Liz Lee says having a reality series did nothing for her love life.
Though many fans believed they were watching a relationship blossom between Lee and friend Zona Gilreath on the 2010 MTV series My Life as Liz, what the two really shared was a “close friendship.”
The subject came up as Lee answered fan questions about her life while filming the reality series from 2010 to 2011, and what she’s been up to in the years since. Asked if the show was scripted, Lee explained, “The first season was not scripted. It was staged. We were put in situations that were a part of these narrative arcs that were architected by adults in a building in New York.”
Lee used the example of Valentine’s Day at her school, where people would pay to send their crush a carnation, which they’d receive in class.
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“It was a sort of status symbol. It was like this emblem of you being desired, and I never got them. And then, I got a bunch from a secret admirer while I was on the show, and I sort of had an inkling that MTV had their sticky fingers on it, but I wasn’t sure. I really thought, ‘Maybe I had a secret admirer,’ ” she explained.
“When you’re watching that happening on the show, that’s my earnest reaction, because I just didn’t know. My own reality was manipulated, and my own understanding of what was real and what was staged on the show in real time was confused.”
Lee confirmed the show’s second season was scripted, noting, “My love interest was auditioned.”
“But me and Troy, and the ‘Nerd Heard,’ like me and Troy were best friends since seventh grade. That was real. I love Sully. We weren’t as close in the beginning of the show as the show depicted, but we definitely got there, and that love was very real.”
The artist also made a point of noting that her friends’ lives “didn’t revolve around me.”
“They weren’t self-identified as the nerd herd. Um. They had their own lives, and they were their own people,” she said.
Addressing her relationship with Gilreath on the show, she explained the two were “really close friends.
“I really was excited to go to prom with them, and I ended up… I wanted to go to prom with maybe Troy or something. I ended up going with Sully, who I love.”
In a later video, Lee addressed questions about Gilreath, who appeared on the reality series prior to their transition.
“I don’t want to share their story for them, but I will say that we tried hooking up once,” she said, noting that it “didn’t work.”
“We have been close friends for a long time. I did my first drug in pre-AP biology, sitting right next to them. They’re a crucial part of my early adulthood. I love them so much, and they’re literally brilliant. They went on to study philosophy, and now [they’re] happily married,” she said.
She concluded, “I know people who are really captivated by our on-screen romance, but the truth is, we were always just really close friends.”
As for herself, Lee says, “My high school experience just was very strange because I never knew what was real and what was architected by adults.”
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