When Terry Bradshaw agreed to film a reality series with his family, he had one word of advice to the “Bradshaw Bunch”: Just be yourself.
“I’ve been doing television and sports and I’ve been in front of the media ever since I was 16 years old and so this was nothing new, and I learned a good lesson early in my 20s, that if you’re going to be judged and criticized or judged and applauded, make sure you’re being yourself,” the 72-year-old Hall of Fame quarterback recently told The Post. “Whatever you’re going to see on this show, the girls will all tell you, that’s just how I am.”
Beginning Thursday on E!, Bradshaw will be inviting viewers into the home he shares with wife Tammy as part of the “Bradshaw Bunch,” a half-hour show that will feature the everyday happenings and hijinks of the Fox Sports analyst and his family, including daughters Rachel, Erin, and stepdaughter Lacey.
“For me personally, [when] we started filming I had just gotten broken up with and it was a pretty serious deal for me, so I was really lost, and I was like, ‘How am I going to film a show and go through this,'” Rachel said. “I loved doing the show because it taught me I knew exactly who I was, and in front of the camera, I could be vulnerable and it was never fake. We always were having fun as a family.”
Rachel, Bradshaw’s eldest daughter from his marriage to Charlotte Hopkins, was previously married to Tennessee Titans placekicker Rob Bironas, who was tragically killed in a 2014 car crash less than six months after the couple tied the knot. Rachel said she was grateful to have her family’s support while opening up about one of the most difficult chapters of her life.
“After all of that happened, I do talk about that, I’m very real about that, and I quit music because of that and moved back home,” Rachel said.
“You can see throughout the show just dad helping me really get back on my feet, cause when we started filming, I was like, ‘I do not want to talk about this, I don’t want to talk about that,’ and now it’s like, ‘Why wouldn’t I talk about these things?’ This is my life and everyone that’s close to me knows my struggles with my journey the past six years, and so of course I’m going to talk about it, so it’s just, I wouldn’t have done that though if it wasn’t with my family and my dad there.”
While the show will feature plenty of father-daughter moments — not to mention sweet interactions between Bradshaw and his adorable granddaughter Zurie — boob jobs and dating discussions are on the table in the pilot episode. But as the Pittsburgh Steelers icon shared, he isn’t one to doll out relationship tips.
“I don’t give dating advice, only after they break up I tell them what I really feel because, I think any father out there that watches the show is going to go, ‘Yeah.’ You don’t dare interfere with matters of the heart, even if you see something that they don’t see, you keep your mouth shut,” Bradshaw said.
Bradshaw said he would then be “brutally honest” about his feelings should a suitor exit stage left.
“The girls are automatically going to say, ‘Dad, what did you think about so-and-so?’ I couldn’t stand the guy. I couldn’t stand him, he’s a worm, he’s a punk, he’s no good,” Bradshaw continued.
“So I mean I was brutally honest with them, but never while they’re dating because if she falls in love with him and marries him, I’m going to fall in love with him, I’ve got to. It’s not about me, it’s about her, and I think as a parent I think that’s going to come across in the show, you’re going to see that it’s funny, but it’s brutally honest and I think the dads out there, I think they’re going to get a kick out of my reaction,” he continued.
For Bradshaw, he is especially excited that his family will forever have a unique collection of home movies.
“There will be a time where they perhaps will say, ‘Oh my God, let’s pull out that episode where dad did this,’ and so they’ll always have these fond memories of me and our family together, and that’s the reason I did it, so the girls and I could do something that would be etched in memory,” he said.
“The Bradshaw Bunch” airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on E!.
ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3F7j3Jmam9fqbKzvthmmauZlKi1osOMoqqnrF2Ws7OtyJ1kraddl7JurtGuq5qknK56qbvNnqqtZZmjeq%2Bx1marr2Wjmr%2BqsdJo