Gina Kirschenheiter, 39, who stars on Season 17 of The Real Housewives of Orange County with Shannon Beador, 59, took to her Orange Country podcast on September 27 to react to her co-star’s DUI. During the episode, Gina reflected on “the irony” of the arrest, but also expressed “sympathy” for Shannon. “The irony of it is major. But honestly, really, at the end of the day I’ve been thinking a lot about this and Shannon in general, and I just don’t have it in me,” the 39-year-old explained.
The Bravo star went on to express that she can empathize with the 59-year-old, who was arrested on September 16 for a DUI in Newport Beach, CA. “I’m not gonna kick someone when they’re down and I’ve been down. And I know where she’s at right now,” Gina went on. “It’s not a good place to be mentally, emotionally.” As RHOC fans know, Gina faced a similar situation when she was charged with a DUI in 2019. The incident has also resurfaced and been a topic in the current season of the show.
Moments before Gina expressed further sympathy for Shannon, she admitted that she considered it to be “karma” at first. “I’m not gonna lie to everybody and say I didn’t wake up and be like, ‘Oh, s***, this is karma,’ but then very quickly I moved past that,” Gina explained. “Then I got angry about a lot of it for a minute, and then I really now have settled into appropriate sympathy for the situation and for her. I don’t want to see anybody down. I never have. I just didn’t want to be put down.”
Later in the interview, Gina admitted that it has been “almost two years” since her last drink. “I don’t identify as an alcoholic, but I recognize the fact that alcohol was a problem for me and was getting in my way,” she said. The mother-of-three then claimed that after Shannon “helped” her following her 2019 DUI, she then used it as a “weapon” against Gina. She explained that if she were to use Shannon’s DUI against her and “weaponize” it, that it would be “extremely hypocritical.”
Days before Shannon was arrested, she clapped back at Gina’s comments on her drinking during a September 13 interview with US Weekly. “Well it’s inaccurate,” Shannon said in regard to being accused of a drinking problem. “Let’s look at other people on the show this season who’ve been drinking a lot.” She also said that Gina needs to not “make Shannon Beador” her “storyline” on the series. The Season 17 finale of RHOC premieres on September 27 on Bravo and will stream on Peacock the following day.