How to Watch
Although Heather Gay and her ex-husband Billy have been divorced for more than a decade, she’s remained mostly mum on their custody arrangement and his parenting style — but that all changes in the above first look at Season 6, Episode 2 of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.
“My husband never had custody of the children,” Heather admits during the first moments of the Sept. 23 episode. “He never had them overnight. I had them 100 percent of the time. And his involvement was, you know, fun dad visits once a week.”
Heather, who is mom to daughters Georgia, Ashley and Annabelle, shed more light on her feelings about raising her three kids while dealing with the difficulties of her marriage.
“I look at that era, it was really, really, really hard,” she tells the ‘Wives during a cast trip in an RV in the Utah mountains. “And mostly hard because I couldn’t show them it was hard. I acted like it was perfect and normal, and I was so happy, and I was so fine. And I loved everything I was doing. But I was gritting my teeth the whole time. I’m exhausted, honestly.”
“I’m just looking forward to a new chapter,” Heather concludes.
Heather Gay shares her complicated feelings about her youngest daughter going to college
As the RHOSLC preview continues, Heather shares with the ‘Wives that her youngest daughter, 17-year-old Annabelle, is “moving out,” which is complicated, because “she’s the last kid in the house.”
“I can’t wait for it to happen. Like it couldn’t happen soon enough for me. And I feel guilty,” Heather admits. “I just feel like she’s the last part of that era of my life, and I want it to be over with. Like, not my relationship with her, but just trying to be a family. You know? Trying to be the mom and the dad.”
Although Heather and her ex were separated for years before officially divorcing, Heather admits she struggled to cope. As she puts it, “Annabelle actually said it to me. She said, ‘I feel like you’ve been in fight or flight since dad left.’ And I have been.”
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Heather Gay reflects on difficulties of parenting her daughters alone
Heather goes on to note that she’s always felt extra responsible for her kids’ well-being due to her Mormon upbringing: “Because it’s just like, ‘The kids can’t get screwed up. The kids can’t get screwed up.’ Because that would be my fault. Because we were raised that way.”
“Like, I was born to be a wife and mother,” she continues. “And any desire to be anything outside of that was basically a sin. I was in charge of raising the kids, and he was in charge of providing.”
Heather also expands on the burden she felt even after her divorce, adding, “When he left, I was still 100 percent in charge of raising the kids, and I’ve never had a night off.”
What Heather Gay’s previously revealed about her divorce
Heather first opened up about her divorce in 2020 during RHOSLC Season 1.
“It’s like a giant scarlet letter, like this giant stamp of failure,” Heather said on the Nov. 28 Daily Dish podcast to describe the end of her marriage. “I’ve never been able to really break away from it.”
But, she believed her experience becoming a housewife helped her deal with it.
“Throughout filming, I was able to see myself as independent and as an individual,” Heather said on the podcast. “And this has been like, I wouldn’t say therapeutic, but it’s been healing to kind of come into my own a little bit. Now I can say ex-husband, I can say I’m divorced without, you know, trembling and crying.”
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Heather’s divorce was part of what led to her decision to leave behind the Mormon religion, which she details in her memoir Bad Mormon. But she also shared that RHOSLC has given her a chance to change her life.
“It’s been the biggest, most transformative thing in my life, and it’s given me hope and a future, which I did not have,” Heather said during a November 2021 appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, “I’m very grateful.”
Don’t miss more on the upcoming tensions between Heather and Lisa Barlow and their “rift” on Season 6.
