Throughout her two-season arc on the Real Housewives of Orange County, Braunwyn Windham-Burke had struggles in both her personal life and with the other ladies. It all came to a head in 2020 when she decided to get sober and come out as a lesbian on-camera. There was some confusion about her sexuality, given that the reality star was married to a man, as well as some commentary related to past incidents. Nevertheless, Windham-Burke was not asked to return to the franchise last year. She still has a thing or two to say, which include calling out her former castmates with allegations of homophobia and for showing a lack of “humanity” toward her.
In a joint interview with her 19-year-old daughter, the ex-Real Housewives star claimed to Page Six that both the Bravo network and its stars did an “injustice” to her coming out story. Braunwyn Windham-Burke in fact contends that several of the comments made about her, whether intentional or not, were homophobic in nature, such as the time when Emily Simpson remarked how her castmate was “selfish” for exploring her sexuality while married. Windham-Burke reflected,
Making off-color jokes about me being intimate with a woman, that’s not OK. Those are microaggressions. Taking someone that’s sober and putting them in a situation where people are saying they’re not and calling behind their back, that’s not okay. We shouldn’t give that airtime. One one hundredth of what we film makes it onto the show. So you can choose what you want … But I will say, after I came out, having to prove that I was gay, like I had to prove I was an alcoholic and then prove that I was gay, like that should never have been tolerated. That is a microagression. That is homophobia.
There were indeed frequent conversations throughout Season 15 that revolved around Braunwyn Windham-Burke’s sexuality. What the comment above doesn't note is that it was usually Kelly Dodd who would insinuate that her co-star was merely doing these things for attention and storylines on the show.
Despite previous statements that she had been looking forward to returning to the fold in 2021, Braunwyn Windham-Burke continued to tell the outlet that the Real Housewives of Orange County was a “toxic television show” in her opinion that affected her mental health and her ability to be “present” as a mother of 7 kids. Though she’s grateful for the platform it’s given her to speak on these issues now, she criticized Bravo for supposedly not having more LGBTQ people in its employ. The 44-year-old said that her edit on the show was “straight-washed” and that the network should hire more people from the community who would be “sensitive” to these particular issues. As for her former co-stars, Windham-Burke implied that they too need more sensitivity, saying,
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.
In the wake of her firing, Braunwyn Windham-Burke would face some legal troubles and later share that she and her husband Sean finally split up for good. She’s now currently dating model Victoria Brito and is in the process of writing a book. The Real Housewives alum likewise told the outlet that her family are in talks to have their own reality series, one that would not be “salacious” and seek to “destroy” them.
Braunwyn Windham-Burke confirmed that she would never return to the Real Housewives of Orange County if offered. Although, it’s not looking likely that Bravo will be offering anytime soon. As we’ve seen, too, some of her ex-castmates continue to bluntly criticize her.
