Braunwyn Windham-Burke may have very reluctantly moved on from Real Housewives of Orange County. But that doesn’t mean she can move on from rumors surrounding the cast. Probably because Braunwyn was famously replaced by her two friends, Noella Bergener and Dr. Jen Armstrong. Braunwyn insisted she was cool with it. Even happy for them. She stated at the time, “But I am really happy because the people that I know that are on it, really wanted this. If I can facilitate that in any way, I am glad. This was my dream for a long time, and it was a beautiful experience. I am glad that they get to have the same experience. It is special.”
But rumors kept popping up that Braunwyn and Noella had previously been in an intimate relationship. No one really knows where the rumors came from. But speculating that Braunwyn, who came out as a lesbian, and Noella, who is openly bisexual, had to be more than friends is just silly. Let’s normalize friendship regardless of sexuality!
As reported by Page Six, Braunwyn was recently on Tamra Judge’s podcast Two T’s In A Pod to clear things up. She was filling in for co-host Teddi Mellencamp and told Tamra plainly, “I do want to make it very clear: we were never romantically involved. I’ve seen rumors like that.” She added that she and Noella shared a “sister”-like relationship. Braunwyn described their first meeting, when the two went out to lunch. Said Braunwyn, “My first lunch with her, I was like, ‘I love this girl. She’s so open. She’s like me on crack.’ Any crazy thing I’ve done, she’s done more! But the thing that I love about her is she owns all of it.”
When Braunwyn wasn’t asked back to RHOC and Noella was cast, Brauwyn immediately reached out to her friend. Braunwyn recalled, “She was my first phone call. I called her before I called anyone else. I sent her a text message, like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so happy for you. You deserve all the beautiful things in life. I just need to take a break right now because this hurts so much.'” Braunwyn admitted that she was hoping to stay on the show and they would appear together.
Braunwyn went on to say that she tried to contact Noella again, but Noella has ignored her. Braunwyn revealed, “She ended up breaking up with me, for lack of a better term.” Braunwyn speculated that a mutual acquaintance might be to the cause of their falling out. She continued, “My best guess is that maybe someone we trusted said something to distance her from me. This is literally me just throwing stuff out there because that’s the only thing that would make sense given how close we were.”
But she also confessed that she has maintained a friendship with Noella’s estranged husband, James Bergener. As we all know, Noella and James are in the middle of an extremely nasty divorce. So I’m thinking Noella iced her out due to that. Who would want to stay friends with someone who is still cool with your ex-husband who you can’t stand?
Regardless, Braunwyn is hoping that one day the two will be friends again. Said Braunwyn, “I do think when the show is over [we can be friends]. I miss her. Things will happen in my life that are so crazy and there’s no one else I can talk to because she was the only person that fully understood the crazy and embraced me and loved me for it.” She concluded, “It’s very rare in life that you meet people like that.”
TELL US – DID YOU THINK THAT BRAUNWYN AND NOELLA WERE A COUPLE? ARE YOU SURPRISED THEY AREN’T FRIENDS ANYMORE? DO YOU THINK IT’S BECAUSE OF THE SHOW? OR BECAUSE BRAUNWYN IS STILL FRIENDS WITH NOELLA’S EX?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]
