Is Jeff Lewis Friends With His Ex Ryan Brown Today?
Interior designer Jeff Lewis brought his aesthetic skills to the Bravo show "Flipping Out." Fans obviously couldn't get enough of him (or his sassy comebacks), so Lewis has since branched out to become a radio personality on "Jeff Lewis Live." Lewis' first show, "Flipping Out," debuted in 2007 but this wouldn't be his only hit show. People loved Lewis' design style so much that a spinoff came out, "Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis," on Bravo in March 2017. But that's not even the end of it. In June, "Hollywood Houselift with Jeff Lewis" debuted on Freevee, per Deadline, and features Lewis sprucing up the homes of some of our favorite southern Californian celebrities. Lewis' outspoken naturemeans he's made a few enemies along the way. He fired his longtime collaborator Jenni Pulos and this led to a feud between the two. But that, apparently, is show business.
Lewis was in a long relationship with Gage Edwards, and the two welcomed a daughter, Monroe, via surrogate. The two had a messy split, involving entangled finances and a challenging custody arrangement over their daughter. But when Lewis reminisced about his past, namely the one that got away, he recalled ex Ryan Brown, not Edwards.
Jeff Lewis said Ryan Brown was the 'one that got away'
Ryan Brown dished on his relationship and subsequent split from Jeff Lewis with Out back in 2009 and the tough breakup they had. "Our break-up was kind of tumultuous, I guess, like a lot of peoples'," Brown said. "But then we started working together pretty much immediately right after. I guess our relationship just morphed from one to another." Fans will recall that a big part of their split was because Lewis felt like Brown stole his clients. Brown addressed this claim head-on. He said he did not poach any clients from Lewis, nor did he try to ruin his business. "Jeff has a tendency to lash out at the people closest to him," Brown said. "So no, I didn't do any of that. In fact what I really did was quite the opposite. I built a website for him."
This is where Brown left things. More than a decade later, in July 2022, Lewis sat down on "Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen" to speak about his long-gone relationship. Cohen asked Lewis if there was one ex he'd categorize as "the one that got away" and Lewis named Brown. "He was a good guy. I was a mess. I was a mess until, like, five minutes ago," Lewis explained. "So I feel like I did screw that up. I screwed up everything." It certainly sounds like Lewis is sorry about how things went!
Jeff Lewis and Ryan Brown are friends now
Jeff Lewis and Ryan Brown broke up during the reunion episode for "Flipping Out" and Andy Cohen said it was tough to watch. When Lewis sat down with him on "Watch What Happens Live," Cohen said, "I gotta tell you, that reunion that we did, that 'Flipping Out' reunion where the two of you kind of broke up on camera, that was some of the realest s**t I've seen. That was really upsetting and emotional."
The two men didn't speak for some time after their breakup. Brown sat down with Edge in 2011 to explain. "Jeff and I haven't spoken and I'm at a different place in my life," Brown began. "I really enjoy living in Santa Barbara and having my offices in LA and Santa Barbara. I've got the best of both worlds right now and my life is really great. I wish Jeff the best and that's about it. We've gone in separate directions. He's doing well, I'm doing well and I'm really happy about that."
But, since 2011, the two have reconciled in a friendly way. Lewis spoke on the podcast "Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald" in 2017 and said that they've since spoken. "[I]t's been many, many, many years since then," Lewis said (via Bravo). "And I ran into him at the gym. And then we just started talking, and then we went and had drinks. So we're friendly again. But I've forgiven." Lewis said that they've moved forward.