Emily Simpson looked back on the drama between Alexis Bellino and Shannon Beador during a recent interview, admitting that while she was initially friends with Alexis, things ultimately took a turn in the other direction.
As Tamra Judge, 57, called her out for “[dropping]” Alexis, 47, as a friend and Alexis spoke of how hard it was to film The Real Housewives of Orange County with Shannon, 60, amid her romance with Shannon’s ex-boyfriend, John Janssen, 60, Emily, 48, addressed Heather Dubrow‘s feud with Katie Ginella, 40, and explained the end of her friendship with Alexis.
“People will say to me, ‘Are you Team Shannon or are you Team Alexis.’ And it’s never about teams. I don’t like that mentality. It’s very divisive. And so in the beginning, it was just very difficult to navigate between the two of them,” Emily shared during a September 18 interview with Bravo HQ. “They couldn’t be in the same room. You’re in the room with them and you’re like, do I go over here and talk to Alexis but then Shannon’s gonna get upset. Do I console Shannon? It was just, I think we all were just trying to figure out how to navigate it.”
While Emily was initially torn, Tamra pointed out that “amnesia” seemed to set in as the season continued,
“All the sudden they all have amnesia. When [Alexis] came on the show, she was friends with Emily, she was friends with me, she’s friends with Heather. She quickly became friends with Katie and [Jennifer Pedranti]. And then all the sudden, Emily dropped her,” she recalled. “She didn’t want anything to do with her.”
Admittedly, Emily began to feel turned off by Alexis’ behavior.
“Alexis was really difficult for me to deal with towards the end. I just felt like she became just so unreasonable at times and so obnoxious that I didn’t really care and I was like, fine to be with Shannon and talk to her and not feel I had to navigate the two,” she explained.
Katie also struggled with feeling like she was in the middle of Alexis, who is now engaged to John, and Shannon.
“It was extremely hard developing separate relationships because they both have something so horrible against each other and Shannon has voiced to me that she’s not happy that I spend time with Alexis and Alexis has told me that you know, ‘Keep that separate. We don’t need to discuss it. I know you’re close with her and that’s okay.’ So navigating and being in the middle is very very difficult. But they’ve both been really really good to me,” she noted.
As Alexis and John have faced backlash throughout season 18, so have the cast members who have aligned with and supported Alexis and the relationship.
“Alexis text me and Heather the other day and said ‘Girls I feel so bad. You guys are going down and people are saying bad things about you because of your friendship with me and that really hurts my heart.’ And I said, ‘I will still support you. I can take it,’” Tamra revealed. “It is hurtful and I worry bout her because the hate that is being spewed about her is disgusting. She’s such a kind person and has a big heart.”
As for Alexis, she said she anticipated the hardships she faced.
“I knew it was going to be very difficult for Shannon and I to be in a room together, just as hard on me as it is on her. No one wants to film with their fiancé’s ex,” she noted. “I also knew it would be hard on her. It played on me and my heart a lot. I never tried to befriend Shannon. I never wanted to be her friend. I wanted to be amicable. I wanted it to be civil. I wanted to be a lady. It just wasn’t possible so it wore on me a lot of nights.”
Also, during the interview, Emily shared her thoughts on Heather’s paparazzi drama with Katie.
“Heather is a very strong, yet loyal friend. But in order to get to that point with her, you have to build a foundation and I feel like I’ve done that for the past three years and [Gina Kirschenheiter]’s done that and I think the problem with the Heather-Katie situation is Katie came in right from the get-go without having any kind of foundation with Heather at all,” she explained. “To make an accusation, which let’s be honest, it’s not like it was some life-altering, horrible accusation…”
The Real Housewives of Orange County season 18 airs Thursdays at 9/8c on Bravo.
