Shannon Beador explained what she meant when she said that The Real Housewives of Orange County was “a reality show trickling into her real life” after last week’s episode of season 18.
After a dramatic group dinner with her castmates in London, during which Shannon’s DUI crash and John Janssen‘s lawsuit against her were mentioned, Shannon, 60, suggested that she goes much deeper than her castmates as Tamra Judge, 57, defended what she brings to the show and Emily Simpson, 48, Gina Kirschenheiter, 40, and Heather Dubrow, 55, reacted to the claim.
“Yes, the show is real life, but you’re seeing snippets. The audience is seeing snippets,” Shannon clarified during an October 10 interview with Bravo HQ. “I’m going to bed at night. The show will stop airing. I still got a lawsuit. I still am dealing with the consequences of my poor decision in drinking and driving. Alexis Bellino is still posting about her future husband and their relationship.”
According to Shannon, her drama “doesn’t stop” when cameras stop rolling.
“There [are] some people that are on the show [and] it’s fun. You go have lunches, dinners, laugh, yell at a few people, and you go home and you can turn it off,” she explained. “You’re not going in as deep. This is deep. It’s a deep year. Year 10 is deep for me.”
Meanwhile, Tamra insisted that while Shannon has suggested she has no storyline on RHOC, she has shown her real life.
“She’s going around telling people, ‘Oh, Tamra doesn’t have a storyline.’ I’m like, ‘No, I don’t have a storyline. I have a life,'” she shared.
Looking back at Shannon’s odd comment about their “reality show,” Gina admitted to feeling “very confused” by her co-star.
“I’m like, ‘Duh.’ Here we are, Shannon. Is this your first day here, girl?” she recalled.
Still, she understood where Shannon was coming from in feeling that her off-camera life was very much weighed down by the issues being addressed on-camera.
“There was the show and everything we were doing in the moment, and then there was this legal battle that’s still going to be continuing when these cameras go down. I think that what Shannon actually meant by that was, like, ‘Yeah, maybe I’m sharing this and this is in the moment but then after this comes out, it doesn’t stop,'” Gina stated.
Emily suspected Shannon regretted making the statement.
“I think she was just probably so shaken up by Alexis, by the relationship with John, by John consistently coming up, by the lawsuit that he filed where we were filming, by this threat of releasing videos that are going to humiliate her, of being in London and everybody attacking her … I think that she just said something which sounds ridiculous because the whole point of the show is that we’re sharing our real lives, and this is your real life,” Emily suggested. “There isn’t a separation between the two.”
While Heather agreed with Emily that Shannon’s comment was ridiculous, saying, “The whole point is you show your authentic life here on this show,” she also described the line as “the most iconic.”
Also during the Bravo HQ interview, Jennifer Pedranti, 47, pointed out that Shannon isn’t the only one who has gone through hard times on the show.
“Part of the frustration was it affects all of our lives — a lot of positive and then when the ugly stuff happens. So when Shannon said that, it’s like, ‘Yeah, obviously,’” she noted.
As for Katie Ginella, 40, she applauded Shannon for showing strength amid her struggles.
“I think we all saw Shannon throughout the season have moments of really tough times and we were all kind of like, ‘This is really heavy on you and we want you to mentally heal.’ But she got through it,” Katie said, “She’s stronger than I thought she would be.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County season 18 airs Thursdays at 9/8c on Bravo.
