Last week, Braunwyn Windham-Burke publicly came out as a lesbian in a courageous video.
Now she’s packing on PDA with her girlfriend, quashing divorce rumors, and trashing hateful castmate Kelly Dodd.
Braunwyn came out on December 2 in an inspirational video.
Since then, she has been more public about her identity as a lesbian and about her life.
She has even been spotted packing on the PDA with her girlfriend, Kris.
Naturally, a lot of fans do not seem to believe that she and Sean plan to remain married, and are circulating divorce rumors.
“We’re taking it one day at a time,” Braunwyn tells one fan on Instagram, “and figuring out what works.”
“We don’t have any answers,” she admits, “we just know we love our kids and we will always be family.”
Sexuality is extremely complicated. Between overpowering cultural pressure to be straight and Braunwyn’s lifelong struggle with alcoholism, she did not always know herself.
One commenter challenged her on how she (like, let’s remember, millions of gay Americans) had multiple and even lasting straight relationships but has now come out as gay.
Braunwyn gave this commenter some good advice: “Feel free to google and educate yourself.”
A nasty comment accused Braunwyn of, by referring to Sean and their seven children as “family,” using the term “loosely.”
“Family is what you create,” she replied. “Some you’re born into, some you create.”
“But the beautiful thing is every one is different,” Braunwyn wisely observed.
Some accusatory and some less so, some commenters speculated baselessly that Braunwyn is coming out as gay for a storyline.
That is, frankly, preposterous, and Braunwyn was far nicer about it than she needed to be.
Not only will this story not come up in Season 15, but Braunwyn is not faking being gay and having a girlfriend for Bravolebrity points or whatever. And suggesting that she is is, I’ll just say it, homophobic!
Braunwyn explains that engaging — truly engaging — with haters isn’t worth it.
She notes that some people are set in their ways and close-minded while she is living her best life.
Also, clock this clownish comment asking, in December of 2020, why Braunwyn and her family are wearing facemasks as the pandemic is the worst that it’s ever been. Sealioning at its worst.
“Tamra has been the only person from RHOC that has been there for me,” Braunwyn told a commenter who advised her to stay away from her ex-castmate.
“She knew I was sober and kept it to herself,” she added. “She knew we were struggling with our daughter’s mental health issues and listened.”
Braunwyn revealed: “She got me through a day that was so hard I was physically shaking.”
“Whatever you think you know,” Braunwyn concluded, “you don’t.”
While Tamra was both supportive and respectful of her privacy, one of Braunwyn’s more recent castmates has been considerably less so.
Kelly Dodd accused Braunwyn of faking her sobriety for a reality TV storyline … and Braunwyn is aware of the accusations.
Braunwyn says that the closest thing that she did to making this up for reality TV points was consider the show itself.
Apparently, she straight-up did not remember filming some scenes from Season 14, and did not want those kinds of blackouts to happen again.
“Is there a doubt in anyone’s mind who knows me that I’m an alcoholic? No,” Braunwyn continued.
“It’s low,” Braunwyn characterized Kelly’s baseless accusation.
“But,” she acknowledged, “she’s vile and cruel, so it’s not unexpected.”
Strong words for Kelly … but let’s be real, not undeserved ones.