Season 19 of The Real Housewives of Orange County is finally over, and the Bravoverse is better because of it. However, Heather Dubrow still has some lingering questions about Gretchen Rossi and her alleged Instagram behavior. Specifically, what is going on with Gretchen’s algorithm?
Heather Dubrow wonders how Gretchen Rossi didn’t notice the offensive Instagram posts
During the RHOC Season 19 finale, Gina Kirschenheiter and Tamra Judge called out Gretchen for liking anti-LGBTQ+ posts on Instagram. That information didn’t sit well with Heather, who is the mother to a trans child and a fierce ally to the community.
Fast forward to the RHOC Season 19 reunion, where Gretchen denied having homophobic or transphobic viewpoints. She apologized for the offensive social media behavior after previously hiring a private investigator to get to the bottom of it.
“I gravely apologize if I liked something that was offensive or something like that,” Gretchen told her castmates. “Maybe that’s my mistake.”
Gretchen said that the activity could have been the result of “mindlessly” scrolling on Instagram. Maybe! We all do it, but as Heather pointed out to Variety, most Instagram users aren’t fed posts that bash the LGBTQ+ community. One of the alleged posts that Gretchen liked compared gay people to pedophiles, for crying out loud.
Heather said, “Terry [Dubrow]’s For You page is cats. Mine is, I like to watch people wrap presents and things like that. But when you follow that many hate accounts, your algorithm has got to be showing you terrible things. And so how do you not notice that?”
With that said, Heather admitted that she knew Gretchen dipped her toe into Donald Trump’s MAGA universe during her time away from RHOC. However, she didn’t expect her right-wing views to lead to such harmful rhetoric making its way onto the show.
Heather continued, “And look, there were other posts that she liked outside of the queer community that I also don’t agree with. But you know, everyone’s entitled to their opinions on things, but when someone starts calling it a lifestyle choice being gay — it’s tough!”
Ultimately, Heather said it’s not her job to “fix” Gretchen, and she knows that conservative viewpoints come with the territory on RHOC. She just hopes that Gretchen can reflect on why this has been hurtful and move forward from here.
Heather said, “It’s not my job to fix people. Because I can’t. But what is my job as a mother and a human and someone with a platform is to be a great ally and a great parent. And react to what I’m told. And I feel like I did a good job with that.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County is streaming on Peacock.
TELL US – WERE YOU SURPRISED BY GRETCHEN’S “APOLOGY” FOR HER ALLEGED SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITY? IS IT FAIR TO BLAME IT ON THE ALGORITHM?