Credit: Janet Mayer/startraksphoto.com
Heather Dubrow is looking back on her time on The Real Housewives of Orange County.
As the season 17 reunion concludes, Heather, 54, admitted to feeling “sad” going into the taping, revealed who has the “best” house of the Real Housewives franchise, and reflected on her IMDb feud with Taylor Armstrong, 52, while also sharing her biggest regret and joking that the latest season was her “apology tour.”
“It was the Heather Dubrow apology tour,” Heather told Bustle on October 9. “A lot of people were messaging me saying ‘You’ve already won.’ But I didn’t feel that way walking in [to the reunion] at all. I just felt really sad by the whole thing.”
According to Heather, her problem might be that she simply cares too much.
“I’m not a zero f*cks-giving girl,” she noted. “I actually do care. Would I like to be a little more like that? Maybe, but I’m not. But I would say that I have the power of my convictions.”
Following the completion of filming on season 17, which saw the return of Vicki Gunvalson, 61, Heather said she was happy to learn Vicki would be receiving the WifeTime Achievement Award at this year’s BravoCon.
“I thought it was cool that they’re giving Vicki the WifeTime Achievement Award. This network has really been built on Housewives, and those OGs from each franchise really are the queens,” she gushed. “When you look at Vicki, [Teresa Giudice], [Nene Leakes], [Ramona Singer], [Kyle Richards], all these gals were in it from the beginning, not knowing where it was going to go. It’s amazing.”
Although Heather wasn’t added to the RHOC cast until its seventh season in 2012, she’s a big part of the show’s history and, like most Real Housewives, has dealt viewers with her fair share of one-liners.
“I liked what I said to [Lydia McLaughlin] at one of the reunions,” she recalled of her favorite one. “She kept wanting me to apologize, and I kept apologizing and said, ‘I said I’m sorry. Do you want me to pop a vein?’”
Heather is also a fan of Tamra Judge‘s “That’s my opinion!”
As for her IMDb fight with Taylor, Heather wondered if she “overreacted.”
“The moment I came on the show, it was about my career. [Alexis Bellino] would say, ‘You’re not an actress. Angelina Jolie’s an actress, and then Malibu Country…’ It’s always been that,” she noted. “People don’t realize how difficult it is to get a television show in the first place, so it’s something I hold dear to me.”
After unloading what some may say was one of the best houses in the Housewives history, her $55 million Newport Beach mansion, Heather said that if she had to pick from her fellow Bravolebrities, she’d say Lisa Vanderpump‘s Villa Rosa was the best home of them all.
“I’ve been to her house, and she has a really beautiful style, and her restaurants are always really pretty,” she stated, adding that Kyle’s homes “always look beautiful” as well.
Heather also shared what she felt was the “worst” Housewives house.
“I’d probably say the ugliest one was my rental house in Emerald Bay while we were building the house we just sold. That was a little schleppy,” she admitted.
Moving on to her most iconic moment, Heather signaled to a season seven moment in which series “friend” Sarah Winchester “broke the bow off [her] cake and ate it,” prompting Heather to kick her out of her home.
“I saw her at a restaurant maybe two years ago and just said ‘Hi.’ You know what, unless someone hurts my kids, I really am fine with everyone,” Heather shared.
After then noting that she regrets how she treated Shannon Beador, 59, during their early years together on the show, Heather said her biggest regret was telling the operator of the mechanical bull at her hoedown party to turn up the speed on Tamra, who ultimately fell off.
“I regret the bull with Tamra. It came off as malicious; it wasn’t. But she got hurt, and that was terrible,” she said of the season nine moment.
Also, during the interview, Heather was asked to match her RHOC co-stars with characters from Sex and the City.
“Do we even have a Carrie on our show?” she asked. “I am definitely more of a Charlotte. I would give Tamra Samantha energy. And who would be Miranda? [Emily Simpson], maybe, or [Jennifer Pedranti]. And that leaves Carrie for [Gina Kirschenheiter].”
