The Real Housewives of Orange County's season 18 reunion ended in a way no one could have expected.
In fact, after the cast was finished rehashing this season's feud and drama, production picked back up three days later in a shocking twist. And, yes, the bombshell—which Heather Dubrow revealed off camera—was about the night of Shannon Beador's DUI.
"Seven months she's known that piece of information and she drops it after we film the reunion and they turn all the cameras off?" Emily Simpson reacted to Gina Kirschenheiter in the final moments of the Nov. 21 episode. "When she told me that, I was like, 'Are you kidding me?!'"
However, Heather insisted didn't intentionally keep the jaw-dropping revelation a secret from the group.
"I wasn't holding the information," Heather explained to Gina, Emily, Tamra Judge and Shannon. "What happened was, the night of the finale party, we go to this dinner. It's Tamra and Eddie [Judge] and me and Terry [Dubrow] and then Alexis [Bellino] and John [Janssen]. I don't remember why it came up. You were not the topic of conversation all night."
But then the chatter turned to the night Shannon drunkenly crashed her car last year after she and John had a contentious fight.
As Heather continued, "John said, 'Oh, I heard the crash.' Tamra and I both went, 'What the f--k are you talking about?!'"
Upon hearing this info for the first time, an emotional Shannon replied, "I went numb. It was always an 'I'll never know the answer.'"
But even more details of that dramatic night were exposed by John.
Amanda Edwards/Getty Images/Griffin Nagel/Bravo
Heather continued, "He said that when you took off and he heard the crash, he went to go run for you but his daughter stopped him and said, 'No, dad, this isn't good. You guys are fighting, I'm gonna go look.' She went around the corner and you were pulling off."
Then, Tamra dropped one last revelation: "He said that there was an altercation between you and him. He says you hit him."
A tearful Shannon responded, "I heard that he said I punched him, but I don't remember everything. I don't know what I did that night."
Despite her mistakes, the Housewives promised to support Shannon no matter what after her messy breakup and legal troubles. And the show of support was exactly what Shannon needed.
"I feel incredibly bonded to all of you right now," she told the foursome. "To have something like this bring us all together, I'm very grateful for it. My lowest moment of my life was my DUI, and I just feel like here we are, sitting here a year after my DUI and discussing that horrible night. But somehow, I just feel so much love around me right now and it's overwhelming."
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