Daisy De La Hoya, the 42-year-old reality TV personality who once starred on VH1's Rock of Love franchise, is now homeless and job-hunting, staying temporarily with a friend in Los Angeles while attending school. After she disclosed her situation publicly, a barbecue restaurant in North Las Vegas stepped forward with a real job offer, giving her a choice between working as a bartender or a waitress.
The offer comes from Smoking Pig BBQ, and management confirmed to TMZ in a statement Thursday that the opportunity is legitimate. The restaurant, located at 4379 N. Las Vegas Blvd near Nellis Air Force Base, reopened under new management in July after a complete renovation that included a remodeled bar area, according to Burstable News. Whether De La Hoya will actually relocate from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to take the job remains unclear, but she does now have an offer waiting for her.
A Public Admission That Led to a Job Offer
De La Hoya's circumstances came to light after she told the Daily Mail she is poor and homeless, currently staying temporarily with a friend while attending school. She said she has been applying for jobs wherever she can find them and is willing to take work outside the entertainment industry entirely. Before the Las Vegas offer materialized, she said she had applied to McDonald's twice, along with Del Taco and Starbucks, without landing a position at any of them.
She also revealed that she had briefly worked in door-to-door fundraising for a non-profit organization, but was let go after being told she wasn't meeting performance expectations. The string of rejections and the short-lived fundraising job paint a picture of someone who has been actively trying to find steady work well before the Smoking Pig BBQ offer surfaced.
From Reality TV Fame to a Flat Buyout
De La Hoya first became a fixture of reality television in 2008 on Rock of Love 2, where her family connection to former multi-division world boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya became a frequent talking point, according to TheThings. She later starred in the 2009 VH1 spin-off Daisy of Love, for which she says she received a flat $50,000 buyout and no ongoing residuals from streaming or reruns despite the show remaining available to watch today.
That compensation structure is not unique to her. Under SAG-AFTRA contract guidelines, residual payments are generally restricted to principal performers working under unionized contracts when shows are re-aired or streamed, which leaves many non-union unscripted TV participants who signed buyout contracts unpaid for reruns. It's a structural gap that has affected numerous reality performers from that era, not just De La Hoya, and helps explain why a decade and a half of a show staying on the air hasn't translated into ongoing income for her.
A Career That Started Before Reality TV
Before she was known by her stage name, De La Hoya was born Vanessa Mossman in Los Angeles in October 1983, according to ScreenRant. She played bass and sang backing vocals for the gothic rock group Seraphim Shock before adopting the De La Hoya name for her VH1 appearances.
Her more recent years have included serious personal challenges. In March 2024, she entered a residential treatment program following a mental health breakdown, receiving support from sober advocates Corey Feldman and Jennifer Gimenez during that period. That chapter adds context to the financial struggles she has now made public, and to why a bartending or waitressing job at a renovated barbecue restaurant hundreds of miles away represents such a notable turning point for her.
For now, the offer from Smoking Pig BBQ sits on the table, with management saying it remains open to De La Hoya accepting either role. Whether she takes it, and what it would mean for someone currently living temporarily with a friend and attending school in Los Angeles, is still to be seen.
