Braunwyn Windham-Burke is a married woman!
The former “Real Housewives of Orange County” star and her fiancée, Jennifer Spinner, legally tied the knot in a “last-minute” wedding ceremony at their Nashville home Wednesday.
“We’re so excited to finally be legally wife and wifey!” Windham-Burke told People. “Jen is my best friend, and I am so lucky that I get to wake up and go to bed with the person that I’d rather be around more than anyone else.
“She’s the one that has my back. It’s been a really hard two years, and I don’t think I could have gotten it through her. I think when you take your marriage vows, they say, ‘For better or worse,’ and we have been through such hard times that she’s shown up every single time,” she added.
The mom of seven said marriage “isn’t a fairy tale” to her and Spinner, but rather a “commitment that you’re my person and I’m going to be with you. You are not just my partner for life, but you’re my best friend for life.”
As for their “last-minute” nuptials, Windham-Burke explained, “This is just about us and us saying, ‘You know what? We love each other. Let’s do this.’
“And then when we actually have the big wedding, we won’t be as stressed out, and we’ll be like, ‘This is just a party with our friends,’” she added of their plan to have celebrations in New York, Guatemala and California in 2026.
Windham-Burke, 47, and Spinner, 40, were originally planning to get married in October 2026, but they decided to move up their wedding “due to the uncertainty and the political and social climate around LGBTQ+ rights in Tennessee.”
Spinner told the magazine that they are worried “gay marriage will go back to the states” during Donald Trump’s second presidency and they “just wanted to be legally protected and hopefully grandfathered in to any changes that happen.”
The former Bravolebrity added, “This is just making it legal and giving us those protections that we need as a queer couple living in the south.”
She further explained that they have “had a lot of backlash” while living in Tennessee, adding, “This is our own little act of protest. We want to stand in our power.”
However, after recognizing their privilege, Spinner added, “It’s not just a protest … but we have kids that we’re raising together and we have ex-partners that we’re trying to co-parent with, and I think that we need the protections and the rights that marriage offer, and unfortunately, we’re not on our own timeline because the government is deciding that timeline for us in some ways.”
Once they decided they wanted to get married, Windham-Burke texted their Nashville friends the day before asking whether they were free.
As for the location, the couple wanted to go to their local courthouse but discovered that “they no longer perform marriage ceremonies because so many of the judges there didn’t want to perform gay marriages.”
Earlier this year, a Tennessee law was passed that allowed public officials to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.
That’s when Windham-Burke and Spinner opted to bring an officiant into their home.
“I know it’s funny that we’re planning it last minute, but it’s not a trivial decision,” Spinner said, explaining that their union is “more about the kids.”
Windham-Burke shares Bella, 24, Rowan, 22, Jacob, 19, Caden and Curren, 11, Koa, 9, and Hazel, 6, with ex-husband Sean Burke. The two were married for 23 years before she filed for divorce in October 2022.
All of her children were present for the ceremony aside from Rowan, who was in New York, and Jacob, who was in California.
“Every kid is always looking for structure and safety that the adults in their life are going to be there for the long haul,” Spinner explained. “This marriage is about showing them and having that legally documented that I am a parent. I’m one of four parents, but I’m a parent, and I take that seriously and that I’m not going anywhere.”
The newlyweds celebrated their union with babka from Long Island before going out to dinner with friends.
Windham-Burke, who came out as a lesbian in December 2020, began dating Spinner shortly after splitting from Burke.
They got engaged in July 2023. However, they had already had a non-legal Las Vegas wedding five months earlier.