Real Housewives of Orange County: Why Heather Dubrow was not prepared for what happened

Heather Dubrow knew what she was getting into when she agreed to return to the cast of “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” on which she starred for five seasons before departing in 2016.

And yet, by the end of the first episode of the new season that premieres Wednesday, Dec. 1, she finds herself back in the middle of the kind of messy drama on which the Bravo reality series thrives.

“I always say, ‘When you think you’re smarter than the show, you’ve lost it,’” Dubrow says on a recent call. “So I’m going in with an attitude, even though I’m a huge control freak, of understanding that I really can’t control everything.

“And I was much more relaxed going into this season than, I don’t know, I probably should have been,” she says. “Because when the first big dramatic story happens, I was not prepared for it.”

You’ll have to watch the show to find out how Dubrow found herself feeling blindsided and betrayed, but she admits that for just a moment, thoughts of flight and escape crossed her mind.

“My initial instinct was, ‘What? Why am I doing this? What did I just sign on for? This is crazy,’” Dubrow says. “I thought, ‘Wow, this was just a mistake; I could still not do this.’

“Then I thought, ‘OK, well, truth is stranger than fiction, and this is what’s going on, and I am going to just figure it out,’” she says. “And so I just kind of dove in headfirst, as I do with a lot of things, and faced it and figured it out and did the best I could.”

Dubrow, who appeared on “The Real Housewives of Orange County” first in its seventh season, left after the 11th in order to give her four children a break from its spotlight. And she was fine with that, even as her plastic surgeon husband, Dr. Terry Dubrow, continued his reality TV career on shows such as “Botched” and “License To Kill.”

“If you’d asked me a year ago, two years ago — and I was asked — would I go back? My answer was always, ‘Never say never, but I think we checked that box,’” she says.

What changed, Dubrow says, was that her children are older now. In particular, daughter Max stepped into the spotlight on her own, coming out as bisexual and writing a book for parents titled, “I’ll Give It To You Straightish: What Your Teen Wants You To Know.”

“As a parent of four very different kids of different genders, of different sexualities, I thought this would be a good moment to show the world what our version of what a normal functioning family looks like,” Dubrow says.

The first day of production took place at Dubrow’s Newport Beach mansion, filming her walking through its doors to shout out, “I’m back!” A family meeting to discuss her decision to rejoin the show was also filmed with all six Dubrows around a table.

“Then we have this family dinner, and after we’re done, we all looked at each other, and we go, ‘That was so weirdly normal,’” she says.

In many ways, “The Real Housewives of Orange County” to which Dubrow returned is almost an entirely different series. Vicki Gunvalson and Tamra Judge, who were on the show throughout Dubrow’s five seasons, are gone. Kelly Dodd, who joined during Dubrow’s final season, left after the most recent season.

Only Shannon Storms Beador has a past show relationship with Dubrow, and this wouldn’t be “The Real Housewives” if there weren’t some kind of dramatic beef in their on-camera past.

“That’s always difficult, in life, on the show,” Dubrow says. “But time passes. And we’ve both been through changes. I was perfectly ready, with the best of intentions, to start our friendship again.

“I don’t think anyone could have predicted what happened in the first few episodes, but it definitely tests the relationship,” she says.

Overall, though, Dubrow says she’s glad she decided to come back. The trips that serve as centerpieces for the season’s narrative were always fun — this year they travel to Cabo San Lucas and Aspen — and the escapism the show offers viewers is fun to be part of.

“There’s all the drama and all that, but everyone’s personal stories I think are so interesting and compelling that I think the audience is really going to get reinvested in people on the show,” Dubrow says.

As for what happens after this season, Dubrow says she hasn’t given it much thought yet. She and Terry Dubrow are working on a new marriage-themed series for E! titled “The Seven Year Stitch,” which is expected to arrive in 2022. Her twins are turning 18 and starting to make college plans.

“What happens beyond the season, I don’t know,” Dubrow says. “Let’s see how this time pans out.”