Gina Kirschenheiter and Heather Dubrow have been experiencing growing pains in their friendship on The Real Housewives of Orange County. Their drama started with Heather accusing Gina of not being a present friend when they started filming season 17. Then, Heather threw Gina under the bus in Montana after Gina warned her that Tamra Judge probably made fun of Heather’s career with Taylor Armstrong. Gina talked about her issues with Heather on the new episode of HollywoodLife‘s Pay Attention, Puh-Lease! podcast and said she thinks Heather was “chasing” a friendship with Tamra during filming.
“They do have a long history together and I think Heather would’ve expected to have been one of her primary friends. It’s not like I’m faulting Heather for wanting something that’s reasonable. If it’s not happening, you gotta let it go,” Gina said. “I’m not so catty and petty that I’m gonna go and cry about that [Heather’s friendship with Tamra], but it just was a bad look for Heather, honestly.”
Gina admitted that Heather “got under my skin a lot this season.” She explained that she she was upset that Heather chose to believe Tamra over her regarding the drama with Heather’s acting career.
“I felt that Heather was choosing to keep her eyes closed on that,” Gina said. “She was basically like, ‘I asked her if she was mean to me about my career. She said no. I have to take that at face value because she’s my friend.’ I understand that. What she didn’t have to do was go and tell Tamra the things that I was saying to try and help her as a friend after telling me I wasn’t being a good friend to her. At that point I was out.”
Furthermore, Gina said she felt “validated” when she watched the show and saw that Tamra did in fact poke fun at Heather’s IMDb page when she had dinner with Taylor. “I was waiting for it,” the CaraGala Skincare founder admitted. “I was very confident.”
Looking back on the beginning of the season, Gina explained that she was “surprised” Heather had an issue with her from the very first episode.
“I had a lunch with Emily [Simpson] when we started filming and she mentioned something to me about Heather feeling like I wasn’t being responsive. My spidey sense went up, because I was like, ‘That seems a little odd,’ ” Gina said. “The first time I knew she had an issue was when I was at her house. I felt like I was overcompensating and being more sensitive to her feelings.”
As for the drama in Montana, Gina said her “breaking point” with Heather came when Heather partied with Tamra and Shannon Beador, after convincing Gina that she shouldn’t call her boyfriend Travis Mullen to talk through her feelings about Jennifer Pedranti‘s affair. “That didn’t feel right,” Gina said.
So, where do Gina and Heather go from here?
“I’m always in the spirit of moving forward and staying positive,” Gina said. “But you can’t control other people. I feel like Heather struggled this season. I feel like she was chasing something that she shouldn’t have been chasing, and despite her efforts to try and redirect that, she’s a grown woman and she’s gonna do what she wants to do and she did. I don’t think it was in her best interest but maybe it’s a learning lesson.”
Gina’s full interview on the Pay Attention, Puh-Lease! podcast is available now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Gina talks about Vicki Gunvalson‘s upcoming return to the show, her reaction to Tamra throwing a napkin on Jennifer, how she feels about possibly marrying Travis, and much more!