Jason Oppenheim opens up about his childhood
Selling Sunset's Jason Oppenheim has opened up about his troubled childhood with twin brother Brett.
The brokerage founder revealed they spent several nights in jail for fighting, and were expelled from numerous schools.
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The reality star opened up about his past in an interview with DailyMailTV this week.
Jason admitted, 'I am not ashamed of my past, but I am not proud of it either.'
'I made mistakes, a lot of them, but right when it seemed like there was no hope, I was given a second chance and I made the best of it.'
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The 43-year-old said, 'I found purpose in first school, then as a lawyer, and now in real estate.'
'That direction saved me. I wouldn’t change any of it. It made me who I am.'
Jason described his teenage self as, 'frustrated, aggressive,' and, 'trouble making.'
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The Oppenheim brothers' childhood
He and his twin brother Brett were raised by a single mother.
'Brett and I were incorrigible; very difficult to raise as we were intelligent, but argumentative and had huge antipathy towards authority.'
'We went to seven different high schools and boarding schools, and were either expelled or suspended from five of them.'
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'My brother and I were really truly wild, I thought I would end up in jail or in big trouble at least.'
He admitted they, 'often found [themselves] in bad circumstances.'
'We had gone to jail for fighting or doing some stupid things five or six times.'
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Jason continued in his interview with DailyMailTV, 'There were a couple of bar fights, which got out of control.'
'I was even arrested for drunken fan fighting after the [Washington Football Team] played at the San Francisco 49ers stadium.'
'I was drinking too much, got into it with some people.'
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He added that while he was in the stadium cell, he got into another fight with a rival fan.
Jason admitted this was pretty scary, 'because this guy was a lot bigger than me.'
'Concerned for everyone’s safety the police moved me to San Francisco County Jail. That was a low point.'
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Jason always stuck by his brother's side
It appears Jason has always been very protective of his brother.
He recalled a time when Brett was arrested for fighting during a night of underage drinking before Thanksgiving.
'I made sure the officer arrested me too so that he would not be in jail alone,' he admitted.
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In the interview, Jason made it clear that these altercations were only ever, 'adolescent fist fights.'
There were never any, 'guns, bottles, or rocks,' involved, 'and no-one was seriously injured or convicted.'
'I have never been convicted for a serious or violent crime, just spent nights in cells because cops gave me time to cool down.'
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The real estate agent also revealed he was convicted of DUI a long time ago.
Thankfully nobody was harmed, and he didn't get into an accident.
However, he did spend two nights in jail, lost his license for a year, and served community service.
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Teen correctional camp
Jason and Brett's mother Deborah had had enough at this stage.
So she tricked them into thinking they were going to Idaho for a basketball camp when they were 13.
It turns out they were actually going to a teen correctional camp.
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Jason recalled to DailyMailTV, 'After landing in Idaho, terrified, we were handcuffed and driven four hours in the back of a 4 x 4 truck.'
'These two big guys took our clothes, gave us army fatigues and then marched us for hours on end through the desert.'
'There was no running water, showers, clothes changes, bathroom tissue and just a tin of lentils to eat daily.'
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He continued, 'They took our shoes at night to stop us running away.'
'The only extra food available was by killing and cooking deadly rattlesnakes or crushing ants onto our lentils to create flavor.'
'Once for three days I had just half a rattlesnake to eat alone on the shady side of a giant rock.'
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Their father gets involved
Despite the camp's efforts, Jason and Brett's behaviour remained the same, until their father got involved.
'We’d always been pretty well behaved when we were with our dad, because he would whoop our a**.'
'He was a Vietnam vet, who did two tours and was a very strict disciplinarian. And I was always scared of him.'
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Jason revealed, 'He was so militant I did not leave his side for months, not even seeing friends.'
'I stopped screwing around. He really whipped me into shape.'
By their senior year, the Oppenheim brothers were graduating together.
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Jason said, 'I graduated first and Brett second in our class out of more than 10,000 students from Berkeley with highest honors.'
'Brett went to UCLA and I stayed at Berkeley to earn law degrees graduating at the top of our classes.'
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Season three of Selling Sunset is on Netflix now.
