Heather Dubrow left The Real Housewives of Orange County in 2016, after five seasons, and according to series alum Tamra Judge, “the show has not been the same since.” So why exactly did Heather, who was a huge fan-favorite, leave? Well, fans have long suspected that Heather left because Kelly Dodd joined the cast and exhibited “low class” behavior, but Tamra claims there’s more to the story.
“I think it was a personal thing, I really do. I think it was a personal conflict with an executive at Bravo,” Tamra revealed during the June 18 edition of Behind the Velvet Rope podcast with David Yontef. When Tamra was asked to expand on what “type” of personal conflict there was, Tamra added, “Like, personality clashes. She wanted things done a certain way, but trust me, there’s people on the cast right now that are way worse. Way worse. On [the producers] like crazy, yelling and screaming, blowing their phones up … yeah.”
“I felt like [Heather] was amazing on the show. She gave the show a little bit of class, a little bit more class than it has right now,” Tamra continued. “She [always had] fun trips and exciting things planned for us and it’s not like something she just did for TV because she still does it.”
“Was she shocked she was let go?” asked David, to which Tamra said, “Oh yeah. She took it bad. It was hard for her. She’s the one who taught me to unfollow everybody because it’s the easiest way to get over things. She was also offered a part time role and didn’t take it. I think what they wanted to do was sort of smack her around and say, you know what, here’s a part time role and then the next year they probably would have brought her back. But I’m just speculating.”
“It took her a while to get over it, too,” Tamra said. “[Heather] reached out to me as soon as she found out about [me getting fired] and she’s like, ‘I can’t even believe this! What is going on in the world?’ She told me [it took her] a while. She goes, ‘It probably took me three years to follow people and talk about the Housewives again.’”
HollywoodLife reached out to Heather Dubrow’s rep, as well as Bravo, for comments, but we did not receive immediate responses. However, a source close to the show told us EXCLUSIVELY, “Heather was offered something by production and turned it down, so she wasn’t really fired”.
Heather joined RHOC in 2012, at the start of Season 7, and she remained on the series through the end of Season 11, in 2016. Tamra, meanwhile, starred on the show from Season 3 to Season 14.