What Is Slade Smiley's Net Worth?
Slade Smiley is an American reality television personality who has a net worth of $500 thousand. Slade Smiley is most famous for his appearances on the Bravo reality show "The Real Housewives of Orange County" (2006–2013; 2017) and various other business ventures. The show is the original version of "The Real Housewives" franchise.
Slade first became famous thanks to his engagement to housewife Jo De La Rosa in 2007. That engagement did not last, and he eventually moved on to another housewife, Lauri Waring. The two dated for a short time, and shortly after, Smiley and De La Rosa decided to do a spin-off show called "Date My Ex: Jo & Slade (2008). During season five, Slade was back on the "Housewives" series, this time standing beside housewife Gretchen Rossi. Smiley and Rossi became engaged in 2009, and they appeared on the reality TV series "Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars" in 2014. In 2018, they unwittingly appeared on Sacha Baron Cohen's show "Who Is America?"
Early Life
Slade Smiley was born on Oct 29, 1973, in Oakland, California. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and he began performing with a local choir when he was 13 years old. Slade took drama classes in high school and college and appeared in musicals. Smiley attended the University of Alaska, Anchorage, earning a degree from the Sports Medicine Residency Program, then he studied International Business at California State University-Long Beach.
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Career
Before his reality television career, Slade was a professional cyclist, training with the U.S. National Cycling Team and competing from 1990 to 2000. In 1993, he began modeling, which led to appearances in TV commercials for brands such as Gillette, Adidas, and Volkswagen. In 2000, Smiley founded the production company Grayson Entertainment.
In 2006, he began appearing on "The Real Housewives of Orange County." He was on the show during seasons one through eight, with the exception of seasons three and four, and he returned for one episode in season 12. In 2008, he co-starred with Jo De La Rosa on the "Real Housewives" spin-off "Date My Ex: Jo & Slade," which aired eight episodes. In 2015, Smiley guest-starred on the television series "TMI Hollywood" and appeared in the miniseries "Texas Rising." He has also appeared on the TV shows "Rally On" (2012), "Home & Family" (2013), "Kendra on Top" (2013), "Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars" (2014), "Who Is America?" (2018), "Face The Truth" (2018), and "The Doctors" (2014–2019).
(Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Sandals)
Personal Life
It has been reported that Smiley lost his home in 2008 due to foreclosure. It has also been stated that he owed $138,850 in unpaid child support as well as back taxes to the IRS.
Slade and Gretchen Rossi welcomed a daughter, Skylar, on July 10, 2019. Smiley had two sons, Gavin and Grayson, with Michelle Arroyo, but sadly Grayson passed away from cancer in 2023 at the age of 22. Grayson was first diagnosed with brain cancer when he was just 6 years old. After Grayson's death, Arroyo said that Smiley and Rossi barely had a relationship with him and that she wasn't willing to "stand by and permit them to benefit from my son's death for who they were barely there when he was alive and needed his father." Michelle said of Slade, "Since 2008 he only visited occasionally, but often times being late, canceling last minute or simply not showing up at all with no warning, emotionally crushing Gray countless of times. As Gray got older, he preferred not to see his father anymore and would express that he would rather avoid the ongoing disappointment and heartache from his unreliability."
