Real Housewives of Orange County star Gina Kirschenheiter has nothing but support for Shannon Beador’s current approach to drinking.
“First of all, I adore Shannon,” Gina said while promoting RHOC Season 18. “I never thought that was going to be the case.”
Gina added that Shannon is a “completely different person” since we last saw her in Season 17. She believes the aftermath of Shannon’s DUI was something of a wake-up call, having a huge effect on her outlook.
Shannon’s journey is her own
In September 2023, news broke that Shannon had been arrested for a hit-and-run/DUI in Newport Beach, California. She drunkenly drove into someone’s home, then parked her car and pretended to be walking her dog Archie when police arrived. She was later sentenced to probation, a fine, and community service, as well as a nine-month alcohol program.
Surprisingly, when filming for Season 18 began, Shannon shared that she’s still drinking, though in moderation. She claims to have a self-imposed limit of two drinks.
Though co-star Tamra Judge has been very vocal that Shannon should not be drinking at all, Gina is taking a more laissez-faire attitude. “It’s not my decision. It is her decision. This is her life,” Gina told Us Weekly. “Everybody’s relationship with alcohol is their own.”
Choosing to stop drinking herself, Gina understands that Shannon is doing the best she can to navigate her social life under difficult conditions and massive scrutiny. “People don’t just do what happened to her and then boom, change overnight,” Gina added. “She’s at the moment where she’s willing to look at her relationship with alcohol and redefine it and try to manage it. And she has every right to do that.”
“If she wants to give it a space to see if she can be a responsible social drinker, and she’s not getting in a car or anything like that, she has every right to do that,” Gina continued. “And I’m going to support her.”
Still concerned …
Even though she knows how Shannon chooses to run her life is not Gina’s decision, she’s still “concerned” for her friend. She also teased that viewers will see her “check” on Shannon’s drinking this season.
“If that’s how she wants to approach this, but she’s doing the work behind it, so be it,” Gina acknowledged. “When she gets to the end of that, she might decide, ‘You know what? I tested the waters and I can’t handle it, so I’m going to kick it.’ Or I think that she was using alcohol the wrong way, and now she’s trying to use it the right way, and maybe she can.”
For her part, Shannon’s still a work in progress and is focused on channeling her energy into more positive things. “I’ve done a lot, [but] I still have more to do,” she said in July. “I work with my therapist, and I have a psychiatrist from the program that I went to for 30 days … I feel as though I’m growing. I’m headed down a healthier path, and I’m trying to create any type of positive thing that I can out of a horrible situation.”
Real Housewives of Orange County airs Thursdays at 9/8c on Bravo.
