RHOBH Sutton reveals the tragic way her father died
In this season of , Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Sutton Stracke has revealed the tragic way her father died 18 years ago, and how she still struggles with it today.
On an episode that aired in June, Sutton opened up to Crystal about her father’s suicide after Crystal revealed she had lost her father 3 years ago after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. In last weeks’ episode, she shared with Erika some of the details of that difficult time.
Erika was telling her that she was putting up a Christmas tree and decorating her new rental house even though she wasn’t feeling much in the Christmas spirit. “Listen, my dad shot himself two days before Christmas,” Sutton says. “And, if you want to talk about a sucky Christmas, it was a sucky Christmas.”
Sutton was 32-years-old, and her daughter Porter was only nine months old when her dad John T. Brown took his own life. “When tragic things happen during the holiday times,” Sutton advises Erika. “Those rituals that we have to keep you going.”
Erika asked if he had been struggling before this happened, and Sutton says he had been. He had been in the hospital twice before for his mental health, but his suicide two days before Christmas was a shock to the family. Not only was it Christmastime, but it happened on the first day of Sutton’s mother Reba’s retirement, and she was home when it happened. Sutton says these circumstances led her mother to be angry at her father.
Reba has previously shared her feelings about John on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The script of Sutton’s shop name is written in his handwriting, and she wanted to hear from her mother that she missed him too.
Reba laid some brutal truth on Sutton: she didn’t miss him at all. She went on to explain that her relationship with John was much different than Suttons, and so she has much different feelings about him.
Erika tells Sutton that what happened to her dad is much more tragic than what Erika’s going through. The two agree, however, that “it all sucks.” In confessional, Sutton says she thinks if she could survive her dad’s death, then Erika can survive what she’s going through “because she’s a strong lady.”