The June 14 episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County was all about Tamra Judge and Shannon Beador‘s fractured friendship. After briefly saying hello to each other in last week’s season premiere, the ladies met up for a drink this week so they could try and hash things out. Unfortunately, the talk didn’t go as well as they had hoped. Tamra still believes Shannon ghosted her after she got fired from the show, but Shannon claims she was there for Tamra in her time of need — that is until Tamra started talking badly about her in the press.
Anyway, after they sat down to chat at an oceanside restaurant, Tamra told Shannon that she was always there for her as a friend — even if it was “exhausting” at times. But when her life started “crumbling”, she didn’t feel Shannon was there for her in the same way. Shannon, on the other hand, begged to differ. She said she was there for Tamra when her ex-husband, Simon Barney, started chemotherapy. Especially when Tamra was taking food to Simon and “didn’t want [husband] Eddie [Judge] to know.”
That comment seemed like a low blow since it was a secret between them and now the world, including Eddie, knows about it, but Tamra was more concerned with the fact that after that, the conversations “stopped”. Shannon said their friendship “stopped” when Tamra seemingly called her a “fake friend” with a cryptic message on Instagram. Tamra told Shannon that she should have asked her why she was being called a “fake friend” because an insult like that wouldn’t just come out of nowhere.
#RHOC Season 17, Episode 2 SNEAK PEEK 2. All new, Tomorrow 8/7c on @Bravotv. (Source @Bravotv @NBCUniversal) pic.twitter.com/ZMqVFMaTlp
— OMFGRealityTV (@OMFGRealityTV) June 13, 2023
Tamra circled back to the fact that she felt “ghosted” by Shannon, but Shannon insisted she was “checking in” on Tamra after she got fired from the show. Tamra admitted that Shannon did reach out “a couple times,” but it wasn’t anything more than that. And Tamra felt like she had lost her best friend.
The conversation then turned to the fact that Tamra accused Shannon of having a drinking problem while doing an interview for a podcast. But Tamra defended her statement. She told Shannon, “I remember when you and David [Beador] were still married and you said, ‘David really wants me to stop drinking.’ So I said, ‘Then stop drinking.'” Shannon told Tamra she was “crossing a line” by insinuating she’s a “drunk”, but Tamra didn’t agree. Then, quite poetically, Shannon immediately ordered a soda with vodka in it. But the conversation didn’t go much further after that. Both ladies agreed to see if there’s a way they can “repair” their friendship so they can try to “move forward.” And then they said goodbye to each other.
Later, Tamra met up with Eddie at CUT Fitness to discuss her meeting with Shannon. Eddie said, “The only good thing out of the relationship was David. And I don’t even know how he lasted so long. She drinks way too much.” It wasn’t clear what relationship he was talking about — either David and Shannon’s or Tamra and Shannon’s — but he also appears to think she has a drinking problem.
Tamra told Eddie that Shannon denied she was an alcoholic by saying the “multiple phone calls” and “drunken stupidness that she’s done” was “only when her and David were going through a divorce”. But Tamra claimed the behavior has since continued throughout Shannon’s relationship with now-ex John Jannsen.
In her private confessional, Tamra said Shannon’s relationship with John “has not been great” for a long time. “It’s always a drunken fight. He’s leaving. She’s leaving.”
Then, in the latter half of the episode, the ladies got together for some fun on a boat, so that meant Tamra and Shannon had to do their best to keep their composure around each other. But it didn’t last very long. Jennifer Pedranti joined the women on the boat, and while she was sharing a very personal story about her adopted son, Shannon interrupted her to make a scene about John’s son possibly being on a boat next to them. Tamra, Jennifer and Taylor Armstrong, who also made her entrance in this episode, couldn’t believe how rude Shannon was being. Well, Tamra wasn’t fully surprised, as she said that was a great example of how Shannon regularly treats her. If the conversation’s not about Shannon, Shannon’s not interested.
Despite all that, Tamra later told Heather Dubrow that she’d “love a deeper friendship” with Shannon, but it needs to feel “equal”. Emily Simpson then asked Tamra if she could take a little “accountability” for what she might have also done to hurt Shannon, but Tamra said Shannon can go “f*** a duck.” Clearly, she doesn’t think she did anything wrong in this situation.
Finally, when the ladies sat down for a nightcap as the boat headed back to land, Shannon apologized to Jennifer for disrupting her earlier in the evening. But Tamra interrupted and told Shannon that’s how she “normally does things”. Tamra told Shannon that she only apologized because she was called out for her actions. Emily tried interjecting, but Tamra told her to “stop” sticking up for Shannon. Shannon then said Tamra, who appeared extremely drunk, looked like she was becoming “unhinged”.
Shannon told Tamra to “have another drink”, which drove her to call Shannon a “f***ing alcoholic”, a “liar” and a “drunk”. Clearly, we’re nowhere closer to a resolution. Even Shannon said, “I don’t know how we rebound after this.”
New episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County air Wednesdays at 8pm on Bravo.