Braunwyn Windham-Burke is giving Us Weekly exclusive insight into her modern marriage to Sean Burke. The Real Housewives of Orange County star got candid about seeing someone “special” — who isn’t her husband of two decades.
“There’s someone in my life right now that makes me happy and I smile just thinking about, but I kinda want to protect it right now,” the 42-year-old Bravo star exclusively told Us. “I’m not quite ready to put it all out there, everyone in my life that knows me knows what’s happening. I don’t think I’ve smiled so much. It’s good. I know if you look at social media, it seems really like crazy, but things are really good in our house right now.”
RHOC viewers questioned Braunwyn and Sean’s status last month after she promoted a Zoom seminar about coparenting and divorce. While she later revealed that the pair, who wed in 2000, are living in separate homes, Braunwyn told Us that the twosome have no plans to divorce.
“I’m not going to worry about the future until it happens. I love Sean. Sean loves me. We have every intention of staying together,” she explained to Us. “We are very honest in our communication. There are just some things that I have discovered about myself that I wanna explore a little more and he’s very supportive. He understands and, you know, I am living a very authentic life right now and I’ve never given myself permission to do that. … I’m 42 and there are just parts of me that … I pushed down and now I’m allowing myself to live authentically.”
Braunwyn added that the twosome have “every intention” of “growing old” and raising their seven kids — Bella, 20, Rowan, 18, Jacob, 15, 7-year-old twins Caden and Curren, Koa, 5, and Hazel, 2 — together.
“There’s just a lot of stuff going on in our lives and it’s better for us to not live in the same house right now,” she said. “And to give you some space, we’re both working ourselves, we’re both in therapy. I want to be the best version of myself, so does he, we have been together 26 years. We’re not throwing that away. You know, we are family. He’s my best friend.”
Braunwyn added that the spouses are “living in two homes — we want to stay married.”
She concluded, “Is this forever? I doubt it. I mean, my gut says no, but I’m going to live today today. And I’ll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.”
Braunwyn and Sean previously opened up about their unconventional relationship on season 14 of RHOC, revealing they briefly separated in the past and started having threesomes when he turned 35.
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
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