Months after suffering a health scare during the Season 13 reunion of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Sutton Stracke has fully recovered, and tells Newsweek that it was a “big wake-up call.”
A professionally trained dancer, Stracke has served on the board of trustees for prestigious institutions like the American Ballet Theater, P.S. Arts, and MOCA. She also founded a boutique, SUTTON, and launched SuttonBrands, a circular fashion house promoting sustainable fashion. However, she is best known for her role on RHOBH, where she joined as a “friend” in Season 10 before becoming a main cast member in Season 11.
Earlier this year Stracke made headlines when she was hospitalized after collapsing during the show’s three-part reunion. She’s told Newsweek that her collapse resulted from severe dehydration, exhaustion, and “really, really bad” bronchitis, an inflammation of the lung’s airways, usually caused by an infection.
The reality star has also revealed what she’s doing differently to ensure something similar never happens again.
“It was a big wake-up call for me,” Stracke admitted. “I finally got a primary care physician. I’d had bronchitis about a month before, and it just lingered. So I did a bunch of chest X-rays, and thankfully, it wasn’t pneumonia, but I needed to recover.”
Hayu FanFest panelist Sutton Stracke attends the press junket photocall at The Langham on October 24, 2024, in London, England. Stracke opened up about the health scare she experienced during the Season 13 reunion of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
Mike Marsland/Getty Images for Hayu
She continued: “I got really sick, and it was really scary. I got very dizzy and ended up going to the emergency room. I threw up everywhere and stayed in the ER for, like, six hours. Garcelle [Beauvais] stayed with me the entire time.
“And Bravo was amazing. They stayed with me—no cameras or anything like that, just making sure I was OK. I went home and had someone stay with me because I couldn’t stand up without getting super dizzy.
“I didn’t want to leave but Bravo was like, ‘You have to leave. Your blood pressure is super high.’ I had a really high temperature and I was so glad I left because then, you know, my stomach was upset and I needed to leave.”
Stracke was experiencing unusual symptoms before her collapse, saying, “I kept asking Garcelle, ‘Is it hot in here?’ and she was like, ‘Girl, no, it is freezing.’ I couldn’t figure it out. I just had a super high fever, which I normally don’t get. So, yeah, something was wrong with me.”
While in the ambulance with Beauvais by her side, Stracke said she would fall into a deep sleep and then wake up dizzy.
She admitted: “I don’t want to do that again.”
When the reunion aired, a post on X (formerly Twitter) insinuated that the star appeared to be showing signs of alcohol withdrawal. Stacke quickly denied this, a stance she reiterated during her conversation with Newsweek.
Stacke also denied rumors that her collapse at the reunion had anything to do with her being “scared” of friend and co-star Kathy Hilton.
“It still gets put out there that, oh ‘Sutton was scared of Kathy’—never. And then Kathy got upset. She was like, ‘They’re saying that you’re scared of me.’ And I was like, ‘I know. It’s not true.’ … It gets so wacky out there,” she said, referring to the internet.
“All of the things that people were saying were totally untrue. I was just sick, and it’s a long day, and I think because I was sick, it caught up with me. But it was a really great lesson for me.
“I think women do this a lot—I was trying to balance work and family, and I didn’t balance it right. I travel a lot with my job. And so flying back and forth, and especially that month, I was going back and forth and back and forth from L.A. to New York, and it caught up with me and I wasn’t watching everything, so now I do.”
The mother of three said the ordeal at the reunion was her body’s way of telling her to slow down and look after herself.
She explained she now realizes she needs to consistently drink water, which she hates to do, and eat, which she admitted she sometimes forgets. Thankfully, her health is now “all in check,” but Stracke said it’s about “remembering that balance.”
“I think it’s really important for working mothers especially, or working fathers, whatever it is, but I think women have this tendency to focus not, I hate to say put yourself first, but remember to put yourself in the equation,” the reality star said.
“The airlines have it right sometimes when they say put your mask on first. There’s a reason that you do that so that you can help others. So that’s what I’m doing. And it’s all in check and it’s all great.”
Captain Sandy Yawn, Sutton Stracke, Jessel Taank, Craig Conover and Austen Kroll are in London for the first-ever Hayu FanFest, taking place on Saturday, 26 October.
Catch up on all seasons of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on Hayu.
