Braunwyn Windham-Burke shares why she thinks Bravo fired her from RHOC. She believes her coming-out story was too messy for viewers to handle.
Braunwyn Windham-Burke, a former star on The Real Housewives of Orange County, recently shared that she believes she was fired from the show because her storylines did not fit in with Bravo’s “narrative.” Braunwyn joined the RHOC season 14 cast and soon became one of the most polarizing stars on the show. She had trouble connecting with the other housewives at first and later revealed that she didn’t know how to open up to other women due to her emotionally unavailable mom, Dr. Deborah Windham.
In the RHOC season 15 premiere, Braunwyn opened up about her journey with sobriety. She revealed that she never had a healthy relationship with alcohol and would drink until she blacked out. RHOC season 15 also proved to be challenging for Braunwyn and her marriage to her husband, Sean Burke. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she shared how being locked down in her home with Sean and their seven children was difficult, especially as she was working on her sobriety. After season RHOC season 15 finished filming, Braunwyn came out as a lesbian and revealed that as much as she loves Sean, she has never been attracted to men.
Following Braunwyn’s explosive second season on RHOC, Bravo fired the reality star. In a recent episode of Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef, Braunwyn shared that she didn’t feel coming out as gay and an alcoholic was fully supported by the network. She stated, “My coming out story was big and messy, and it didn’t fit with the narrative that they wanted to push.” Braunwyn compared her story to that of The Real Housewives of Miami star Julia Lemigova and her wife, Martina Navratilova, by pointing out, “I do love that Bravo finally has a same-sex couple in Miami, but it’s more palatable. We can understand it. Famous couple, two kids…But you also need to give sort of some space for some coming out stories that aren’t easy.”
The former RHOC star shared that she was “hurt” that Bravo promoted Julia as the first LGBTQ+ housewife when there have been other non-straight women on the show for years. She vented, “I’m the first lesbian housewife because Julia doesn’t even identify as a lesbian. She identifies as bi, which is beautiful. And to just sort of negate everything I’d gone through on camera and pretend like it didn’t happen, that hurt.” Brauwnyn pointed out the other non-straight housewives, such as The Real Housewives of Potomac star Ashley Darby and The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss.
Braunwyn unpacked a lot of her life during her two seasons of RHOC and revealed that while she misses the cameras, she has no plans on returning to the show. Braunwyn shared that she is in talks with a media group and would like to focus her energy on spreading LGBTQ+ awareness and helping others with their sobriety. However, she is open to The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip as it’s less of a time commitment, so fans of The Real Housewives of Orange County may be seeing Braunwyn on the small screen in the near future.
