Dr. Terry Dubrow Talks ‘Botched’s ‘Very Different’ Season After ‘Challenging’ Return to ‘RHOC’ (Exclusive)

Botched stars Dr. Terry Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif have seen just about everything when it comes to plastic surgery gone wrong, but the docs have taken on a “very different” kind of caseload this season. Ahead of all-new episodes of Botched returning to E! Tuesday, Jan. 25, Dubrow opened up to PopCulture.com about the “gratifying” and challenging shift this season has taken as well as his “challenging” return to the Real Housewives of Orange County alongside wife Heather Dubrow.

Having repaired countless botched breast augmentations and nose jobs, Dubrow and Nassif have turned their attention this season of the E! surgical show to patients who have had reconstructive plastic surgeries go wrong. From a young mom who nearly lost her entire leg in a rope swing accident to a cancer survivor that lost her upper lip in a small procedure, Dubrow said this slate of cases has been both “heavy” and rewarding.

“It’s gratifying. It tests you,” he told PopCulture, saying that with so many odd surgical procedures under their belts, he and Nassif are “heavily armed with a lot of experience” and ready to take on these more difficult cases, despite the increase in pressure on them to get things perfect for these patients who have already been through so much.

For many of their patients, the social isolation and facial masking brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has been an additional respite for people who have difficulty going out in public, making the reintroduction of regular life especially difficult. “Those people – to a certain degree – got some solace from wearing a mask, but now that the masks are coming off again, they’re being reintroduced to the shock and emotional trauma,” Dubrow explained. 

The plastic surgeon also opened up to PopCulture about his family’s drama-filled return to Bravo’s Real Housewives of Orange County, which he said was a bit of a shock after filming Botched for so long. “It’s been challenging,” he admitted. “I’m not used to our lives and family being put under such a microscope like that and having people comment so freely about your kid’s sexuality, your relationship with your wife … because Botched is not that kind of show.”

The surprising upside to the Dubrows’ return to RHOC has been his fellow Housewives husbands, whom he called “enjoyable, down-to-earth people,” unlike those he was forced to interact with during his family’s first stint on the show from Seasons 7 to 11. He joked of the drama that’s gone down so far this season, “When the Blood Alcohol Concentration gets past a certain point at these parties, that’s when the level of enjoyment starts to decrease – it’s an inverse relationship.” Botched returns to E! Tuesday, Jan. 25 at 9 p.m. ET.