. We’ve been posting our lives on Snapchat all day for the past eleven years. Our audience knows we’re not rich celebrities, they know we only eat Mexican food and we get organic eggs and they know we do it. We film everything.”
In addition to donations to GoFundMe and Amazon Wishlist, Pratt and Montag also receive money from their respective business ventures and social media uploads. Many fans have purchased crystals from his Pratt Daddy Crystals store, but they also regularly stream Montag’s past music and purchase her associated merchandise. (They are also members of the TikTok Creator Fund, where the app pays influencers for every popular video that generates authentic engagement, as well as a similar program on Snapchat.)
“Heidi is number 1 in 13 countries. I didn’t know that people in Oman would support Heidi, Netherlands, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, I mean all these countries where I hope, God willing, she becomes a global superstar” , says Pratt flowed. “We were able to visit and hug these people who were there for us when we needed it most.”
Stars have shown their support for Heidi Montag and her music after husband Spencer Pratt asked for help after losing their home to the Los Angeles wildfires. “Thank you very much to everyone. Number 1 on the iTunes chart, oh my god,” Montag shared via an Instagram Story on Saturday, January 11. “Thank you […]
Their former MTV costars Kristin Cavallari, Audrina Patridge And Lo Bosworth have also filmed themselves dancing to songs from Montag’s 2010 Superficial in the relevant videos.
“The overwhelming support from these people who are using their platforms to help us, knowing how influential their platforms are and how important every post is to them and their brands, and asking the people who follow them to rally behind us and helping us – it’s amazing,” Montag said. “We have never experienced such support, kindness or recognition and for something so important, it was just very heartwarming.”
Noting that they plan to rebuild their family home, Pratt has recently been candid about their financial situation in recent videos on social media.
“We put all our money into our house and our lives to build something for our children to put in their names and we have tracked every detail every year for the last eight years,” he said. Us. “Our house was 3,000 square feet. It’s not a mansion in the Palisades. Everything was perfect, from the heaters to the washing machines. That’s the only thing we put our money into – and then we go for some nice groceries at Erewhon. But our life was like, ‘Put our money into our house, eat clean groceries and that’s it.’ We take a trip once a year to visit Heidi’s parents in Colorado.’
Pratt continued: “Any money we make from TV opportunities or social media opportunities is just a matter of check-to-check. So the whole thing says, “Oh, Heidi and Spencer [are] these rich celebrities are asking for money.” I wish I was a rich celebrity, I keep saying I’d be in Cabo eating tacos right now.
Check the LAFD website for local wildfire warnings and click here for information on how you can help those affected.
With reporting by Andrea Simpson