Cory and Hunter, AKA The Real Housebears, turned their Housewives Obsession into a fun, feel-good podcast. Here’s to you next BEAR friends.
Model, dancer and bear parties host Hunter Harden and husband Cory Chitwood, instructor and education software, captured in the hearts of the community and beyond with the proposal video at the Salt Lake City airport back in 2020. The couple have started a podcast following The Real Housewives franchise, dubbing themselves The Real Housebears.
The couple were social media acquaintances and started chatting on Facebook Messenger a few years ago, when Hunter lived in Nevada and Cory in South Carolina. The two then made a home together in Salt Lake City in 2018. They got engaged in 2020 and married two weeks after. “We had this trip to Cabo San Lucas booked, and we were going to be gone for a whole month,” Cory told Q Salt Lake City. I didn’t know when we would ever have another opportunity like that, so I thought we should turn it into a honeymoon instead of a vacation.”
The podcast covering The Real Housewives franchise started in November 2020, shortly after the premiere episode of The Real Housewives of their hometown SLC. “Each week we recap episodes of The Real Housewives franchise, provide our commentary, and sometimes throw a little shade,” they say in the podcast description.
“We had been talking about starting a podcast for a very long time,” Cory said. “We had a lot to say, and we knew we had great banter, but we couldn’t find a focus. We knew it would be about pop culture, and we had a few other ideas to throw in there, but nothing really clicked.”
Cory has been a Housewives fan since the beginning, but Hunter didn’t really like the franchise, or watching TV at all – but Cory got him hooked. They were in Cabo for their honeymoon when the premiere episode of Housewives SLC aired. “As soon as the episode was over, we practically looked at each other and said, ‘we just found our podcast’,” Cory said.
Their podcast has got to the ears of the Housewives themselves, who became in touch with the Housebears at the beginning through the podcast and then in real life. “We’ve developed a real friendship with Heather Gay and her best friend/business partner, Dre,” Cory says. “Heather and I went to a concert together last October. We’ve all gone out together several times for dinner, drinks, and karaoke as well. We call ourselves Dreather Hardenwood; the ladies’ first names combined with our last names combined.”
“We had an immediate connection with Whitney Rose and her husband, Justin, too,” Hunter adds. “When we went over to their house to record an interview for our podcast it was like we were hanging out with old friends. I was almost worried that we were staying too long.”
Since the podcast took off, it has evolved quite a bit and became a real production and commitment for the Housebears. “It’s quite a process,” Cory shared. “First we watch each episode. Then, we watch it a second time and take notes, as well as mark down things the ladies say that might work as good sound bites in various situations, or are helpful in telling the story.”
“After that, we record the episode in the Hot Closet, record the sound bites, and then my Bear edits each episode and adds the sound bites,” Hunter adds.
“It takes a lot of planning. It takes a lot of looking ahead. Luckily, my Bear thinks that way already. He’s always overthinking and over planning, which is an advantage in this situation. Sometimes we might have to watch the episode separately while I’m out of town then record the podcast when we’re both home.”