Gina Kirschenheiter doesn’t believe Shannon Beador is malicious, but she does think she’s a troublemaker.
Following the lawsuit drama surrounding Nicole James and the actions she took against Heather Dubrow‘s plastic surgeon husband, Dr. Terry Dubrow, years ago, Gina shared her true feelings about Shannon before revealing what surprised her about Heather and admitting that she wasn’t sure she’d be asked back to The Real Housewives of Orange County.
“I don’t think that Shannon is that malicious… I just think that she is a little bit of a troublemaker,” Gina admitted during an interview with Us Weekly earlier this month. “And I don’t even think that sometimes she recognizes or realizes that her dropping things here, dropping things there, what that looks like at the end of it.”
According to Gina, Shannon likely learned a good lesson when her off-screen gossiping about Nicole’s troubled past with the Botched cast member came back to bite her.
“I think this particular situation has more aware of what that looks like and what she actually does do and the damage it could potentially cause for people,” Gina explained. “It was probably honestly a good thing for her to see and recognize.”
After being caught off-guard by the firings of Kelly Dodd, Braunwyn Windham-Burke, and Elizabeth Vargas, in June, Gina said she was excited to meet the infamous “Fancy Pants.”
“I thought I would get along with her. She’s from where I’m from and I always found her to be, when I watch the show, very reasonable. But I was surprised by how cool she was… I was very pleasantly surprised by how close we got,” Gina noted.
While many RHOC fans have also called for the returns of Vicki Gunvalson and Tamra Judge, Gina said she believes they have a great group now. That said, she’d be “down for whatever” when it comes to the OGs, especially considering there was a spot for them on the show “for a very long time.”
“I don’t think I was in touch with Vicki when we were on the show together. [But] Tamra and I do, every once in a while, we’ll text back and forth. We have some overlap in friends,” she shared.
When Gina was then asked if she feared she’d be fired after season 15, she admitted that it “always crosses [her] mind.”
“But I’m just happy to be here,” she explained. “I like the journey and I like how it challenges me. And I like the fact that in the interviews, they sit me down in the chair that I would avoid and never ask myself… I’ll be here for as long as I’m interesting and when I’m not, I’ll go do something else.”
Also during the interview, Gina admitted to having a big regret about the way in which she commented about Elizabeth’s troubled past in Dave Quinn‘s recently released book, Not All Diamonds and Rosé: The Inside Story of The Real Housewives from the People Who Lived It.
“I actually feel very bad about oversharing about my opinion about her, where she came from. I think it was too much,” Gina stated. “She’s a really sweet person. She’d give you the shirt off her back.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County season 16 airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.
Photos Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo