On the December 11 episode of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, as the cast headed to their Mexico trip, freshman Housewife Bronwyn Newport shocked the group with her nasty wounds. She told her co-stars that, while taking one of her six dogs to the park, an unattended dog attacked her. The dog’s caretaker, she claimed, was in their car talking on their phone. While she was healed enough to go on the trip, her injuries added an extra reason to be annoyed with the room assignment by Lisa Barlow. Bronwyn showed her injuries on camera, and they were quite gruesome. Now, she’s sharing more details about what happened, how she responded, and how she’s healing. Here’s everything we know about the RHOSLC star’s attack.
Why Bronwyn Newport said she did “everything wrong” with the vicious dog attack
The attack happened back in April. In an interview with People, Bronwyn recalled that the dog was walking around alone, but initially, “nothing seemed weird.” “So I reached out to pet him,” she continued, “and he did make a weird kind of skid move. He jerked away from me.” After that, the dog circled around her until he lunged forward and bit behind her knee.
Then, Bronwyn claims, she did “everything wrong.” RHOSLC’s resident fashionista told People, “I know you’re not supposed to scream, you’re not supposed to jerk your arm. I did all of those things.” Bronwyn had never been bitten by a dog before, so she “freaked out.” She recalled, “I totally lost my mind, and I honestly think I made it worse.”
She recounted the attack in vivid detail. “He did bite me behind the leg. He got me on the other side of my calf. As I tried to pull away, he got my other leg on the thigh. I think at that point I must have leaned forward or was trying to push him away. He ended up getting my right arm, where my bicep is, very badly and clamped onto my arm. I could not get him off.”
How Bronwyn is healing from the attack
Thankfully, another person at the park was able to get the dog off of her and call an ambulance. Bronwyn ended up with 37 puncture wounds and had to go to the hospital. “I had stitches in both my arm and my leg,” the RHOSLC fan favorite explained. “When he clamped down on my bicep, he fractured it. I had a little hairline fracture on the bone, and the bruising was really intense and it was throbbing.” On RHOSLC, she also said she had to have her arm in a sling for a bit.
She’s working with someone to prevent scarring. But Bronwyn also had to take time to heal emotionally. “Even as a dog lover,” she admitted, “I was terrified of dogs for a long time afterward.” While police were called to the scene, Bronwyn decided not to press charges.
What happened to the dog that attacked Bronwyn?
Viewers know how much Bronwyn loves dogs. She has six of her own, all named after House of Cards characters. Despite her gruesome injuries, Bronwyn admitted she felt bad for the animal that bit her, which was a foster dog. She explained, “I have rescue dogs who’ve been through it.”
While she felt sorry for the animal, Bronwyn expressed frustration with the caretaker. “You’ve got to know if your dog is the kind of dog that can be at a dog park,” she said, adding, “You have to be watching them.” Bronwyn emphasized why this is so important. “If it had been an older person or someone younger than me, it could have been much more life-threatening injuries,” she explained. “I’m grateful they weren’t.”
She also learned the dog had medical issues that caused its behavior. Bronwyn and her husband Todd Bradley chose to pay for the necessary medical care. And they made sure to rehome him in a better environment. Hopefully, with more attentive caretakers. Ultimately, Bronwyn said, “The most important thing to me is that the dog is doing well and I’m doing well.”
Why the attack caused Heather Gay to question Bronwyn’s marriage
Bronwyn and Heather Gay don’t see eye to eye on most things. But Heather had empathy and concern for Bronwyn after the dog attack, for numerous reasons. In a preview for episode 14, Heather admitted she felt bad for Bronwyn because her husband Todd “wouldn’t even go to the ER.”
The previous day, Bronwyn shared how Todd initially downplayed her injuries when she called to tell him she was going to the ER. “He was like, ‘It’s probably just a scratch you’re gonna be fine,'” Bronwyn recalled, as Heather looked shocked. Instead, her daughter Gwen accompanied her to the hospital. Once there, Gwen FaceTimed her stepfather. After he saw Bronwyn’s injuries via FaceTime, Todd changed his tune.
To Heather, this underlined how Bronwyn and Todd’s marriage isn’t the way Lisa described it. Instead, it reminds Heather of her former marriage. While Lisa claimed Todd is “obsessed” with Bronwyn, Heather observed, “I think he’s kind of mean to her, he dismisses her.” In response to viewer backlash about their marriage, Bronwyn said that Todd made a lot of positive changes.
So far this season, Heather’s been very critical of Bronwyn, but this made her feel “sad” for her co-star. “I feel bad that I didn’t see that earlier with Bronwyn, that maybe she’s got a lot more going on than I have even been aware of,” she said. We’ll have to keep watching Season 5 to see if this brings the two ladies closer together, or further drives them apart.
Real Housewives of Salt Lake City airs Wednesdays on Bravo.
TELL US – ARE YOU SURPRISED BY HOW BRONWYN NEWPORT RESPONDED TO HER VICIOUS DOG ATTACK?
