'Real Housewives' alum Heather Dubrow reflects on the impact of daughter Max’s coming out: 'I learned so much'

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Four seasons have passed since Heather Dubrow’s final season of The Real Housewives of Orange County, but fans are just as interested in her life now as they were then.

The former actress’ podcast, Heather Dubrow’s World, is a massive success, recently surpassing 100 million downloads over the course of about five years. Though she updates her followers on the latest with the Dubrows each week, perhaps now adding to the intrigue is her daughter Max’s podcast, I’ll Give It To You Straightish, which launched last September, one month after she publicly came out as bisexual.

For the latest episode of In The Know’s pop culture interview series, We Should Talk, Heather and Max Dubrow talk about navigating the podcasting world together, reflect on the impact of Max’s coming out and look back at their time on The Real Housewives of Orange County.

“I could care less what people think about my children and who they are and who they love. [Those are] their own issues,” Heather said of posting about Max’s coming out. “I always say that my job as a parent is to raise healthy, functioning, independent humans. Anything in that category that works that way, I feel like I’ve done my job. […] It’s her story to tell, and I would never give information like that to anyone. That was her information and her life story to tell. I’m so proud of her.”

Listen to In The Know’s full episode with Heather and Max Dubrow below, and keep scrolling for highlights from the interview:

Heather Dubrow on what she learned from Max’s coming out: “Talking about all the messages we received, [there were] thousands of messages from people thanking us, from people saying they wish they had had a different point of view when their children came out, people whose children killed themselves… it was on and on and on. Yes, we have a hugely open and accepting and loving home — that doesn’t mean we’re perfect by any means — but I learned so much from Max and watching her come out and watching the way she answers interview questions. I’m watching this firsthand, and it’s been incredible to watch.”

Max Dubrow on joining the podcast world: “[It’s nice] to separate myself from the family and get my own identity online, while also still getting to things like this with her. […] When I started my podcast, it went on the wrong side of podcasting, and it was a different demographic than I was trying to share my podcast with. That was confusing, because the feedback I was getting was more from parents saying what they wanted to hear. That’s cool, but I was targeting it towards my age. It’s hard. It’s more difficult than I thought it would be, for sure, and I’m still learning so much. The podcast community opened their arms to me, and I’m so grateful for everyone I’ve met while doing it.”

Max Dubrow on the reaction to her coming out: “I think it’s funny that a lot of the articles written about it were about how accepting they were. It was like, ‘Oh, Max came out, but look how accepting her parents were!’ It’s kind of sad that that has to be spelled out for people. It makes sense, but it should be expected that they would accept me. That’s the bare minimum to accept someone as they are, which a lot of people don’t do and is terrible, but it’s what they should be doing. It’s basic human decency. Those article headlines were kind of funny.”

Heather Dubrow on how she looks back at Real Housewives: “It was such an odd period of time, but I had [done] a decade of scripted television, and then a decade of being a stay-at-home mom and then a decade of reality. It was just insane to be thrust into that world. But, you know what happens when you are in the middle of something and it’s intense, it’s like going to summer camp. When you go to summer camp, the romances are 30 times as important because you’re in this bubble, but then a few years later you’re like, ‘That was funny. Anyway, moving on.’ I can look back on it and, even though there were definitely challenging parts, I don’t need to ruminate on the bad parts. None of it’s important in the scheme of life. I have a living, breathing yearbook of some of my kids’ early years. The girls trips were fun, and I consider myself to be part of a very cool piece of pop culture and sorority that not many people are a part of. I’m super grateful for it, it was a great platform for our family and I think it ended up net positive.”

Watch In The Know’s full interview with Heather Dubrow and her daughter, Max, below:

If you enjoyed this interview, check out In The Know’s recent interview with Real Housewives of Dallas star Tiffany Moon here.

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