Emily Simpson tearfully revealed that her 11-year-old son Luke has been diagnosed with Tourette’s.
“I would say that [my husband] Shane and I are doing a better job at parenting Luke because we understand a lot more about his diagnosis, but he has Tourette’s now, so that’s been hard,” Emily, 50, shared during the Thursday, November 12, episode of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Orange County. “If you look at PANDAS and the symptoms, it’s OCD and anxiety and tics.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, Tourette syndrome is a disorder that involves repetitive movements or unwanted sounds/tics that can’t be easily controlled.
Emily shared that Luke’s tics are verbal, but “he can kind of control it when he’s at school.”
“It’s very hard to manage,” she said while trying to hold back tears. “I’m exhausted. I manage him from the moment he gets up to the moment he goes to bed.”
In July 2025, Emily first revealed that Luke was diagnosed with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), which is a condition that limits a person’s food intake. Her son was also diagnosed with PANDAS, a group of autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with strep throat.
She has continued to share her son’s health struggles on reality TV after receiving countless supportive messages from other parents who find themselves in similar situations.
“Everything I had envisioned in my mind about what a family looks like and what we would do as a family, I’ve had to completely throw that out and just reimagine it, and that makes me sad a lot,” Emily told Andy Cohen on Thursday’s episode. “I don’t want to say anything hurtful about my child, but I feel like I’ve had to mourn what I thought it was going to be like. … Luke is a fantastic child. He is so smart.”
The host of iHeartRadio’s “Legally Brunette” podcast added, “I’ve had to leave a trip early because he wouldn’t eat anything and I got so scared. It’s just been really hard. But this new doctor gives me hope that we’re going to get some answers and have a path forward.”
While opening up about her parenting journey, Emily — who also shares Annabelle, 13, and Luke, 11, with Shane, 50 — received support from her entire cast, including Gina Kirschenheiter, Jennifer Pedranti, Heather Dubrow, Shannon Beador, Vicki Gunvalson and Carmella Garcia.
When Tamra Judge suggested she reach out to former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Rinna — her daughter Delilah Belle Hamlin was diagnosed with PANDAS at age 11 — Emily said they’ve been able to briefly speak about it.
“We chatted a little bit,” she said. “I would love to sit down with her and have a face-to-face at some point.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs on Bravo Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET. Stream new episodes the next day on Peacock.
