Heather's 18-year-old daughter, Max, came out as bisexual in 2020.
The Real Housewives of Orange County star Heather Dubrow is opening up about her family's journey when it comes to her children freely expressing their sexual identities with their parents' support. In a new interview with People, the 53-year-old reality star shares that her 15-year-old daughter, Kat, has come out as a lesbian. Her 18-year-old daughter, Max, came out as bisexual in 2020.
Dubrow also exclusively tells ET, "We are so proud to show what our version of a 'normal' family looks like today. It's really important that we provide an environment of unconditional love and acceptance for our children, and let them know that humans come in all different colors, genders, sexualities. Once we start appreciating this and practicing inclusion, love and acceptance, the better off we will all be. We hope that by sharing our story we are starting conversations in other homes and hopefully helping people."
Heather tells People that Kat told her family that she was a lesbian in a group text nearly a year ago, but that she "had been talking about her sexuality for a while."
"Kat decided to drop in our family group text, 'By the way, I'm a lesbian,'" Heather shares. "I didn't see it, and I was mad because the dogs pooped in the house, so I wrote back, 'Who let the dogs poop in the house?' It was a total mom fail, and they've never let me forget that."
"All I cared about was creating an environment where they all felt safe, comfortable, happy," she adds.
Dubrow and her husband, 63-year-old Terry Dubrow -- a prominent plastic surgeon who also stars on E!'s Botched -- are supportive of all of their children, which includes Max's twin, Nick, as well as their 11-year-old daughter, Coco.
"We've got four kids, they are different genders, different sexualities, and all at interesting places in their lives, figuring out who they are and where they belong as humans," Heather says.
Terry adds, "Coming out with your sexuality is something that broadly affects a lot of different people. We just want people to realize it should be part of normal conversations."
Meanwhile, Kat says she feels 100 percent supported by her mom.
"She's asked me trillions of questions that really show she cares," Kat shares. "She's asked me about my pronouns. It's really easy to talk to her. It's not like I have to build up courage if I have something to tell her."
Back in December 2020, ET spoke to Heather and Max, and Max talked about all the support she received after publicly coming out in an Instagram post.
"I didn't expect it," Max said of the overwhelming positive response. "I mean, I thought something would happen and, like, my friends would see and stuff, but it went a lot bigger than I thought it would."
"It was so nice to hear the positive comments, and people sharing their stories and me being able to help other people," she added. "I didn't have a platform where I can help people, you know, my age especially, and so people reaching out to me to tell me all that is just really cool. But, also it was very difficult and stressful."
As for Heather, she told ET that she was "so, so proud" of Max.
"Even with Max's permission to talk about this, I can only tell what it's like as a parent -- which is great, and I get tons of messages about it -- but for Max to be telling her story from her age vantage point is just, it's like worth gold," she shared. "And to so many people that are not just teenagers, but are older and haven't been able to come out or need to know how to talk to a parent, a counselor or someone that they trust, it's amazing. I’m so, so proud of her."
In July of that year, Heather told ET that what made her the happiest about Max coming out was her teenage daughter's confidence and the ability to be comfortable with who she is.
"She felt free and the acceptance of her coming out was so amazing," she said. "Something that was so exciting for me is that I come from a very, like, very 'nice family,' but very, like, 1950s, buttoned up. No one talks about anything. So knowing this for some time, it was so exciting to me that she just felt ready to tell the world and she was so confident about it. And it was so… such the opposite of how I grew up that I just felt like this family and this DNA is evolving and I love it. And again, just as a parent … you want your kids to be happy -- that's No. 1 -- but to be able to see your kids be happy and just putting it out there, it just feeds my soul."
"We all come from where we come from," she added. "You can't control where you come from, but you can control where you go to. So, really listen to your kids and be less reactive, and keep an open mind and understanding that where you come from might not be the same place where your kids are going to, and try to figure it out, ‘cause at the end of the day, this is your family. This is who we have. And if the last few months have taught us nothing, we have to stay together and stay close and love each other."
RELATED CONTENT:
