Lara Sophia 
Heather Dubrow reveals the truth behind her return to the Real Housewives of Orange County in 2021 after a four-year hiatus from the franchise.
When Heather Dubrow joined the RHOC cast during season 7 in 2012, she brought some much-need class and wealth to the franchise. For five seasons, Fancy Pants proved that she could get down and dirty while remaining classy and elegant at the same time.
The 54-year-old left RHOC ahead of season 12. At the time, Heather claimed she left the show to spend more time with her family, which includes her husband, Terry Dubrow, and their four children: Ace, Katarina, Max, and Nicholas.
However, at the time, rumors also swirled that Heather Dubrow no longer wanted to film with co-star Kelly Dodd. She allegedly gave Bravo an ultimatum that it was her or Kelly, and the network chose the latter.
In 2021, Bravo announced that Heather would be returning for season 16 of RHOC. While many Bravo fans believed that Heather’s return to RHOC was a business move. Appearing on Bravo gives Housewives free advertising her their various projects and companies.
Now, almost two years after the fact, Heather reveals the truth behind her much-anticipated return to RHOC.
Heather recently appeared on Nick Viall’s podcast, The Viall Files, where she spilled the tea on why she decided to jump back in the lion’s den and return to the drama-filled world of Real Housewives.
The mom of four explained:
“My oldest daughter, one of the twins, had come out as bisexual during the pandemic. It was shocking and not shocking how she was received. So there were a lot of messages of love and support, and there were also just heartbreaking, heartbreaking messages. Kids that had to leave home and, and kids that had taken their own lives and just really horrible stories. And I thought, you know what? This is such a huge platform. And I thought, well, maybe I can show our normal family and start conversations in other people’s families.
So she and I talked about it, and I’m like, look, would you be willing, you know, your book is coming out. If we go back on the show, can I throw, which I would’ve thrown anyway, a party for your book launch, and would you be okay filming it? And she said yes. She was totally interested in having that conversation to help people.”
Heather then reveals that when they decided to return to RHOC as a family, she didn’t expect her third child, Katarina, to come out as gay while filming season 16.
She continued:
“What I didn’t realize was my third child, who is gay. I mean, I knew she was gay, but what I didn’t realize was that we would be filming, which we were. And there was a scene last year in season 16 where we were gardening. And she says to me, outta the blue, um, I think I’m gonna take my lesbian flag down. And I said, why? She goes, well, I was on TikTok, and I posted something, and it was in the background. Someone made a comment, and it just turned into this completely normal mother-daughter conversation that was so amazing and so beautiful.
And after we were done, I said to her, I’m like, Hey, are you cool with this? ’cause she was younger and she was like, do you think it’ll help people? And I said I did. And she goes, yeah, I’m good with it. And it did. And it turned into like such a beautiful thing. So again, I don’t tell my children’s stories for them, but when they wanna talk about it, if that’s something they wanna explore, that’s great. And what I can tell you is in the last, you know, couple of years since we’ve been back on the show, we’ve been able to do exactly that. And with what’s going on in the country right now, which is very, very scary for, uh, so many in the LGBTQI plus community, especially people of color, trans women of, of color, it’s, it’s so bad.
I truly believe that people with a platform need to speak. And so that’s what I’m trying to do. So if you ask me why I’m here, it’s that.”
@nickviall ?Ep 652 of @The Viall Files… why @Heather Dubrow returned to RHOC. #podcast #nickviall #heatherdubrow #terrydubrow #rhoc #realhousewives ? Belonging – Muted
Looking ahead to season 18, Heather, as well as the rest of the RHOC cast, are expected to return. Get all the details HERE.
The Real Housewives of Orange County will return for season 18 in 2024.
