Real Housewives Tiffany Moon talks medicine, entrepreneurship

There’s a version of Tiffany Moon that is sharing Louboutin’s So Kates in a variety of colors from her locked closet to over 1.7 million TikTok followers and nearly 1 million Instagram followers.

A one-season cast member of The Real Housewives of Dallas. But there’s also a businesswoman who owns Aromasthesia Candle Company and Three Moons Wine. And there’s the motivational speaker who runs Lead Her summits and retreats, a series of experiences focused on empowering and grounding women. She spent last year on the road promoting her part-memoir, part self-help book Joy Prescriptions, published in 2025.

The version of herself she’s been the longest, however, has been Dr. Moon, an anesthesiologist who has spent the better part of the last two decades running clinical trials, publishing three dozen original manuscripts, reviews, and book chapters, and teaching as an associate professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Moon, who was born in a small town outside of Beijing, made a pit stop in New York before her family moved to Flower Mound in the 1990s. At 15 years old, she was accepted to the Texas Academy of Math and Science, a University of North Texas program, before completing her Bachelor of Science in neurobiology at Cornell University. A sour experience with a neurologist pivoted her focus to anesthesiology. After completing an M.D. from UT Southwestern Medical Center at 23 years old and a residency at the University of California, San Francisco, she landed back in Dallas.

When she was a fourth year-medical student, she met her husband Daniel Moon at the now-closed Knox-Henderson bar Suite. Daniel is the vice president and general counsel of the family-owned Sam Moon Group, which has a portfolio that includes a slew of luxury hotels, shopping centers and a wholesale accessories outpost, Sam Moon Trading Company. Tiffany’s favorite version of herself might be the one she lives in the quiet of her Preston Hollow home, where she lives with Daniel, their twin 9-year-old girls, twin college-aged stepchildren and a Belgian Malinois. That Tiffany’s favorite way to spend her day in Dallas is matcha, yoga, park and cooking dinner with her family.

She’s in a phase of her life where she’s winding down her clinical research for the time being and ramping up her summits and retreats. There’s a family-focused vacationesque retreat, The LeadHer Legacy Family Retreat, in the works for this fall. And she’s concentrating on educating herself on preventive and longevity medicine.

After all, she’s only 41. 

Why did you write your book?

I would be asked all the time about my childhood and how those experiences have shaped me into who I am today. Or people would be like, ‘How did you graduate from college at 19 and medical school at 23?’ So then I would have to explain. And then I struggled with infertility, and I had a miscarriage before I got pregnant with my twins, and sometimes people would want to talk about that, but I can’t have this conversation with every person who wants to talk about different elements of my life. The reason it’s called Joy Prescriptions is that at the end of each chapter, there’s a little box with a joy prescription that I write for the reader to live their lives with more joy.  But I wrote the book really for the younger version of me. I wish that I had had this book when I was in my 20s and struggling with my identity and my self-worth and my infertility. I didn’t really have someone who would tell me wise things and give me the impression that, it’s going to be OK, it’s all going to work out. I lived in this constant fear and anxiety because I equated my self-worth with achievement, and if I didn’t have that, then who would I be?

What’s the joy prescription you write yourself?

Well, it’s funny, because you know, I wrote this whole Joy Prescriptions book, and then sometimes I have to remind myself to follow my own prescriptions. I always say, comparison is the thief of joy. I look at other entrepreneurs that just crossed like $5 million, $10 million and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, that’s so amazing.’ But I have to remind myself that they’re completely different than me. Also, they started their businesses many more years before me, and also, it’s not a competition, you know?

You’ve done a lot of research work. Tell me about the project you’re most proud of.

I’ve always been interested in performing clinical research, because as doctors we can’t really advance the practice of medicine and continue to offer novel treatments and techniques for our patients if someone’s not doing research to see which method is better. I’ve probably been the principal investigator on a dozen clinical trials, so that’s a really proud achievement of mine, because I feel like not only am I practicing medicine and taking care of patients, but I’m also doing research to see if what we’re doing is good, or if there’s better techniques, better drugs.

I do a lot of research with patients with obesity, because that’s a chronic problem that we have in our society, and the airway management of patients with obesity and the drug dosing of the medications that we give is different for obese patients versus non-obese patients. I’ve done research with medications that we use to paralyze patients for surgery, because even though patients are asleep under anesthesia, their body can still move, and generally the surgeons don’t like it when the patients move when they’re trying to do surgery. So we have to give drugs to paralyze patients under general anesthesia, and some drugs are better than others. And then at the end of surgery, when we want the patients to wake up and start breathing on their own again, we have to reverse the paralysis, and there are different drugs that we can use to reverse the paralysis, and some are better or faster than others. It also gives me the opportunity to work with more medical students and residents, because I have them on my research team, and so they get more exposure to anesthesia, they can maybe decide if they want to pursue it for their own career choice.

So, how’d you end up on The Real Housewives?

My friend Deandra was on it, and she had been asking me to join her because she wanted someone who she could talk to and riff with on the show, and so she had asked me to be on the show, 2018 I think. And in 2019 right around Christmas time, she asked me again, and then in 2020, I had some Zoom meetings with casting agents. One thing led to another, and I didn’t even think that they were going to pick me. So, I was just as surprised as anyone else when they chose me to be on the show. But it was one of those things that you get offered and it’s hard to say no to, and also it was only 12 weeks of filming, and I just thought to myself, ‘I graduated with my M.D. when I was 23, I had twins, I went back to work six weeks after having twins full time, plus taking overnight calls and running clinical trials. Surely, I can hang out with a bunch of ill-behaved housewives for 12 weeks. It can’t be that hard, you know.’ I did it, and I’m glad that I did it, but it was very clear to me after doing it for a season that wasn’t something I wanted to continue doing.

How did that experience impact your work as an anesthesiologist and a clinical researcher?

Quite frankly, it didn’t. I was working full-time while I was filming Housewives; I did not miss a day of work. I did not call in sick. I did not ask to leave early. I knew that I was under a microscope because I agreed to be on the show, so I was extra diligent about dotting my i’s and crossing my t’s at work. My first surgery is at 7:30 a.m. so I usually get to the hospital 6:45 to 7 a.m. So work all day. If I had to film that night, I would take a shower, put some makeup on, get dressed, film, and then I told the producers that I had a hard out at 10 p.m. They were totally cool with it. My cast mates weren’t as cool with it.

When someone signs up for a Lead Her retreat, what do you want them to walk away with?

I want them to walk away with the confidence that they have the resources to make whatever decision they want in their life. So many women who come to me, and they say that they feel stuck, stuck in a job or a career they don’t like, stuck in a marriage they don’t like, and I want them to feel empowered that they can make changes in their life. They’re like, ‘No, no, I can’t possibly. I don’t have any other skills, or who else would want me, I’m 40 something with two kids and overweight, like what man would want me?’ And we just have so many of these negative thoughts in our heads, so many limiting beliefs. There’s so much life ahead of us. The average life expectancy is over 80 years old. And so what, you’re just gonna wither away for the next 35 years if you’re 45 years old? I don’t think so.

What’s next for you?

I am getting into being a longevity doctor, which, depending on who you ask, sometimes people are like, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ or they think it’s like not real medicine. But the way we practice medicine here in the United States is very reactive. We wait for people to get diabetes, we wait for people to get cancer, to be obese, and have all these problems, but we don’t invest the time and energy and education and resources to keep people healthy. Lots of education about nutrition, functional movement, biohacking, like supplements, red light, and sauna — I love all that stuff. I’m hoping that in the future I can use my medical expertise and my scientific background running these clinical trials to help people stay healthy and have a longer lifespan and be functional into their 80s.

Any regrets in life?

The only thing is I rushed through college and medical school because I thought that when I finished, there was going to be this pot of gold at the finish line or something, and as we all know, that’s not how it is. I wish I had enjoyed the journey a little bit more instead of being so focused on the finish line, and enjoying a lot of opportunities that came to me. I didn’t take any fun classes, and then I wanted to backpack through Europe for a summer or study abroad, but my dad said no. We didn’t really have the money for it, and it would have delayed my graduation by a semester. In many ways now in my adult life I’m trying to make up for experiences.

You said you wish you had slowed down. Do you think you have a slowed down pace?

The clinical trials are at their tail end, I’m not writing or launching a new book, and I’m not doing a 200-person summit, only the retreat, which is much smaller. Even though it looks like the pace that I’m going right now is still fast, it’s slower than what it was last year. It’s at least a step in the right direction, because last year felt like 100 mph, like illegally fast down the tollway, and this year feels more like 60.

What’s your ideal speed?

Maybe we could aim next year for like a cool 40 mph,  like have some time to go to the gym and relax and watch a TV show. People always talk about TV shows, and I have no idea what they’re talking about. But, I like doing all the things I’m doing right now. Which thing am I not going to do anymore?

When someone reads this article, what do you want them to think?

One person sees me on social media and they think that I’m a great role model and hard working and smart and funny. And another person sees the exact same content but thinks that I’m full of myself and spend money on frivolous things and am annoying, right? And it’s the same content, but two different interpretations. I’ve made peace with the fact that I’m doing the best I can, and I know who I am and what my intentions are.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.