Here's How Much Heather Dubrow Is Really Worth
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
"The Real Housewives of Orange County" brought its A-game for Season 16 when producers convinced Heather Dubrow to return for another round. Heather departed "RHOC" back in 2012 after four seasons as undisputed queen of the OC. Heather's brown hair and ultra prim attitude helped her stand apart from her blonde and bawdy cast mates, but what really did the trick was her massive house and luxury cars.
The premise of "RHOC" is, of course, wealthy women getting in fights, but Heather was on another level. No, she wasn't a dirtier fighter than the rest of the roster, but she was way wealthier. Like, wildly so. Her house has a 21-seat movie theater for crying out loud.
All in all, Heather (and her husband Terry Dubrow) are worth an estimated $50 million as of 2021. Below, we break down Heather's career from TV actor to reality star to diet book author. We dig into where all that money came from, and why Heather is rich enough to throw out $36,000 worth of sushi.
Heather Dubrow's husband is a successful doctor
Fans of "The Real Housewives of Orange County" already know all about Heather Dubrow's husband, Terry Dubrow. Terry runs a very lucrative plastic surgery business in Southern California, but he's not just a doctor — he's a reality TV doctor. If you're not a fan of "RHOC," you may recognize Terry from "The Swan" or "Botched." As a host of "The Swan," Terry performed invasive plastic surgery on people with poor self-image in the hopes that conventional attractiveness would make them happy. While this is a show that probably would not be considered ethical in 2022, his program "Botched" might. On "Botched," Terry and his partner Paul Nassif (whose ex-wife was on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills") offer medical care to people whose previous plastic surgeries have left them disfigured or in pain.
Terry also has a line of beauty and skincare products called Consult Beaute, which he markets with Heather's help. The pair has also authored several diet books, including "The Dubrow Diet" and an updated keto-centric version.
To top it all off, Terry still practices medicine, something that drives Heather absolutely crazy. Heather and Terry's "RHOC" storylines revolved around Heather pleading with her husband to work less and spend more time with his family. He never did get around to cutting back on hours, but hey, that OC mansion ain't gonna pay for itself.
Before Bravo, Heather Dubrow was an actor
During Heather Dubrow's first few seasons of "The Real Housewives of Orange County," her extravagant lifestyle and massive net worth became her defining characteristic. Most fans assumed that Heather's ostentatious house and penchant for champagne was financed exclusively by Terry Dubrow's thriving medical practice and multiple side businesses. However, before she was a Bravolebrity, Heather had a solid acting career. In the late '90s, she starred opposite Jenny McCarthy in the sitcom "Jenny" and was a regular on "Life with Roger." She also popped up series like "The Norm Show," "Men Behaving Badly," and "Married... with Children."
Though she put her career on hold while her kids were young, she got back into it after joining the cast of "RHOC" with spots on "Malibu Country" and "Hot in Cleveland. For now, she seems happy sticking with reality TV. "I never thought I would do something like [reality TV], but I have to say, I mean, it opened doors for me that I didn't realize that it would open," Heather told Nicki Swift. "It changed the trajectory of not just my career, but honestly, my life. It's kind of cool to be such an interesting part of this pop culture phenomenon."
A fancy pants house for Heather Dubrow
Okay, so we've reached the juiciest part of this list: Heather Dubrow's house. The plot of Heather's first tenure on "The Real Housewives of Orange County" was basically just about how stressful it must be to build a luxury home. While it wasn't exactly a relatable storyline, Heather definitely didn't make it look easy. It was truly a labor of love and one she wanted to do all on her own. "With this house [Heather] said, 'Here's the deal. I'm going to build this house, but I don't want to hear anything from you at all.' And so that was the rule," Terry Dubrow told Architectural Digest.
Heather spent most of her time coordinating with architects contractors and picking out priceless Italian marble for her bathroom. When the house was finally completed, it was a decked out behemoth. Per Architectural Digest, the property features a pool, a gym, a "champagne wall," a pinball room, a 21-seat movie theater — the list goes on.
When it was all said and done, exactly how much did it all set Heather back anyway? Well, per the New York Post, the lot cost upwards of $4 million back in 2013 and untold millions were then put into the construction. As ET noted, the total value of the house reportedly lands somewhere around $21 million. Though Heather has never explicitly confirmed the rumors, it seems safe to assume that estimate isn't totally out of left field.
Heather Dubrow makes a nice salary on Bravo
While Heather Dubrow was not one of the original "Real Housewives of Orange County" cast members, she wasted no time making herself a household name. When she joined Season 7, Fancy Pants Dubrow brought a slight change of pace to the series that regularly features women throwing wine at each other during upscale pool parties. After Season 11, Heather stepped away to focus on other things like her skincare line with Terry Dubrow, her acting career, influencing, podcasting, writing, and, of course, her four kids.
A few years later, however, Heather decided to return for Season 16. "My kids are a little bit older. The pandemic has sort of given me a different perspective on things," she explained to Andy Cohen on an episode of the "Heather Dubrow's World" podcast. "And then I started thinking about, 'How many times do you get to go back and try something again?'"
And she came back in a big way: Heather hosted a sushi party that tens of thousands of dollars where no one ate dinner because she got in a fight with her castmates and stormed upstairs. There's no official word on how much money she was offered to return to the reality program, but as Brian Moylan noted in "The Housewives" (via Vulture), a returning cast member can make upwards of six figures per season.
Heather Dubrow has other business ventures
In addition to her "The Real Housewives of Orange County" role and the presumably hefty paycheck that comes along with it, Heather Dubrow cashes in everywhere else she possibly can. When she's not building huge houses and throwing away expensive sushi Heather is hard at work on her skincare line Consult Beaute, which can be purchased on QVC.
When she tires of working on skincare with her husband Terry Dubrow, Heather helms a podcast, "Heather Dubrow's World," which she records from her home office. On the pod, Heather gives fans an inside look at her life and interviews big-name guests like Andy Cohen and Lance Bass. She complements the podcast with a YouTube channel that has over 200,000 subscribers. Then there are the three books she's coauthored: "The Dubrow Diet," "The Dubrow Keto Fusion Diet," and "Doctor and Mrs. Guinea Pig."
That sounds like more than enough to keep busy, but Heather is far from done. She and Terry will star in the new E! series "The 7 Year Stitch" about unhappily married couples getting plastic surgery. Don't worry, Heather won't be making any incisions—that's Terry's job—she's just there for moral support.
The legal drama that rankled Heather Dubrow
Heather Durbrow's return to "The Real Housewives of Orange County" in Season 16 started with a bang. We've already mentioned the already infamous sushi party during which no one ate the sushi and Heather all but flushed $36,000 down a toilet, but we haven't really gotten into why Heather was so upset. During the party, Heather learned that one of her house guests, Nicole James, had once brought a lawsuit against her husband, Terry Dubrow. Nicole apparently sued Terry because of issues she had resulting from a previous cosmetic procedure, but the legal issue fizzled out before it could get anywhere. As Terry shared on "Heather Dubrow's World," the lawsuit was dropped right away and there wasn't any sort of settlement. Even so, Heather was understandably thrown off by the revelation that her friend had once sued her husband and never mentioned it.
Even though she didn't hold any hard feelings against Nicole, Heather soon turned her ire towards Shannon Beador, who was the one that spread the story in the first place. Heather did not appreciate this story making the rounds, and she wasted no time telling Shannon to back off. "If you ever come after me or my family ever again, you are going to lose a lot more than just my friendship," Heather said in a later episode. "This will cost a lot. And I'm not saying this as a threat. I'm saying this as a promise."
Heather Dubrow invests in property
If you thought Heather and Terry Dubrow were finished with major property renovations when they finally completed their OC mansion in 2018, think again. Just a few short years after wrapping up construction on their palatial Southern California estate, Heather and Terry made another large purchase in Idaho. Heather revealed on a 2020 "Reality with Derek Z" appearance that before scooping up the plot of land she'd only been to Idaho once. During a quick trip with a friend, Heather fell in love with the landscape and insisted Terry ASAP visit so they could discuss buying some property.
"I had this lake house fantasy, and I dragged Terry there, leather jacket and all, which he never took off the entire time in the summer at the lake," she said. "And I fell in love, and I'm designing a house right now." It's unclear exactly how much the Dubrows spent on the land or how much they plan to spend on construction, but Heather had been chronicling their lake visits on Instagram via "photo dumps."
Investing in property is nothing new for Terry and Heather. As Architectural Digest noted in 2018, at that point, they'd lived in a whopping 18 homes over the course of their relationship. We don't know yet how the Idaho lake house will stack up to the other properties, but we're guessing if Heather is the one in charge, it's going to be way more luxurious than the name "lake house" implies.
Heather Dubrow's kids are entrepreneurial too
Heather and Terry Dubrow passed their entrepreneurial spirit down to their children. Heather and Terry's eldest daughter, Max Dubrow, published a book in November 2021 at the age of 17. NBD right? Max teamed up with psychologist Dr. Judy Ho for a book called "I'll Give It to You Straightish: What Your Teen Wants You to Know," which is based on Max's podcast of the same name. Think of it as a parenting guide for parents of Gen-Zers. "Straightish" addresses everything from sexuality to gender orientation. Per Amazon, the US Review of Books described "Staightish" as a "practical manual" with "invaluable" insight for parents and teens alike.
Max was inspired to write the book after making headlines when she came out as bisexual in 2020. "I was just really inspired because I was getting a lot of DMs, and a lot of amazing response from teenagers telling me that my story was helping them so much," Max told Distractify. "And I was really just excited to help anyone."
Even though the book wasn't always flattering, Heather couldn't be prouder of her daughter. "There's a lot of parenting fails, and there [are] wins. It sort of runs the gamut," Heather told the outlet. "But, when I read it, my overlying feeling was about how amazing it was. Here's this person who can take this dark period of time in their life and find the good in it, and share it to help other people. I was so proud."