Shannon Beador suggested her ex John Janssen doubled down on his intention to use his security cam videos of Shannon on the night of her DUI crash for “blackmail purposes.” Meanwhile, Emily Simpson predicted that John’s $75,000 lawsuit against Shannon would “backfire.”
Following their split, John sued Shannon with the claim that she failed to pay back money he lent her for cosmetic procedures. Shannon has maintained that the money was a gift. On the new season of Real Housewives of Orange County, John’s current girlfriend Alexis Bellino suggested that he would release the videos, which would ruin Shannon’s life. The videos allegedly show Shannon almost running over John’s adult daughter on the night of her DUI.
In a sneak peek of the upcoming episode, shared by @byewighellodrama on Instagram, Shannon told Gina Kirschenheiter that her attorney reached out to John’s attorney in light of his alleged blackmail over the videos. Shannon apparently asked her lawyer if the other side had responded.
According to Shannon, her attorney said yes, and they claimed the other side is “actually standing on the fact that they want those videos for blackmail purposes.”
Gina’s mouth dropped.
“Their exact words were…” Shannon went on, presumably reading a text from her attorney, “‘John needs some sort of insurance policy in case Shannon goes off the rails’ … My attorney said [John’s] gonna file the lawsuit against me.”
In the next scene, Emily, who’s also an attorney, predicted that John’s lawsuit will “backfire” on him.
She then read the California penal code’s definition of extortion: “A criminal offense where the defendant threatens to expose the secret of another person.”
She commented, “John’s threat of the videos sounds very extortion-like.”
In a past interview with Bravo HQ, Emily addressed the video situation.
“I guess Shannon didn’t pay the amount [John] was asking for [in the lawsuit]. I think she countered at a lower amount or something. And my understanding, when that happened there was some conversation of like, ‘Gloves are off now. We’re gonna release these videos,’” said Emily, alluding to Alexis’ alleged account of things. “Apparently, there’s some videos that show Shannon at home with John in not-so-great of a light.”
“To me, it sounded very threatening. It sounded very extortion-like,” she went on. “It sounded very blackmailish, and I did not like that.”