Real Housewives’ Braunwyn Windham-Burke came out as lesbian before photos of her girlfriend could leak
Braunwyn Windham-Burke came out as gay in an interview with GLAAD (Noel Vasquez/Getty)
Real Housewives star Braunwyn Windham-Burke came out as a lesbian after learning that TMZ had photos of her with her girlfriend, she has revealed.
Windham-Burke, who joined The Real Housewives of Orange County in 2019, came out publicly as a lesbian in an interview with GLAAD in December 2020, revealing that she had a girlfriend and that she plans to remain married to her husband Sean.
In a new interview she explained that after learning TMZ had snaps of her and her girlfriend, she realised their relationship would eventually leak.
When asked why she decided to come out when she did by Vulture, Windham-Burke said: “TMZ had some photos of me and my girlfriend, and they have a policy of not outing people. So they came to Bravo PR, and they said, ‘We have these photos, but we’re not gonna run them.’
“And [Bravo PR] came to me and said, ‘OK, this is out there; it’s gonna get out there.’ Because I wasn’t hiding it. Kris came out of the closet 12 years ago; I was not gonna push her back in. How can we do this in the best way? And I really wanted to find a venue that was respectful and that would really tell the story.”
Braunwyn Windham-Burke said it was ‘hard’ to come out as a lesbian.
She said it was “hard” for her to publicly come out, adding: “If you look at the GLAAD interview, you can see me. I’m shaking. I’m shaking through that whole video. But now that I’ve gotten to the other side of it, I’m glowing and lighter and happy.”
When she came out as a lesbian, Braunwyn Windham-Burke said it had taken her 42 years to become comfortable enough to speak publicly about her sexuality.
“I’m finally comfortable enough to say: I like women. I’m gay. I’m a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. I’m a lesbian,” Windham-Burke said.
“And it has taken me 42 years to say that, but I’m so proud of where I am right now and I’m so happy where I am. To be able to be comfortable in my own skin after so long is just so nice.”
She continued: “I’m still getting used to it… I knew I was attracted to women. I always have been… I got married very young and I never thought about it.
“So to be 42… I’m just now starting to feel like I’m becoming the woman I was supposed to be. So for me to be living completely authentically and say: ‘I’m a lesbian. That was who I have always been.’ This isn’t something that is new, cause that I think is what a lot of people will think.”
