Credit: Clifton Prescod/Bravo, Tony DiMaio/startraksphoto.com
Gina Kirschenheiter suggested Alexis Bellino’s confrontation with Shannon Beador was “practiced” and “calculated.” She also addressed Shannon’s “social experiment” with alcohol following her DUI arrest – after Shannon shared that she now has only two drinks per outing.
On the season 18 premiere of Real Housewives of Orange County, Shannon confronted returning castmate Alexis, who’s currently dating her ex John Janssen, over a past lawsuit from Alexis’ ex-husband Jim Bellino. In the argument, Alexis didn’t seem interested in reaching common ground.
Later, viewers learned that Alexis adopted the same type of dog as Shannon’s, and she’s using her personal trainer. In a confessional, Emily Simpson compared Alexis to ‘Single White Female.’
“Emily’s so funny, honestly,” said Gina of Emily’s joke, in an interview with Decider. “Like, I die laughing when I watch it.”
Gina then challenged Alexis’ “narrative” that Shannon constantly talks about her and John.
“The problem was that, and I will support Emily on this, every time Alexis would come to anything, she would start in with this narrative that Shannon just has to stop talking about them and we’re like, ‘Shannon is not – she is like actively trying to not talk about you. Like, that is her least favorite topic to talk about,’” said Gina, adding that Shannon wasn’t “trashing” Alexis on camera or off.
“[Beador’s] got bigger fish to fry right now. She’s got bigger stuff to deal with. She’s focusing on her health and wellness and she was not stewing on them,” continued Gina, who suggested that John and Alexis were getting “obsessive” about the Shannon dynamic, as if she “lives rent-free” in the couple’s heads.
Gina then addressed Alexis’ confrontation with Shannon in the premiere when Alexis told her, “There’s the door, Shannon Beador!”
“She clearly practiced all that in the mirror before,” said Gina. “And that, to me, even feels like you’re not giving it a real fair chance … Like, you clearly didn’t just think up, ‘There’s the door, Shannon Beador,’ on the fly.”
According to Gina, Alexis didn’t come to the scene with “this positive version” of how she’d been “pretending” she wanted it to go, but instead she prepared how she would “slam” Shannon.
“The whole thing just feels very calculated to me, honestly,” Gina went on. “I don’t wish them anything bad. Like, I hope that John and Alexis are happy together, but it would just be in everybody’s best interest if everybody just moved on.”
In an interview for Page Six’s Virtual Reali-Tea podcast, Gina defended Shannon concerning her journey with alcohol.
“I think that everybody’s relationship with alcohol is their own,” said Gina, who said Shannon’s relationship with alcohol is a “social experiment” as she works to find a solution over it. “Shannon at least being able to look at it is a good thing. Now if she’s in this space where she’s like, ‘Look guys, I’m willing to accept that my relationship with alcohol was not good. Right now I’m in a space where I want to see if I can responsibly, socially drink … That’s her right to do that.”
Though Gina stated in the premiere that Shannon should have gone to rehab instead of a behavioral wellness clinic after the DUI, Gina now feels differently.
“It’s her journey and I am not about pressuring people [to stop drinking] because that doesn’t work,” said Gina, who entered sobriety following her own DUI in 2019. “She really has to figure that out for herself and I am here to support her through it … My relationship with alcohol and my journey with alcohol doesn’t affect [Shannon’s].”
“This is just me being here — whether I drank or didn’t drink — as a friend and a person of support for her. I’m not putting anything I did or the way I did it on her because it’s different for everybody,” she added.
But Gina hinted that she challenged Shannon at times.
“There were moments this season where I did feel like I doubted [Shannon’s personal growth] and I did check her,” said Gina. “And I think that she allowed me to do that. We’re in a really good space because she understands that it’s all coming out of love.”