Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Heather Gay spills the show’s secrets

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Heather Gay spoke to news.com.au about her between-season “glow up” and on-screen disasters.

It was the first week of this year when it felt like suddenly, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City crossed over from niche obsession among fans of the franchise to genuine social media phenomenon.

The show’s season four finale – aptly titled Mysteries, Revealed – dropped on January 2, and was an instant early contender for best hour of reality television – nay, television in general – this year.

In short: The show’s newest cast member, outspoken upstart Monica, was uncovered as a social media “mole” who’d infiltrated the group after allegedly plotting against them for years. Architect of Monica’s undoing was OG cast member Heather Gay, who rose from her seat during a windy group dinner in Bermuda to present the group with – as the now-famous quote goes – “RECEIPTS! PROOF! TIMELINES! SCREENSHOTS!” of Monica’s secret double-crossings.

Rich women unravelling dark secrets in a glamorous beachside setting? It’s a wonder Nicole Kidman hasn’t yet bought the rights to the finale, pitched it to HBO and cast herself as the lead.

Dramatic scenes from last season’s finale.

Now, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is back for a new season on Hayu, with Monica replaced by a new cast member but the same level of gleeful insanity fans have come to expect from the show: One major confrontation in the first episode centres on bath bombs. Bath bombs? [dramatic pause] BATH BOMBS.

Ahead of a whirlwind visit to our shores next month, Heather Gay spoke to news.com.au to discuss her between-season “glow up”, espresso martini disasters and what it’s like to share your personal crises with the world, only to be met with laughter.

Last season’s finale felt like a real crossover moment for RHOSLC – suddenly the show was everywhere online, and you were at the centre of it. Were you prepared for that to happen?

I was not prepared for that at all, and it was incredible. The last year of my life has been crazy because [the finale] did kind of level up not only our friendships, but the visibility of the show and the fixture in pop culture that Salt Lake City Housewives became because of it. It’s been a wild ride and totally didn’t see it coming.

The finale was high drama – and all unfolding in the middle of a group holiday. What happens when the cameras stop rolling?

We all went up to [castmate] Lisa Barlow’s room and just laid on the bed and kind of processed what had happened. We joked that we were in a fog for a couple of weeks. You come home, you have to reintegrate with your families, your normal jobs and life. We couldn’t speak about it. We couldn’t process it with anyone. We just had to have experienced it and then come home and wait and see how it all played out.

Heather Gay circa season 1 …

… and circa season five, post “glow-up.”

There’s been a lot of talk about your physical transformation over the past year. Given your day job as owner of a cosmetic procedure business, I feel like this isn’t too rude a question: Were there some, ahem, surgical elements involved in what you’ve called the Heather Gay ‘glow-up’?

Well, not to be wax too poetic, but I feel like I thought I was gonna have a glow up a lot sooner. Like, I thought I was gonna get on TV and the social pressure and seeing myself on screen was going to change me somehow fundamentally, but it didn’t. It took modern medical intervention. So it’s been a slow build. But I always say: If you can put a needle in it, go for it.

Compared to other iterations of Real Housewives, is it feels like alliances and friendships on Salt Lake City are often shifting. How are your relationships with the rest of the girls at the moment?

Same, Meredith, same.

Mary Cosby is back this season to insult everyone within a 3km radius.

Right now, in a general sense, I’m in a wonderful place with everybody just coming off of season four. How could I not be? We really bonded. It changed our friendships. We had a sisterhood and a real understanding … that didn’t last very long, but that core trust and gratitude that I had for those women on that beach, that has remained.

But I get into it with everybody this season. We don’t know what’s going to offend each other, we don’t know when we’re going to step on toes, and it all plays out on television.

One previewed scene from the episode has already spread online – Whitney and Meredith arguing over their respective bath bomb businesses. They’re taking it very seriously, but fans of the show are eating it up as a comedy. Is that ever a tough thing to grapple with?

#RHOSLC Season 5 Premiere Sneak Peek: Meredith & Whitney get into it! ❄️ pic.twitter.com/FcErQS8KA5

— jay (@JaysRealityBlog) September 13, 2024

Oh, I think that we are aware when we see it back how ridiculous we are, but when we’re in it, we are feeling it. You know, we take ourselves very seriously. We take our arguments very seriously, and Meredith and Whitney take their bath bombs very seriously. In the moment, the tension is so high and it’s only really funny to us when we see it played back and edited and we have a little bit of time and distance away. Then we can laugh at it.

Heather Gay on her 350th espresso martini. This episode did not end well for her.

Have you watched anything back that’s made you modify your behaviour? I’m thinking of the great espresso martini night that ended in disaster (Heather ended up vomiting and … possibly peeing in the van home after way too many drinks at dinner one episode last season).

Ah, the vomiting in the Sprinter van on espresso martinis … I appreciate you calling it ‘espresso martini night’. There’s so many other things you could call it. That turned me off heavy drinking and espresso martinis for about six months. But then Andy Cohen offered me one on Watch What Happens Live and I was back in. Other than that, it’s probably a good thing that we don’t modify our behaviour because you wouldn’t want to watch us anymore.

There’s always been debate about that sort of heavy drinking on Housewives – viewers wonder, are you ladies in control of your intake or are there people off-camera plying you with alcohol to get good TV?

I feel like we have to like pound the table to get a drink. Like, we’ll be sitting around asking, ‘Where’s the waiter? We need drinks!’ We like to have a good time. We don’t pack our own, but there are many nights where we wish we had.

Jen Shah could always return to the show … just as soon as she’s served that lengthy prison sentence. Picture: Getty

Former cast member Jen Shah famously left the show to enter prison for wire fraud. Then last season, Monica got the boot in dramatic circumstances. There’s a lot of bad blood there – and some fans who’d love to see them both return some day.

I mean, I don’t make casting decisions, but I do see either of them coming back as job security for me. So I don’t care either way. I love what we’re doing now, but of course I see in the future the opportunity that that would be. And I look at it like: They’ll probably still both want to fight with me. So that’s probably a good thing.

Final question: Watching the show from comparatively mild-weathered Sydney, I’m constantly amazed at you sll wandering around Salt Lake City looking red carpet-ready while surrounded by three feet of snow. Does a commitment to glamour in SLC mean risking hypothermia?

Yes! Constantly, and you have no empathy because you’re from Sydney, sunny Sydney. It is freezing cold, bitter cold, it affects our hair, it affects our skin, it affects our footwear and um … But I love that we also get to cover up. If we’re having a bad day or we haven’t gotten a straight tan, we can cover ourselves head to toe with layers.

Season five of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City will be available to stream only on Hayu from September 19, the same day as the USA. Hayu is available as an add-on subscription on Prime Video Channels.

To celebrate the new season, Hayu is bringing Heather and castmate Whitney Rose to Sydney in October. They will appear at Hayu’s ‘We Get Reality’ VIP event in partnership with Prime Video at SXSW Sydney – Primeville. Primeville is open from October 15 – 20 at Fratelli Fresh Darling Harbour, with express entry for SXSW badge holders.

Originally published as Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Heather Gay spills the show’s secrets