So far, the new season of The Real Housewives of Orange County is off to a great start. The show has fans talking and stating that the producers for the other cities need to take notes. Of course, one of the front and center castmates is Gina Kirschenheiter.
Recently, she discussed how she lost trust for newbie Katie Ginella and how she feels about Shannon Beador‘s journey with drinking after her highly publicized DUI from last year.
Gina has been on RHOC since season 13. This makes her an integral part of the group, which means Katie losing the trust of someone who has been on the cast for a while isn’t the best news for a newbie. This is especially the case as she was introduced as Gina’s friend.
Gina recently spoke to US Weekly about where she and the new housewife stand since filming wrapped. She says, “I have a friendship with Katie at this point, but I don’t have a hundred percent trust. I think Katie knows that and understands that. I’m not really one to just throw away friendships. Like, I will move through them and work through them.”
Gina goes on to say that she’s giving Katie grace as she understands what it’s like to join their friend group. She explains, “I think that it’s really hard to come into this group of friends and acclimate and find your footing. So, I grant grace there, but I also haven’t seen how bad it is, so we’ll see.”
Gina then discusses Katie having said that Heather Dubrow calls the paparazzi and informs them of where she’s going.
“It’s so hard to watch. I just watched the episode and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m scared.’ It’s hard to watch. And it’s kind of scary just for Katie. I’m like, ‘You’re really barking up a redwood here.‘ It was ambitious of her [and I] give her credit for that. But, it also was hard because they were both my friends, so I kind of got caught in it.“
Gina continues, “There are [also] certain decisions that Katie made that were very surprising to me, and it didn’t bode well with me. So I don’t really know what all of that was about. I’m actually interested to watch it as well and see what was actually happening when I wasn’t there. To this day, some of it I just still simply don’t understand.“
Gina also talked to US Weekly about Shannon’s sobriety. She starts by saying, “First of all, I adore Shannon. And I never thought that was going to be the case.”
Regarding Shannon continuing to drink, Gina says, “It’s not my decision. It is her decision. This is her life. Everybody’s relationship with alcohol is their own. People don’t just do what happened to her and then, boom, change overnight. 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.”
She goes on, “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, and I’m going to support her.”
However, Gina says she is still concerned for Shannon and thinks she might reconsider her drinking in the future.
“Overall, it’s like if that’s how she wants to approach this, but she’s doing the work behind it, so be it. 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.”
Fans can watch RHOC on Thursday nights on Bravo.