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The Daily Dish The Real Housewives of Orange County

Heather Dubrow Explains Why She's Sharing Son Ace's Story

The RHOC cast member also thanked Bethenny Frankel for publicly showing her and Ace support.

By Shannon Raphael

Just days after Heather Dubrow announced that her youngest child, Ace, is transgender with a National Son's Day post, The Real Housewives of Orange County cast member is sharing more about his story.

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On the March 9 episode of her revamped podcast, Let's Talk with Heather Dubrowthe mom of four explained why she decided to post an update about her 12-year-old on Instagram when she did. 

"Why now? As a mom, you know, you look at your kids, and all you want to do is protect them. That's it. You want to protect them. You want to put helmets on them. You want to wrap them in bubble wrap, and just pray that nothing ever hurts them physically, or emotionally," she said on the podcast about providing "clarity" to the situation. "And, of course, that's what I want to do with my kids."

Because Heather and her husband, Dr. Terry Dubrow, are in the public eye (she returned to RHOC for Season 16 after appearing on four prior seasons, while Terry is on Botched), she felt like she had to say something about Ace before someone else did.

"My son has been in the public eye since he was nine months old, and as much as we want to protect him — that is our number one priority and our number goal — for a variety of reasons ... it became apparent that we needed to say something," she added. "What our goal was was to acknowledge who our incredible son is, and show how much we love and support our child."

"We're not hiding our son, but [we're] trying to protect him from the world, as all parents want to do," Heather continued. "But, we also had to balance that there are other people who want to tell your children's stories for them."

Heather went on to thank everyone who sent along supportive words for Ace and the rest of her family. One of those supporters was The Real Housewives of New York City alum Bethenny Frankel.

After Heather posted about Ace, Bethenny shared a video of her 12-year-old daughter, Bryn, doing a TikTok dance with the preteen when the two families ran into one another in Aspen

"When I first met Ace at the table, there was a noticeable joy [and] happiness in his essence — an extra dose of sweetness, which I communicated to Heather after the dinner," Bethenny wrote in the caption of her Instagram post. "There was something extra happy about him. Upon reflection, I was sure it was that he is allowed to be who he actually is."

Heather offered her gratitude to the Skinnygirl founder in the comments' section of the post.

"Thank you [Bethenny Frankel] for your love and support," she wrote. "Bryn is incredible — you've raised a good one."

Watch The Real Housewives of Orange County on Peacock and the Bravo app.

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