Braunwyn Windham-Burke ‘Hurt’ By Andy Cohen’s Reason For Firing

It’s been several days now, but Braunwyn Windham-Burke is clearly still processing being let go from the upcoming season of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” after a tumultuous season that saw her tackle sobriety and coming out as gay on national television.

In an interview with Us Weekly on Friday, Braunwyn admitted that she was “hurt” by the explanation Andy Cohen gave for her departure during his own interview on “Heather Dubrow’s World” podcast.

According to the “Watch What Happens Live” host, the decision appears to have been made — at least in part — during or shortly after the “RHOC” reunion. Andy said that listening to her during that made the production team “feel like, maybe at this moment in time, being on TV wasn’t the healthiest spot for she and her family.”

“I think she was dealing with some real stuff with herself, with her marriage, with her children,” he continued. “It was a lot.”

Braunwyn wasn’t denying what he said, in fact agreeing that she was going through a lot during Season 15 of the show, and still during the filming of that reunion special. But that’s not what upset her.

“I haven’t spoken to him,” she said of Andy. “I think that’s what hurt me so much.” While he and his team were making a decision about her future with the franchise, Braunwyn wishes that “someone had reached out to her” — if nothing else, to see how she was doing.

“I was not in the healthiest place at the reunion. I was less than a year sober,” she conceded. “I was still struggling a lot. There was a lot of tension with my cast. I knew what I was getting into and it wasn’t hard.”

She said she has continued to grow in her sobriety and is in a much better place now. “We’ve all had, you know, mental breakdowns or times in our life where we’re not OK, but we get better,” she said.

“We do the work. And then we heal. And I wish someone had just said, ‘Hey, what’s going on now? How are you healing? How are you doing?’” she added. “Because where I was six months ago and where I am now are so different. So that did hurt just because no one took the time to call.”

In part because of that low period in her life that did make it to air and the journey she’s been on since then, Braunwyn is even more disappointed that her story got cut short.

“I was really looking forward to showing the other side of it,” she said. “The light at the end of the tunnel. Sobriety is fun. Sobriety is beautiful.”

She went on to add, “It’s very hard getting sober and that’s all you saw last year was the getting, not the being. I really do wish that people could see, ‘Yes, it takes work. Yes, it’s hard.’ But once you get to the other side, it’s beautiful.”

Braunwyn was let go alongside fellow Housewives Kelly Dodd and Elizabeth Lyn Vargas. So far, only veteran Heather Dubrow has been announced as rejoining the cast for its upcoming 16th season.