TEEN Mom 2 star Chelsea Houska has agreed to hash out her $3million lawsuit in settlement talks instead of trial after scoring a new HGTV show.
Chelsea, 30, and her husband Cole, 33, were sued by consulting company Envy for $3million for allegedly withholding money made from social media promotions.
Chelsea and Cole responded to the lawsuit by filing a counterclaim in May 2020, alleging Envy actually withheld over $150,000 from them.
The Celeb Report can exclusively reveal the parties have agreed to resolve the lawsuit in mediation.
In court papers obtained by The Celeb Report, Chelsea and Cole’s lawyer emailed the judge on the case: “the parties have agreed to pursue private mediation in an attempt to resolve the case.”
The attorney asked for all deadlines, including to produce discovery, which is evidence to be used at trial, be postponed for 60 days as settlement talks are underway.
NEW HGTV SHOW
Chelsea and Cole agreeing to mediation comes just weeks after they announced their new HGTV show Farmhouse Fabulous.
The series, which is set to debut in 2023, will follow the couple as they help families renovate their homes.
The Teen Mom 2 star’s new show comes just months after she finished construction on her brand new South Dakota Farmhouse.
Follow all our latest news & stories on Teen Mom.
CHELSEA & COLE SUED
As The Celeb Report reported, Envy claimed in the lawsuit that the company entered into a contract with The William Gerard Group in 2015 to provide consulting services to Chelsea and Cole, who entered a contract in 2016, in exchange for a portion of the revenue made from deals.
Envy worked as a “consultant to negotiate appearance, endorsement, licensing, royalty and television agreements and related contracts” from 2015 through 2019.
The court papers claim Chelsea and Cole “failed to pay any of the contractually required fees.”
The former Teen Mom 2 stars were required to pay Envy 35 percent of all fees or royalties for domestic deals and 40 percent for foreign deals.
The court papers claimed Chelsea and Cole “breached their contracts by directing certain Brands to directly pay Houska, DeBoer, one of the other Shared Clients, and/or other persons or entities to avoid paying Envy Licensing Fees.”
The MTV stars also “both failed to perform, without any cause or reason, many of their responsibilities to the Brands.”
Allegedly failing to meet the contractual obligations caused them to “forfeit certain fees upon which Envy was entitled to receive.”
The court papers continued to claim Chelsea and Cole made “millions of dollars” due to Envy’s efforts.
The company is suing the defendants for $3million.
HITTING BACK
Chelsea, Cole, and the other defendants hit back against the lawsuit by filing a counterclaim in May 2020, alleging Envy actually withheld $150,000 from them.
Chelsea and Cole denied the allegations and claimed they “do not owe any payments to Envy” and that the company “wrongfully withheld payments due to Chelsea.”
The reality stars claimed Envy has “actually harmed the professional careers of Defendants Chelsea and Cole by withholding considerable payments from them and acting in an unprofessional manner, including but not limited to, arguing with and acting disrespectfully toward Chelsea and Cole, potential and then-existing licensing contacts, and other professional contacts of Chelsea and Cole.”
The Defendants also claimed Envy “intentionally omitted numerous deals and/or revenues from the Account Statements for the sole purpose of depriving Chelsea, Cole, and TWGG from receiving funds rightfully due and owing to them.”
Chelsea claimed they owe her $154,074.62 from deals with Loving Tan, Profile, Diff Eyewear and more.
Envy denied the claims against them in their response.
FIGHT OVER FINANCIAL RECORDS
The parties have also been battling over the production of financial records, as the deadline has been extended multiple times.
In October, the judge ordered Chelsea and Cole to provide the requested documents.
Envy too was ordered to “produce financial records reflecting any revenue deriving from its contracts with Defendants.”
Envy accused the Teen Mom stars of “violating” the court order by continuing to withhold documents and revenue again in January.
Chelsea and Cole’s lawyer claimed Envy too has “continued to withhold documents” for a specific period and “declined to search for them.”
Chelsea, Cole and their four children left Teen Mom 2 in 2020.
