In a new interview, both Braunwyn and her daughter Rowan, who is also part of LGBTQIA+ community, claim they will never return to 'The Real Housewives' franchise as they find it a 'toxic' place.
- Mar 1, 2022
AceShowbiz - Braunwyn Windham-Burke is opening up about being the first openly gay Housewife in "Real Housewives" franchise history. During a new interview, the former "The Real Housewives of Orange County" star detailed the "homophobia" that she faced from her former co-stars.
"Making off-color jokes about me being intimate with a woman, that's not OK. Those are microaggressions," Braunwyn, who came out as a lesbian in December 2020, revealed to PageSix. "After I came out, having to prove that I was gay, that should never have been tolerated. That is a microagression. That is homophobia."
Her daughter Rowan, who joined her in the interview, chimed in, "It's really invalidating that people were saying they didn’t believe it or they didn't think it was true." The 19-year-old, who is also part of the LGBTQIA+ community, added, "Not just for my mom, but for other people who come out later in life. It's insanely invalidating to hear people say, 'Oh, she's just lying. Oh, it's not true.' "
Rowan was referring to her mom's former castmates who seemingly doubted Braunwyn's sexuality. Fans may recall how Kelly Dodd frequently mocked her over speculation that Braunwyn had been romantically involved with a woman throughout filming of season 15.
Meanwhile, Emily Simpson called Braunwyn "selfish" for exploring her gay identity while still married to now-ex-husband Sean Burke. Of the comment, Braunwyn said in the interview, "One one hundredth of what we film makes it onto the show. So you can choose what you want … It was not easy to be the first gay 'Housewife.' There should have been a little more grace."
"At the end of the day, it's a show about drama but you need to have some humanity at a base level and I didn't get that with my cast members," she explained. Both Braunwyn and Rowan claimed they would never return to "The Real Housewives" franchise as they found it a "toxic" place.
Elsewhere in the interview, Rowan gushed over her mom for her support amid her own coming-out journey. "[My mom] was a big part of me actually being able to find that identity and that label. I went by bi for a while but then I realized that it wasn't actually bisexuality because I love every single different kind of gender and everyone," the teen shared.
"That helped me a lot, not just with sexuality but knowing myself as a whole, which helps along my journey of becoming a better person, a better me -- better mentally, better physically, just knowing myself," she went on to say.
