Heather Gay, famed as a star on The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, recently offered a peek into her relationship with Bill, her former spouse, prior to their split.
In the debut episode of her new docuseries, Surviving Mormonism, which premiered on Bravo on Tuesday, November 11, Heather, 51, confessed, “About three days into my marriage, I realized that we were fiercely, deeply incompatible. I believed he was marrying me for reasons that weren’t there, and I was marrying him for reasons that he didn’t want in a husband.”
In the new series, Heather strives to delve further into the chronicles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, exploring the hidden scandals and secrets. She discussed the evolution of her own relationship with religion.
She told the cameras, “It wasn’t that I reached a certain point in my life where Mormonism began to feel like a burden. From the moment I was conscious of it, it became my identity. I’m a cradle Mormon, born into the faith. And I enjoyed being Mormon while growing up.”
Heather’s parents both came from Mormon families. She shared, “All our family rituals, traditions, and togetherness revolved around church activities and beliefs. My siblings were my built-in best friends, and we were all in it together. It didn’t feel artificial.”
According to Heather, a key tenet of the Mormon faith is “that the greatest earthly happiness is found in family, which serves as the means to grow closer to God and achieve eternal life.”
The reality star continued, “That belief shaped the family I wanted for myself. The instant I found someone willing, I felt capable of making any marriage succeed because I loved God, loved being Mormon, and was good at it. However, I was profoundly mistaken.”
Heather and Bill, also from a long line of Mormons, married in 2000 but separated after 11 years. Their divorce was finalized in 2014.
Heather revealed in Tuesday’s episode, “Divorce wasn’t in my vocabulary. I didn’t know anyone who was divorced. But he did. As my marriage ended, my Mormon dream also shattered, and my entire life fell apart.”
Since the show’s 2020 debut, RHOSLC fans have watched Heather navigate post-divorce life with her and Bill’s three daughters. During season 6, Heather openly discussed coparenting with her ex-husband.
She stated on RHOSLC in September, “My husband never had custody of the children. He never kept them overnight. I had them 100 percent of the time. His involvement was, you know, fun dad visits once a week.”
Heather confessed that raising her children alone was an “extremely challenging” period in her life. She told her fellow Housewives, “It was mostly hard because I couldn’t reveal how hard it was to them. I acted like everything was perfect, normal, happy, and fine. But I was constantly gritting my teeth. I’m exhausted, truthfully. I’m simply looking forward to a new chapter.”
All three episodes of Surviving Mormonism With Heather Gay will be available for streaming on Peacock starting Wednesday, November 12.
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