Getting real. Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Heather Gay was “shocked” about the reaction to her black eye storyline during the show’s third season, she exclusively tells Life & Style.

“I didn’t know what would really eventually even be edited because there was so much going on behind the scenes. You know, you wake up on a cast trip surrounded by cameras with a black eye,” the reality star, 40, explains while promoting her Bad Mormon memoir, which is set to be released on Tuesday, February 7. “There are gonna be a lot of questions, but I just wasn’t really able to — I can’t really speak much about it until the reunion and everything plays out.”

During the first part of the RHOSLC season 3 reunion, Heather explained to host Andy Cohen that she had “blacked out” during the cast’s trip to San Diego and “woke up with a black eye.”

Overall, the first-time author explains to Life & Style that she was surprised by how fans became obsessed with the story.

“That’s kind of reality television, the one thing you don’t wanna talk about, everybody’s gonna talk about it,” Heather adds. “I try to stay offline because I try to just focus on the good and it can be pretty crippling and when the tide doesn’t go your way. It’s just better to ignore it and focus on the ones that still support you.”

Why Does 'Real Housewives of Salt Lake City' Heather Gay Have a Black Eye? Get Spoilers
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When it comes to support in her personal life, Heather is feeling the love from her daughters — Ashley, 19, Georgia, 17, and Annabelle, 15 — as she gears up to tell her story in an “authentic” way when Bad Mormon is released.

“I wrote this book for my girls. … This book is for them, it is to break them free of the expectations I was raised under and to allow them to be their own authentic selves without losing the love of their family,” the Bravo star explains, calling her girls “good kids,” noting that they “championed” her to write the book, which tells the story about Heather’s upbringing in the Mormon church and how she made the decision to leave the religion in adulthood.

“They were able to see and understand who I was when I was their age. It forced us to grow really close, but it also gave me a lot more compassion for them as a mom. I got to be the mom I always wanted to be because I was no longer being a Mormon mom,” Heather shares. “I was just being a mom to my specific individual kids. And I think it’s grown made us grow a lot closer and I think they have — it’s given them permission to just be who they wanna be and talk to me about things that I lied to my parents about for decades because it wasn’t allowed.”