Heather Gay Challenges Mormon Church in New Bravo Documentary

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Heather Gay opens up about her exit from the Mormon church in the forthcoming three-part Bravo documentary Surviving Mormonism, in which she also sheds lights on divisive topics including conversion therapy. 

The reality star, 51, departed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when she joined the cast of the Bravo series in 2020.

The Carmel-by-the-Sea, California-born TV personality told People on Tuesday that she felt spiritually fulfilled by putting together the documentary about the church.

‘I never thought that being an antagonist to my faith and identity and family and community would feel this empowering and fulfilling, but it does,’ the Brigham Young University alum said.

Gay said she felt ‘compelled to do more’ to spread awareness toward issues she feels needs the public’s attention. 

The Bravo docuseries also features interviews conducted with former members of the Mormon church. 

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Heather Gay , 51,  opens up about her exit from in the forthcoming three-part Bravo documentary Surviving Mormonism 

 The Salt Lake Temple stands at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah 

‘I feel very, very precious about these survivors, about their willingness to share with me,’ Gay said. ‘They’re telling a Real Housewife their darkest secrets. 

‘That takes a leap of faith, and I feel such a kinship to them.’

Gay credited the 2016 Leah Remini doc Scientology and the Aftermath as an inspiration in turning her own personal experience with the Mormon church into a documentary.

‘I thought what she did was so important and, in a legitimate way, giving visibility and a platform to voices that were silenced,’ Gay said. ‘That was very similar to my experience when I left the Mormon church.’

Gay said she ‘didn’t really realize how similar that experience was until [she] left.’

Gay said she especially appreciated Remini’s work in looking back on her own experiences with faith, and how she couldn’t necessarily see the entirety of the situation.

‘When I was in it, rainbows and unicorns, great,’ Gay said. ‘But when you leave and when you draw a line in the sand, I recognized and heard for the first time really just an onslaught of people’s experiences that were about surviving Mormonism.’

Gay continued: ‘If you’re in it, you don’t hear of those stories. You don’t speak of them. No one talks about them.

Gay hosted Colleen Hoover’s Regretting You screening at Megaplex Luxury Theatres at Cottonwood October 22 in Holladay, Utah 

Gay credited the 2016 Leah Remini doc Scientology and the Aftermath as an inspiration in turning her own personal experience with the Mormon church into a documentary. Pictured last year in NYC 

‘They are sidelined and silenced and made to disappear. The second you leave, you’re hearing it for the first time. I was hearing criticisms of the church for the first time.’

Gay said last month in an Instagram post that she was ‘deeply grateful to the brave participants who shared their stories of faith and survival for this docuseries. I know when you hear them you will feel the same.’

The reality star said that she felt ostracized upon departing the religious institution. She has passed, opened up about that experience in her books Bad Mormon (2023) and Good Time Girl (2024).

Surviving Mormonism with Heather Gay is slated to debut Tuesday on Bravo at 9:45 p.m. ET.