For Bravo viewers, seeing Kristen Doute cry is nothing new. But today, on a shoot with Us Weekly to introduce her one-week-old daughter, Kaia Lily, with partner Luke Broderick, the tears are different. She’s not devastated or angry — the new mom is crying tears of joy.
“I feel really lucky, really fortunate. Truly, I could not have dreamed this,” Doute tells Us. “She is the most perfect thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
The arrival of baby Kaia is just the latest chapter in the ongoing reinvention of the woman formerly known as the wildest waitress at Lisa Vanderpump’s SUR. Doute, 42, first grabbed public fascination back in 2013 as an original cast member of Vanderpump Rules. Her tempestuous relationship with her live-in boyfriend, costar and coworker Tom Sandoval was the stuff of reality TV dreams (and real-life nightmares), and her time on the show featured numerous heartbreaks and roller-coaster friendships. In 2020, Doute’s contract with the show was not renewed. She lived mostly under the radar, training her focus on her clothing line, James Mae, until March 2024, when she made her TV comeback on the VPR spinoff The Valley; in November of that year, she revealed that she was pregnant after undergoing intrauterine insemination. (She had experienced a miscarriage in 2023.)
Now on season 2, she and fiancé Broderick, 33, have become fan favorites, and, dare we say, the show’s voices of reason. Her calm, secure happily-ever-after is an almost unbelievable transformation — but this is Doute 2.0. In between diaper changes, she told Us about her fertility journey, the birth details, the costars she’d trust most with her bundle of joy (and who she wouldn’t), and how she went from Crazy Kristen to Crazy About Kaia.
Victoria GoldKristen. Congratulations! How are you feeling now that Kaia’s finally here?
Everyone told me that even though pregnancy was hard, the second you give birth, you don’t think about it anymore, it’s all worth it. They’re right!
You tried for a baby for so long — are you pinching yourself right now?
It’s crazy that we have an actual human. She’s ours, she’s here and I’m like, “We just take her home now?” It’s wild.
How are you doing?
I’m good. I mean, I’m exhausted. The tired thing is no joke. Maybe a day and a half ago, Luke and I had this system down: We’re like, OK, she’s napping; when she gets up, the bottle, the diapers are ready, all good to go. We were like, we got this, and we high-fived. Then last night I woke up, my boobs were exploding, I’m covered in milk, she’s screaming and crying, and we’re both like, “Oh my God, what do we do? What the hell do we do? Oh my God!” Don’t count the chickens before they hatch. It’s frustrating because you don’t want her to be upset and you don’t know how to fix it fast enough. We’re all figuring things out together.
Just the three of you.
We’re not filming at the moment, so we’re really lucky that we have this time to spend as a family and not have to leave the house. We have a little time to adjust. I feel very fortunate for that.
The Valley's Kristen Doute Is Pregnant With 1st Baby
What’s been the best part of motherhood so far?
Every single moment is different. When she opens her eyes for longer than two minutes, it’s so exciting. Those little tiny things are just the biggest deal.
How was your delivery?
I was really afraid of giving birth. I was induced a week early; [I’m 42, and] my doctor said… he doesn’t like to go past the due date when you’re over 40. Total labor was maybe 14 hours, which sounds crazy and long, but it felt like I was there for a few hours. I had an epidural, so I felt absolutely nothing, which was phenomenal. That was my plan. It was like, Gimme all the stuff, I don’t want to feel pain, I am not that girl that’s going to do a natural home birth. When I had dilated from a four to a 10, they said, “Let’s do a practice push… OK, she’s coming, don’t push any more! We’re grabbing your doctor, it’s go time!” Just like that, it was get ready, rock and roll, here we go. I pushed for nine minutes and there she was.
Wow!
The nine minutes felt like two minutes. Luke was holding my hand, everyone was saying, “Push, push, push.” And I have no idea if I’m even doing the right thing — I think I’m doing it? And then she’s lying on my chest. It was just perfect. Luke cut her umbilical cord, they went to weigh her — she reached over and grabbed the side of the weighing station and tried to roll herself over at minutes old.
She’s already advanced! Your openness about the experience is such a great thing for women — especially since, in fertility terms, anyone over 35 is classified as “geriatric.”
I am beyond geriatric. I am a senior citizen at this point.
Victoria GoldYou give people hope.
On The Valley this season, you’ll see our fertility journey. We got pregnant two weeks after we wrapped filming. You’ll see us meet with our doctor, and me struggle with the word “infertile.” It was really difficult to hear because, in my mind, it means we can’t have a baby, but it really just means [that it] takes you a year or more to get pregnant. It’s not as scary as it sounds.
Many people will be grateful you’ve been so candid about your struggles.
To each their own, but if it’s something a woman feels comfortable sharing, I absolutely push everyone to do so. The more women’s stories I read, it made me feel safer and more comfortable to share [mine]; and the more I shared, the more feedback and gratitude we got from women all over the world.
What do you wish you could tell your past self, who was unsure whether motherhood was in her future?
If it’s God, the universe, whatever you believe in, you have to trust the plans and take it day by day. It’s easy to think the worst, especially after us having a pregnancy loss the year before, and to start duping yourself into thinking this is impossible. But it’s a much healthier mindset to say, “This is going to be good, we have each other’s backs, everything’s going to be amazing.”
And now it is! Would you do it again?
We’d love to have a second baby, if that’s possible for us. I’m sure we’ll need help again with our fertility doctor. I hope we’re that lucky, but I know what to expect a little bit more next time around.
The Valley's Kristen Doute Reveals Sex of 1st Baby With Luke Broderick
Did you ever doubt you’d get pregnant eventually?
After our pregnancy loss, I was like, This is it. Luke and I had talked about this. I’m eight years older than him — what if we try every last thing and none of it works? He could go marry a young girl that is a super-fertile Myrtle and not have to deal with my geriatric infertile ass. But he was down to stay with me. He loved me. He was like, “We’ll figure it out.” I feel lucky.
How else did he support you?
Luke lives in neutral. I am not someone who lives in neutral, I’m roller-coaster high and low, super happy or really anxious. He’s very even-keeled, and that’s how he was throughout. He was there to keep me calm.
What was your lowest moment?
We had a scare around 13 weeks. I started bleeding; we had to go to the ER and they [called] it a possible miscarriage, even though we heard the heartbeat and saw her on the ultrasound. You go home and the baby could still not make it, so that was terrifying.
That’s so scary. What kind of dad is Luke so far?
He’s so hot, it’s stupid. He’s amazing with all of our friends’ kids, but seeing him with his own daughter and the way she is with me, even at a week old, versus the way she is with him… I feel like she feels his energy. She’s very calm with him. He holds her, tears are gone.
Victoria GoldAre you looking forward to some spontaneous intimacy now that you aren’t on your schedule to conceive?
Luke’s like, “You know you’re the most fertile right after having a baby, so we can go for No. 2!” Whatever is in the cards for us is what’s going to happen. One week in, I’m just thinking about Kaia. I can’t imagine not giving her all of my love, affection and attention. But I also know if we want a second one, we shouldn’t wait a long time to try. I’ve only had one pregnancy and I understand where you’re so grateful and humbled to be a vessel for this baby, but at the same time, you want to be a version of yourself again.… I would like my body back and I [like not being] pregnant, but at the same time, I really want a second one.
How would you describe your bond with Kaia?
I feel so incredibly connected to her. I don’t even have words. I hope I’m not a helicopter mom, because that is so my style. She looks exactly like Luke, but if she has my personality, there’s no one better on this earth to raise a little Kristen than me. I know how to get her to listen and what’s going to make her rebel. But I want her to be more adventurous than I am. I want her to be less anxious. I want her to be a lot more like Luke in those ways.
What’s the biggest lesson that motherhood has taught you so far?
Patience. I’m an extremely impatient person, but with her, it’s completely different. Like, all I have is patience and grace for her. We’re all just learning together.
Will you raise Kaia in L.A.?
Once she’s a school-age, we want to be elsewhere. We’d both like to be closer to home, the Midwest. Nashville is the idea in our head, but we’ll see.
The Valley’s Kristen Doute Gives Birth to 1st Baby With Luke Broderick
Are you surprised to be a fan favorite on this season of The Valley?
I’m very humbled that the viewers say they love this new era. The past hasn’t been so cute. I started TV when I was in my late 20s, but I did a lot of questionable things in my 30s as well. I’m stoked that they’ve given me this opportunity to show who I am now.
Will Kaia be on the show?
Yes! It’s going to be the best video yearbook ever for us to film season 3. The production company and network are so respectful of us being new parents and what that means. I’ve talked to [VPR costar] Scheana [Shay] about when she filmed with Summer, same with MJ [Javid] from Shahs [of Sunset]; she filmed with her son when he was days old. So I’ve had these conversations [of] what that was like and if it was hard on their bodies, their minds, their emotions and everyone’s been like, “You know what, you kind of don’t even think about it.”
What about as she gets older?
We haven’t talked about that in-depth yet. I’m proud, I want the whole world to know how beautiful she is, and how excited we are, but we’re also very protective and I’m not going to be sharing every waking moment of our lives either. There are some things that are just for us.
When she asks about her mom’s previous reality TV days, how will you explain that part of your life?
I’m not shying away from any of that. The best way to learn is just to be honest about life. Like, here are mistakes and here’s reality and this is how you grow. This is how you become a better person. She can watch Vanderpump Rules when she’s 28; that’s how old I was when I started reality TV.
Bravo’s Next Gen NYC features the children of Real Housewives, would you let Kaia take part in something like that?
I truly don’t think our daughter would ever come to us and say she wanted something like that. [Laughs]. So I’m not really worried about it. But no.
For more on Kristen, watch the exclusive video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly — on newsstands now.
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