The 'Million Dollar Listing New York' agent opens up to ET about becoming a dad at the same time as his co-stars!
Fatherhood has, pretty much, changed everything for Ryan Serhant.
"It sounds so cliche, but I didn’t know that -- everyone says this -- but I didn’t know it was possible to love someone so much," the Million Dollar Listing New York star tells ET.
"I just always thought it was bulls**t," he adds. "'I’m sure your kid is cute, yeah, I love my parents,' you know? But then you have your own baby, and she's screaming, screaming, screaming when she came out of the womb, doctors all over her, they put her in my hands and told me to talk to her. They said, 'She’s going to recognize your voice from the womb,' and, in my head, I said, 'Yeah, OK, I guess…' I start talking, and she immediately looks at me and stops crying, and I was like, 'OK, my life just changed.' It was crazy. Such a crazy, crazy moment, and it gets better every day.”
Ryan and his wife, Emilia Bechrakis Serhant, welcomed their first child, daughter Zena, in February. The birth announcement came as a total surprise to MDLNY fans, as the couple kept the baby news a secret until Zena was born.
"It was Emilia’s choice to keep things really private," he admits. "She’s Greek Orthodox by birth, and I’m Greek Orthodox by choice, because I converted for her, [and] it’s superstition. It was so hard for us to get pregnant [that] by the time we got pregnant, you know, I believe in bad juju and energy and positive thinking. I thought, let’s just keep it quiet, I don’t want anyone wishing bad harm on her."
"But the show followed us," he notes. "We knew the show wouldn’t air until after she was born, so we filmed for, like, a year. She is big and pregnant for most of the season."
Yes, viewers will get to see Ryan’s journey to fatherhood, then life as a dad. The main cast of Million Dollar Listing is now all fathers, with Fredrik Eklund welcoming twins in 2017 and Steve Gold announcing the birth of his own daughter, Rose, in June, which was also a surprise.
"We didn’t even know!" Ryan says of Steve and his girlfriend, Luiza Gawlowska, being pregnant. "We went to a housewarming party, and we walk in with our baby and we knew Fredrik was bringing his kids, and next thing you know, Steve introduces us to his girlfriend, who no one has even met before and, honestly, we thought he was kidding. He’s like, 'Oh, yeah, we’re pregnant and we’re having this baby, like, tomorrow.'"
Ryan says, now that they’re all dads, the dynamics have shifted a bit.
"Honestly, by default, yes," he shares. "The first thing we all talk about now is, like, how are the kids? Do you want to see a photo? You go into, like, a duel of who can pull out their cell phone faster to show a picture of their kid! And then, we talk about real estate. I think it’s calmed all of us down. We’re all a little more, I don’t know, probably just a little calmer."
"In business, we are all just a little crazier," he continues. "There’s higher stakes once you have children involved. This season is insane, the drama is amped, the deals are ridiculous, it’s just going to be a wild ride that’s for sure."
Get a sneak peek at that wild ride in ET’s exclusive first look at the season eight premiere here:
Ryan says the stakes are higher because your reason for living, and working, is so much more with a kid in the picture. He calls parenting "a different risk."
"Now it’s, like, wow," he reflects. "Now I have a family, and hopefully we’ll have more, I have to build this thing, and it just makes me work harder, which I never really thought was possible."
"It’s funny, when Emilia was pregnant, she was nesting at home and I was nesting at the office," Ryan adds. "I didn’t even think about it, but then Emilia read about it and she was like, 'You are male nesting right now. You are preparing for this baby to come, you’re working harder because you want to be able to provide.' It’s, like, evolution, it’s science… it’s in me. It’s nuts."
Watch it all unfold on Million Dollar Listing New York’s new season, premiering Thursday, Aug. 1, at 9 p.m. ET.
"It’s a real estate show, but it’s more than that, it’s a real estate deal show," Ryan notes. "Anyone who’s ever been involved in that, they’re not easy, even in a really great market. Take really difficult real estate deals, with really difficult personalities, but it in New York City, in one of the toughest markets the city has ever seen, with a weird economy and crazy political landscape, and let everyone run free and see what happens. S**t hits the fan."
RELATED CONTENT:
