Heather Dubrow Says She Wanted to Publicly Acknowledge Son's Transition 'Before Someone Else' Did

Heather Dubrow is opening up about son Ace's coming out.

The Real Housewives of Orange County star, 54, talked about the decision to publicly announce the 12-year-old is transgender — news she shared on Instagram last week — during the episode of her newly revamped podcast, Let's Talk with Heather Dubrow.

"First of all, I just want to say thank you. I'm going to get very emotional during this, but thank you to all our supporters," she began, explaining how many people reached out with messages of love and support after she shared the news.

"I need to clarify some things. With all the support, there's always going to be hate. You're going to have haters. You're going to have people who don't understand," she continued, explaining that some people have reached out to ask her why this felt like the time to publicly discuss Ace's coming out.

"I get that. Ace is 12 years old. Why now?" she acknowledged.

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Steve Rogers Photography/Getty Heather Dubrow

RELATED: Heather Dubrow's Youngest Child, 12, Comes Out as Transgender, Goes by Name Ace

"As a mom, you look at your kids, and all you want to do is protect them. That's it. You just want to protect them. You want to put helmets on them. You want to wrap them in bubble wrap and just pray that nothing ever hurts them physically and emotionally, and of course, that's what I want to do with my kids," Dubrow noted.

"But the truth of our lives is that we've been in the public eye for many years. My son has been in the public eye since he was 9 months old. As much as we want to protect him — and that is our number one priority and our number one goal — for a variety of reasons, it also, over the last few years and more recently the past few months, became apparent that we had to say something."

Heather Dubrow Instagram

Dubrow explained the family's "goal was to acknowledge who our incredible son is and show how much we love and support our child. We're not hiding our son but trying to protect him from the world, as all parents want to do."

The RHOC star then said that the family's decision to come forward now was also influenced by the "fact that there are other people who want to tell their children's story for them."

"So even though I don't want to tell my children's stories for them — and I never have, nor will I ever — something had to be said by us before someone else made a statement. And that part I need to leave at that. But hopefully, that will add some clarity to it."

Heather Dubrow Instagram Dubrow family

Dubrow also addressed comments that insinuated Ace's coming out had to do with keeping the family "relevant" for their "storyline" in hopes of keeping her spot on the RHOC cast.

"Neither of these things are true. They are the farthest thing from the truth. Again, it's really just about protecting my kids. And I've already explained why now. We are not trying to leverage our child for content, and I'm just going to leave that there," she leveled. "I have four kids, and they are incredible, and they're mine."

Reflecting on her time as an actress, a singer, and more recently a reality TV star and podcaster, Dubrow declared, "I know my greatest role is being a mother."

"I know it. I didn't know that when I was younger, but I will tell you, being a parent, as so many of you know, is the hardest job on the planet. But being a mother to me is my most important job ever," she continued.

"I take my kids and all of your kids to my heart always, every day, and I know I was given these four kids for a reason. And not only will I protect them and fight for their safety and their rights and their freedom, but I promise, I'm going to help you protect yours too."