The Untold Truth Of GG Gharachedaghi
Golnesa "GG" Gharachedaghi — Shahs of Sunset's resident firecracker – basically checks every Bravolebrity box. Over-indulging on alcohol? Check. Possible cultural appropriation? Check (though we can't say it beats Luann de Lesseps' Diana Ross costume). Stirring up drama with her besties? Check, and our prayers go to MJ during this difficult time of snubbery. Like the weave-pulling Real Housewives that came before her or Vanderpump Rules' sorry souls at SUR who are stuck in an endless cycle of waiting tables between catfights, GG is the perfect reality star, but it's hard to say that it's for the right reasons.
Bravo has painted GG's life as a series of conflicts and pain, and it's definitely addicting to watch, but when the cameras turn off, things don't exactly settle down. It's hard to tell how much is made up for the cameras, but underneath GG's tough exterior is a girl who's had to endure some serious stuff. Thankfully, she always manages to come out on top. Here is the untold truth of Golnesa "GG" Gharachedaghi.
Her marriage was doomed and she knew it immediately
Fans of Shahs of Sunset have seen Golnesa Gharachedaghi's divorce play out on the small screen. According to E! News, the reality star tied the knot with Dash Dolls' Shalom Yeroushalmi just weeks after he proposed in Times Square — but it took even less time for GG to realize she'd made a huge mistake. In an interview with E! News' Zuri Hall, Gharachedaghi revealed that less than 48 hours after walking down the aisle, she regretted her decision.
GG never believed in marriage and admitted she was "forcing [herself] to see a [future with Yeroushalmi]" even though they had only been together for four months before spontaneously tying the knot. She didn't even wear a wedding dress, opting for jeans and a turtleneck. The whole thing made her "want to throw up," which is not a good sign for a newlywed couple. Less than two days later, it was clear her values didn't align with her new hubby's.
GG claimed Yeroushalmi "wanted a wife immediately" that would "cater to him," cook, clean, and get pregnant. "I'm typically more of the man in a relationship, so I will never do that," she told Hall, adding, "let alone put a ring on my finger for you and then start doing that. It's not going to happen for me." According to Page Six, GG's marriage lasted just seven weeks, and her divorce was finalized at the end of 2018.
GG started using drugs when she was 11 years old
Golnesa Gharachedaghi's issues stem a lot deeper than the occasional on-screen freak out. The star had a troubled past that started long before she was famous. GG told Fox News that she had been "kicked out of 10 schools growing up just fighting everywhere I went." Beyond that, she also had a substance abuse problem.
In an episode of E! News' Just the Sip podcast, GG revealed that her "massive drug past" — which primarily consisted of cocaine and cannabis use — started when she was just 11 years old, a time when most American girls are still playing with American Girl dolls. The reality star didn't even bother hiding her drug use from her parents, who had immigrated to Los Angeles, and instead chose to craft an elaborate lie.
"I was first generation, so the easiest mechanism for me and my sister to our parents was, 'Well our American friends' parents let them do it,'" she said. "And my parents were like, 'Oh.' You know, so they didn't want to be wrong." It wasn't until 2005, after GG had been using drugs for nearly 14 years that she checked herself into rehab.
Weed helped GG find her purpose
Golnesa Gharachedaghi might have gone to rehab in 2005, but she didn't reach her so-called "breaking point" until 2016 — more than 20 years after she started using drugs. According to her interview with Just the Sip, the star never went back to the hard stuff, but there is one drug she still uses: medical marijuana.
Anyone who's watched just a single episode of Shahs of Sunset knows that GG is a weed queen who started using the drug to treat her Rheumatoid arthritis at the initial suggestion of her mother. In one episode, she even took dramatic "last puffs" before receiving an embryo transfer as part of her IVF treatment. Call her your highness, but the substance is more than just one of GG's preferred pastimes.
In 2018, she announced the launch of her cannabis business WüSah, then later went on to show off her initial range of products on Instagram, claiming the substance literally helped her find her life's purpose. "I have found that purpose thru cannabis," she wrote. "Many of you will mock me. Many of you will support me. I just hope you continue to follow me and watch the evolution of great healing take place using WüSah. I'm almost in remission y'all. I'm living proof this stuff works!!!"
GG's struggle with rheumatoid arthritis is serious
Golnesa Gharachedaghi's struggle with rheumatoid arthritis is a whole lot worse than casual Shahs of Sunset fans may even realize. In an interview with Everyday Health, the star revealed that her symptoms began with numbness in her hands when she was 27 years old. Since then, the disease has grown to affect 30 of her joints and cause a whole wealth of complications, with the star even turning towards alcohol to help her cope. According to People, the autoimmune disease may have also triggered GG's traumatic 2019 ectopic pregnancy.
In an Instagram post from February 2020, GG revealed that it wasn't easy to get her body healthy enough to carry a pregnancy. After her miscarriage, she went through another round of IVF. Even though it was successful, her RA symptoms came back "10 times worse than ever," especially because she couldn't use cannabis as treatment. "As soon as this baby is out I'm rolling a fat joint and going back to healing myself with cannabis," she wrote.
Now that she's given birth to a healthy boy, she revealed that her symptoms have still not subsided. "It's scary that after holding him for just 10 minutes, my arms and hands go numb because of my rheumatoid arthritis and it makes it so painful for me to cuddle my baby all day," she wrote in an Instagram post. Hopefully, that fat joint helped at least a little.
She believed her terrifying ectopic pregnancy was karma
Golnesa Gharachedaghi couldn't have known that her IVF treatment would eventually lead to what she described as "probably the most traumatizing moment of [her] life." Following her embryo transfer in April 2019, the star was rushed to the hospital to undergo emergency surgery for a rare ectopic pregnancy.
In an interview with People, the reality star admitted that she became concerned when she started spotting in the weeks after the transfer. It wasn't until her first ultrasound at the five-week mark that doctors realized the egg had actually implanted in her left Fallopian tube. They gave her various rounds of methotrexate, a potent drug commonly used to treat cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, in an attempt to dissolve the gestational sac, but it didn't work. By the time she had her emergency surgery, she was "doubled over in pain" and both of her Fallopian tubes had to be removed. "The sac wasn't dissolving and it was on the verge of rupturing, which would have killed me," she told People. "I'm lucky I got it in enough time."
About a year after the ectopic pregnancy, GG penned a heart-breaking Instagram post where she blamed herself for the ordeal. "I'm a strong believer in karma and I do believe I've done enough wrong, that this is my karma cycle," she said. "This was simply a lesson." Girl, there is nothing you could have done to deserve that.
Say how you really feel
Golnesa Gharachedaghi and Mercedes Javid have gone through their ups and downs over the course of Shahs of Sunset's eight seasons, but it seems like there have been way more downs than ups in recent years. At BravoCon in 2019, GG claimed MJ was her "biggest rival." "She knows how to make you love her and need her," she said (via The Daily Dish). "And then she just kind of comes out of nowhere like one of those little snakes and just gets you."
By Season 8, it seemed like GG and her frenemy had found common ground over their struggles with fertility. When Gharachedaghi fell ill during the group's trip to Boots & Brews music festival, Javid jumped to take care of her castmate. Apparently, that wasn't good enough — even though GG's mystery illness turned out to be nothing more than a little lactose intolerance. Girl, stay away from the mac and cheese.
In an episode of Watch What Happens Live, GG claimed Javid wasn't being sincere at the festival. "That's how her genius works, her manipulation," she told Andy Cohen via video chat. "She shows that side of herself and then as soon as you lower your guards, all of a sudden, like Mike said, those little ... jabs come out of nowhere, and you're like, 'Oh, God.'" Mike Shouhed, who was also a guest on the show, firmly disagreed. Meanwhile, MJ is still hoping the pair can reconcile.
This bad gal may not actually be so bad
No one is mistaking Golnesa Gharachedaghi as the nice one on Shahs of Sunset. You only really need to look as far as her various showdowns with MJ, the venom she spit about her ex-husband, or even just her own admissions. "I am a spoiled brat, and I'm always going to be a spoiled brat," she told Fox News in a shockingly self-aware interview. Though GG has clearly been cast as the bad gal of Shahs' little corner of Los Angeles, that may not actually be the truth. If we're looking at Sara Jeihooni, who joined the series in Season 8, either everyone is equally as awful — choosing who they pick fights with like it's a roulette wheel — or Shahs' resident baddie is actually secretly one of the nice ones.
In an Instagram post, the rookie cast member revealed that GG was the only person in the Shahs crew that was nice to her when she joined the series. "Sitting next to the ONLY GIRL who was nice to me all season. Thank you [GG] for always showing love & having my back many times when you didn't have to," she wrote. "And everyone swore you'd be such a b!+€h...lol." Honestly, none of us saw that coming.
Getting real about going under the knife
Bravolebrities aren't really shy about plastic surgery. They're just sometimes shy about admitting it, lest we forget the drama that ensued when Melissa Gorga's nose job was outed on The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Unlike Gorga, Golnesa Gharachedaghi is unapologetic about her plastic surgery, which includes a nose job that basically transformed her into a different person. In a 2018 Instagram post, GG revealed, "Born with some, paid for the rest. Say what you want but my plastic still brings all the boys to the yard." So, what has GG done?
In the past, Gharachedaghi has been candid about her breast enhancement and butt job. She told Life & Style (via The Daily Dish) that she went from a 34B to a 34D after weight fluctuations "made [her] boobs saggy." She also used "lipo laser" to transfer fat from her back and sides to her hips and booty. Then, there's all the Botox and filler. In an episode of Shahs of Sunset, which was recapped by The Daily Dish, the reality star went as far as claiming needles were "the best things" and that getting filler was "like therapy" that helped her cope with the loss of her pregnancy.
"I started doing fillers when I was like 27," she revealed. "You feel amazing, you feel fresh. I've have my cheeks [injected]. Under my eyes. What else have I done? Lips ... Well, we know I've filled other places."
All the single ladies
Golnesa Gharachedaghi's fertility struggles have been well-documented on Shahs of Sunset, and even though she had a brief marriage, her plan was always to be a single mother. In an interview with The Daily Dish, the star revealed that divorce rates made her want to opt-out of the whole thing entirely.
"You just have this elaborate wedding and you party, it's not really anything more than that. And that turns into a divorce, and that's usually when the child's like 3, 4 years old and has to go through that separation situation," she mused. "So many kids go through that where their parents hate each other or they just don't get along ... I would rather my child end up seeing me have a partner or maybe a couple in the future that I get along with."
According to People, Gharachedaghi — who was induced early because of her arthritis — ultimately used a sperm donor to conceive. Though she wasn't dating at the time, wasn't interested in marriage, and couldn't "necessarily see [herself] with a forever life partner," she did reveal that she always wanted to be a mom. "I can start a family and have my child without being in a relationship right now," she explained.
Say that again?
Rheumatoid arthritis isn't Golnesa Gharachedaghi's only physical struggle. In 2017, the star revealed that she was born with a rare form of hearing loss. Fans saw her visit an audiologist during an episode of Shahs, but what they don't know is that GG only has 28 percent of typical hearing capabilities, and her attempts at wearing a hearing aid weren't entirely successful.
"For 35 years, I've never heard these sounds, and then one second, I'm hearing everything, so I can't differentiate what I'm hearing anymore," she told The Daily Dish about getting hearing aids. "It's really confusing, it's hard to explain, but it's like if someone was blind for 35 years, you finally give them vision, they don't know what they're looking at."
Though GG admitted she relied on reading lips and body language, there is one amazing thing she was able to hear — her baby's heartbeat. In an Instagram post, the star revealed it was "the most beautiful thing [she's] ever been able to experience."
The truth behind the sister beef
In 2017, Shahs of Sunset aired what may have gone down as the most uncomfortable Thanksgiving dinner in history — and you thought your family was bad. During the dinner, Golnesa Gharachedaghi had a straight-up showdown with her sister Leila Gharache as Mercedes Javid tried her best to calm things down (a rare moment considering MJ is usually at the center of Shahs' most explosive drama). The sisters appeared to end the episode on good terms, but that was short-lived.
In an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, GG refused to acknowledge her sister entirely, but what could possibly have happened that was so bad she'd resort to a petty snub on live television? Well, apparently, it's been a long time coming. Castmate Shervin Roohparvar, who appeared on WWHL alongside GG, stepped in to clarify, "They've always had this rivalry, and you know, I've seen it go ... but when they're good it's great, it's awesome, but when they're not it's exactly the opposite."
In the Shahs After Show (via The Daily Dish), MJ revealed that the pair were barely speaking in 2017. In fact, Gharache didn't even know that GG had gotten a divorce. It looks like things have been patched up, however, as, at the time of this writing, Gharache was at GG's baby shower in 2020.
Giving birth in the middle of a global pandemic
Golnesa Gharachedaghi gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Elijah in late April 2020. Still, there were a lot of what-ifs involved in the delivery since she was set to be induced just as the novel coronavirus outbreak soared in the United States. A month prior, the star tweeted that she was "freaking out about having a baby while the entire world is crumbling ... You're entering a world of chaos my son." Though hospitals have tightened delivery room restrictions because of the virus, Page Six reports that GG's sister accompanied her to the hospital, and she gave birth at 8:50 p.m.
"Having a baby during this unfortunate pandemic is hard," GG revealed in an Instagram post. "But it's nothing compared to the many obstacles which lie ahead of me. It was definitely a bit scary to be in the hospital knowing this extremely contagious virus is all around, but it's also scary that I don't have all of the answers to give my son when he asks me certain questions like, 'Who is my dad?'"
At the time of this writing, hopefully, GG and Elijah are hunkering down in LA and keeping their social distance from everyone else. At least there's no way she'll be bored in quarantine with a newborn.