Why Josh Altman and Wife Heather Left 'Million Dollar Listing L.A.'

Josh Altman, Heather Altman.

Josh Altman and wife Heather Altman put a lot of thought into making their Million Dollar Listing L.A. exit.

“This wasn’t an overnight discussion where we just decided the night before, ‘Hey, let’s do this,’” Josh, 45, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting his partnership with Fontainebleau Las Vegas. “This has been something that has kind of been coming up over the past 24 months.”

Josh explained that as he and Heather, 39, spent more quality time with their two kids — daughter, Lexi, 7, and son Ace, 5, — the pair, who have been married since 2016, realized they wanted to focus on making more memories with their family.

“We can always go out there and sell houses. We can always go out there and do all these things, but we’ll never get the time back when our kids are this age,” he reflected. “It’s funny, you start hanging out with your friends who have older kids and they go, ‘Spend the time with them now because in a few years, they don’t wanna hang out with you anymore!’ Which is probably the best advice I’ve gotten in a long time.”

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His pals’ observations and words of wisdom made Josh realize he wanted to take a step back from work to prioritize being a dad.

“I would rather slow it down now, hang with them and then when they’re teenagers and they want nothing to do with their parents,” he added. ‘Then I can go back to doing everything that we had done.”

Josh has been a staple on Million Dollar Listing L.A. since 2004. Heather, for her part, has also appeared on the series. In October, Josh announced that both he and Heather were leaving the show. While Josh has a lot of fond memories of his time on Million Dollar Listing L.A., he said he knew that now was his “time” to depart.

“It felt right,” he explained. “It didn’t feel right last year when we were thinking about doing it, but it did feel right this year.”

While Josh was vacillating on when would be the best time to leave the series, he explained that the episode he and Heather did in Las Vegas in season 14 played a role.

“After we filmed that Vegas episode, the previous season before this last season, when we finished, … if I remember correctly, Heather looked at me and said, ‘Yeah, how much longer do you think you wanna do this?’” he recalled. “Of course, it’s been incredible and we’re so blessed to have that stage and to have that show as part of our life up to this point. But as we [decided] to start living and opening businesses in different areas and trying new things, it really started then. I think she brought it up but she knows me better than I know me. So, I think she saw it in my face.”

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Since announcing their exit, Josh and Heather have enjoyed spending time together, including trips to Napa and Scotland. However, Josh is adamant he’s not retiring from real estate. In fact, the agent has teamed with the Fontainebleau Las Vegas for the Las Vegas Grand Prix to officially list the Aston Martin Million Dollar Package. In the deal, guests will receive access to the resort’s amenities during their 5-night stay plus a limited edition 2025 Aston Martin Vanquish.

“It’s so funny because when I went into it, I was like, ‘So wait, let me get this straight,’” he said. “I started doing the math in my head like everybody else probably does when they look at that million dollar package, which of course was the perfect fit for the guy from Million Dollar Listing … I was like, ‘Wait, this is a good deal!’”

With reporting by Lanae Brody