How are Heather Gay and Whitney Rose related? Ups and down in their friendship explored ahead of their RHUGT appearance

Heather Gay and Whitney Rose
Heather Gay and Whitney Rose on RHUGT season 3 (Image via Instagram/ @heathergay)

A new season of RHUGT, The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip, is set to premiere on Peacock this week. This season's most anticipated stars are The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City's Heather Gay and Whitney Rose.

In addition to appearing on their new show together, they are also second cousins. Historically, the sisters have fought on and off. Currently, RHUGT is releasing season three, leading fans to wonder if they will be able to reunite. Lisa Barlow named their duo "Bad Weather" after a fight they had during their season 1 reunion.

RHUGT season 3 will air on Peacock at 3.01 am ET on March 23.


RHUGT: Is there any friendship between Heather Gay and Whitney Rose of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City?

There's some bad blood between RHUGT stars Heather Gay and Whitney Rose. The author of Bad Mormon, Rose expressed some positive thoughts about Heather in her book in February 2023. Even when she appeared on Life & Style, she expressed how tempting it was to rewrite history.

She said:

"I don't wanna be in conflict with anyone, but I also am learning. Writing this book has taught me that I need to have boundaries and that loyalty to a fault is not good for anyone. If I'm gonna be loyal to anyone in my life, I need to be loyal to myself and my children first and foremost.”

The RHUGT star further continued:

"So, that's really where I'm at now. The journey's taking me to a point where I'm just like, maybe I need to be more of a badass and less of a ride or die."

RHOSLC cast member Jen Shah was sentenced to prison in January 2023 after pleading guilty to fraud charges. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for a decade-long telemarketing scheme during season 2. Despite Heather and Jen Shah's close friendship after the latter's arrest, Heather's view of her has changed.

According to an interview Heather gave to Life & Style:

“She and I went to New York, you’re gonna get to see her host parties for her business and do all of these things that we eventually learned was all a lie and came at the cost of victims that will need to have restitution and that there was collateral damage.”

The relationship between Whitney Rose and Jen Shah wasn't going well, prior to this. According to reports by Radar, Jen Shah even mentioned that Rose has ties to one of the January 6 capitol rioters. The two became embroiled in a long feud as a result.

As soon as news broke about Shah, Heather refollowed Whitney Rose on Instagram. Rose later posted a screenshot of this on Twitter, stating:

"So I get re-followed after her ride or die was sentenced yesterday… WILD!"

Immediately after this, many fans asked if they were friends and if they would reconcile. She answered, "Nope."

During an interview with Us Weekly in December 2022, Heather explained how their friendship "just disappeared overnight."

In her opinion:

"I feel like our friendship just went up in smoke and I’m not sure how to repair that. I still don’t even really understand what I’m doing wrong and, like, how to fix it. I think that I’ve been really frustrated and I’ve done things that are out of character for me when I get really frustrated and kind of pushed to my limit.”

Continuing, Heather said:

“I don’t want to ever scream at the people I love. I don’t want to ever yell obscenities at anyone and I also just want to be in a good place with everyone in my life, my friends and my dearest friends, of course.”

The reasons behind RHUGT stars Heather Gay and Whitney Rose's fights

Fans witnessed many ups and downs in the friendships of the ladies during the third season of RHOSLC. Despite Whitney's claim that they are on a "friend break," their relationship struggles continued during the cast's trip to Arizona.

During that time, Whitney revealed Heather had heard rumors about Lisa Barlow, which Heather initially denied following the public leak of the rumor.

In season 3 of the show, Heather Gay shared:

“If I knew, I would say it, don’t you think I would love to have that information on her? I didn’t hear that f--king nugget. If I had I would have f--ked him too because I love sitting courtside!”

Since then, there has been a long feud between the two stars.

Don't forget to watch the latest episode of RHUGT on Peacock on March 23 at 3.01 am ET.

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