EXCLUSIVE: 'Real Housewives of Dallas' Star Stephanie Hollman Reveals Why She Was in Therapy 'the Entire Time
For Real Housewives of Dallas star Stephanie Hollman, fame is still a weird concept.
“I’m always really shocked when people come up to me and recognize me, because you know, I don’t think it’s really hit me that I’m on TV occasionally,” Stephanie tells ET. “It’s really weird.”
Stephanie says she doesn’t think of herself as a celebrity, and probably never will.
“People feel like they know you,” Stephanie says. “Like, I ran into these girls in the bathroom. One of them was like, ‘I love you on the show, do you want to talk about poop?’ No, we don’t have to talk about poop, it’s fine!”
“It’s really cute, they think that they’re, like, your girlfriend,” she adds. “It’s really fun.”
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Notoriety was never the goal of signing up for reality TV. Stephanie just wanted to get out of her comfort zone.
“I feel like I’ve learned more about myself in one year than I have my entire life,” Stephanie admits. “My husband [Travis Hollman] is amazing. Whenever I was approached to do the show, I did not think I could do it. He was like, give yourself permission to, you know, try something and be yourself, and the worst thing that happens is you don’t go back for a season two.”
“So, I will say I’m very lucky, because Travis played along the entire time,” Stephanie gushes. “He was a trouper.”
Stephanie says it was important for her to protect that relationship going into filming.
“I’m going to be completely honest,” Stephanie shares. “We do therapy, which sounds unromantic. We started before the show, and we did it the entire time we were filming, ‘cause I felt like it’s easy for people to lose sight of who they are, and I didn’t want to lose sight of what is important, which is my husband and my children.”
“And also, if he’s annoyed with me, I feel like we need a mediator,” she jokes. “So, it works for us.”
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Therapy is actually something the couple, now married for eight years, started long before reality TV was even on the table.
“It was a choice we made before [the show],” Stephanie continues. “If we did that, I wanted to make sure I had my priorities straight. I never want to be that person that thinks they’re so… I don’t know. It’s just a show, I’m not a celebrity. I’m just a normal person. I never wanted to lose sight of what was important, because in five years this [could] be nothing.”
We have a feeling we’ll still be watching Stephanie crack jokes on The Real Housewives of Dallas in five years. For now, you can enjoy the rest of the show’s first season on Bravo every Monday night at 10 p.m.
Stephanie’s co-star, Tiffany Hendra, recently stopped by ET, too. Check out part of our chat with her in the video below.