Golnesa “GG” Gharachedaghi is working on downsizing as she begins a new year on reality TV.
“I did lessen the amount of weed I was purchasing. I would say it’s less than $3,000 now per month,” GG, 44, exclusively shared with Us Weekly before the Thursday, January 8, series premiere of The Valley: Persian Style. “I rely on cannabis for my health. I rely on it for psychological calmness, for a lot of things, and I’m OK with it. It’s a natural substance.”
The former Shahs of Sunset star added that she’s “not really” drinking alcohol anymore. Instead, she’s choosing to spend her money on legal weed.
During the first episodes of Bravo’s newest reality show, GG was put in the hot seat about her finances and her need to downsize.
“I know that Golnesa wants to bury her head in the sand and pretend that the problems aren’t there,” Mercedeh “MJ” Javid said in a confessional interview. “But that’s not adulting, sis.”
Before viewers — and costars — come for her lavish lifestyle, GG confirmed she downsized from six bedrooms to five bedrooms.
“I’m happy,” she told Us. “It’s a little hard. You gotta fit all the clothes into the rooms and stuff. But we’re in a great neighborhood, a great school. My backyard is gigantic, so I have these two huge Rottweilers that get to just roam all around. It’s great.”
After learning that her spending was a hot topic of conversation, GG said she did some thinking and realized that she needed to make a change.
“I will be honest with you. Hearing how much I was spending, when I said that out loud — because I had to actually do the math in my brain on how much I was spending — I was like, ‘Oh, wow,’” GG told Us. “I can have a whole different other mortgage if I wanted. It was nice to hear that.”
In a unique way, GG — who made her reality TV debut on Shahs of Sunset in 2012 — argued that being on a reality show is the best therapy.
“You hear yourself or you watch yourself and you’re like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ I just wasn’t expecting my credit and whatnot to be brought up,” she said. “When I hired Reza [Farahan] to be my agent, I didn’t think that my credit was going to be a topic of discussion in a friend’s group of people. These are all my friends.”
While The Valley: Persian Style promises plenty of drama amongst GG’s friend group, she is thrilled to be back filming with some of her closest pals after Shahs of Sunset said goodbye in 2021.
“Reza and I got very close. I feel like as soon as the cameras went down, we didn’t have an excuse for forcing a friendship, and we became friends naturally,” GG said. “We started traveling and doing so many fun things together.”
While GG may still have her ups and downs with MJ, the past years have been a positive change.
“She’s definitely coming out of that shell,” GG teased, “and regaining herself and her friendships and all that.”
The Valley: Persian Style airs on Bravo Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET. Stream old episodes anytime on Peacock.
