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Braunwyn Windham-Burkeis “incredibly sad” to be handing in her orange.
On Wednesday, PEOPLE exclusivelyrevealedthat theReal Housewives of Orange Countystar, along with castmatesKelly DoddandElizabeth Lyn Vargas, will not be returning to the Bravo reality series. Joining current HousewivesShannon Beador,Gina Kirschenheiterand Emily Simpson for season 16 is returnerHeather Dubrow, wholeftthe franchise in 2017.
“I’m incredibly sad to not be able to come back toThe Real Housewives of Orange Countynext year. I loved every moment of being a Housewife, and am so proud of my time on the show — the good, the bad, and the in-between,” Windham-Burke says in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE.
Heather Dubrow, Kelly Dodd, Braunwyn Windham-Burke and Elizabeth Lyn-Vargas.getty (4)
Windham-Burkejoined theHousewivesfranchisefor season 14 in 2019. On the most recent season 15, Windham-Burke made a series of personal revelations — including heradmission that she’s an alcoholicand telling fans that she’s alesbian.
“I am on a journey of sobriety, I am redefining my marriage, I am finding myself,“she saidon the season 15 finale, before a producer asked: “Who is Braunwyn?”
“Braunwyn is an amazing mom, a good friend and she is a big ol' lesbian,” she responded. “I like women and it’s beautiful. This is the real me.”
Braunwyn Windham-Burke.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
In April, Windham-Burke appeared on thePEOPLE Every Day podcast, where sheopened upabout having an open marriage with her husband ofover 20 years, Sean Burke — with whom she sharesseven children— aftercoming outand entering into a romantic relationship withex-girlfriendKrislast year.
“I had a relationship with a girlfriend that was platonic, but I fell in love with her,” Windham-Burke said of Kris. “And a lot of things were happening in my marriage at the time. Sean had someone else in our home, I had feelings for another woman, a lot of things were occurring off-camera at that time. And it basically kind of blew up.”
Listen below toour daily podcast PEOPLE Every Dayfor more on theRHOCcast shakeup.
“Sean and I had a very good, long, honest conversation, and I was like, ‘I want to be with a woman. This is what I want,’ " the Bravo star continued. “We had known that I was bisexual for a long time, but some things had happened … I was sober, I was doing inventory, and I had, for the first time in my life, been with a woman, sober. … And I was like, I’m not straight at all. I know this now.”
“Some days have been great and some days have been really hard,” she said. “We are doing our best to navigate something that I’ve never seen done before.We do want to stay married, we do want to stay parents, we are best friends. And some days that seems very attainable, and some days it doesn’t.”
Kelly Dodd, Braunwyn Windham-Burke.Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty; Tibrina Hobson/Getty
Earlier this year, Doddsaid she would not return toRHOCif Windham-Burke remained on the cast. (During part one of theRHOCseason 15 reunion, Dodd accused Windham-Burke of being a “liar” and a “fake alcoholic.” The pair alsobutted heads over politicsand over Windham-Burke’srelationship with Sean.)
source: people.com
