Heather and Dr. Terry Dubrow have avoided the dreaded reality TV curse that so many other on-camera couples have succumbed to.
But maintaining a healthy marriage in the spotlight hasn’t always been easy, the Dubrows tell Page Six in an exclusive joint interview.
The stars of multiple unscripted shows — including their new “7 Year Stitch” passion project for E! — reveal how they bounced back from a particularly rough patch by prioritizing their relationship and family over fame.
“We had one really bad, bad year where the show was affecting us,” recalls Heather, who recently rejoined “The Real Housewives of Orange County” after a five-year hiatus.
“I think it may have been the first year Terry was on ‘Botched,’ and so we weren’t together a lot because I was doing ‘Housewives.’ I was having a bad season. He was on ‘Botched,’ he was having a good season,” she continues.
“And we weren’t communicating. There was there was just a lot going on and we had to have a real come-to-Jesus moment and sit down.”
During a conversation in the car, the former soap actress and the renowned plastic surgeon promised each other that they would not “get a divorce over being on TV,” Heather, 53, shares. “That’s not an acceptable thing to happen.”
The pair — who tied the knot in 1999 and share four children: twins Max and Nicholas, 18, Kat, 15, and Collette, 11 — ultimately recovered by identifying their biggest issues and finding solutions.
“In our 25 year relationship, we have been through every struggle. Intimacy struggles when I felt bad about myself, financial struggles, we’ve had lost several millions of dollars. We’ve had other kinds of things with our family,” admits Terry, 63.
“All the big-ticket items, we have learned how to get through them. We have very significant resources at this point in our relationship.”
From top-rated therapists and life coaches and to celebrity fitness instructors and nutritionists, the Dubrows’ “resources” include the country’s best experts.
Heather and Terry have asked their favorite professionals to partake in “7 Year Stitch,” a seven-week program that helped real-life couple Kathleen and Chris decide if their fledgling marriage was worth saving after hitting seven years together.
“We’re taking them, and we are separating them for seven weeks, doing a full internal and external makeover — body, mind, soul — in the hopes of making them each the best version of themselves and stitching the couple back together,” Heather says.
“But the problem is, sometimes when you make someone their most confident self, they might look at the other person and go, ‘You know what? I’m good, I don’t need you anymore.’”
Heather and Terry tell Page Six that they are grateful to have realized years ago that they do, in fact, need each other — even if they still argue over “silly” stuff today.
“You have to learn how to fight. That’s a really important part of continuing on in a healthy relationship, to realize it’s natural to have disagreements and big fights, it’s just how you navigate those fights. You have to learn how to keep that level of respect [and] how to not say it,” the doctor says of how he and his spouse handle conflict.
“And we have tons of respect for each other.”
“7 Year Stitch” airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on E!, following the series finale of “Botched” at 9 p.m. ET.
“The Real Housewives of Orange County” airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.