Real Housewives of Orange County star Shannon Beador discusses the aftermath of her DUI and her fractured relationship with Tamra Judge.
Shannon Beador recently chatted with Extra TV about her life post-DUI and her former friend Tamra Judge‘s cruelty.
In September 2023, Shannon was arrested for DUI and a hit-and-run after she drove her car into a home.
When asked if it has been difficult for her to watch season 18 of the Real Housewives of Orange County, Shannon Beador responded, “I’ll tell you, the episode that is airing right now, it was a really brutal, brutal night for me.”
She continued, “And I’ll be honest — it was the hardest night that I had in my 10 years of filming. I don’t want to sound like a victim, so it’s like I feel like I’m walking a fine line, but I mean, all it has shown me is that I am a survivor, and I’m able to make positive change even in, you know, such a dark place.”
As for all the headlines and stories surrounding her DUI, Shannon said:
“I’m trying to set an example for my daughters and to get a DUI… I mean, I was physically injured and broke bones, and to do all of that when I’m 60 years old, I mean, it was just the most humiliating. And I mean, most importantly, I didn’t hurt anybody, and that is what I’m grateful for because I don’t know how I would have handled that.”
The 60-year-old RHOC star continued, “I still do have shame and guilt, but it’s a hard thing to not think about. I feel horribly guilty, and I’m very ashamed of myself for what I did.”
Shannon then noted that she doesn’t ever see herself reconciling with Tamra Judge after she showed her no sympathy post-DUI and instead was nothing but cruel.
“Tamra has this narrative that she just keeps repeating, saying, ‘Shannon has an issue with alcohol.’ And she is correct that I was using alcohol to cope, and I’ve openly admitted that multiple times. The problem is that there’s a new narrative now, and Tamra seems to be stuck in the past. She knows absolutely nothing about what I’ve done and what I’m working on, and what I continue to work on.”
“She can continue to be unkind and cruel. I’m just not interested anymore,” Shannon added. “We’ve had this history, 10 years, of up-down, up-down, and I always go back. It’s not healthy for me to enter a toxic friendship, and that shows growth within me to say, ‘I’m going to create a boundary, and we’re not going to be friends anymore.’”
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs on Bravo Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.
4 comments
iswas her friend and obviously believes she is a raging alcoholic (as do I and I suspect most of her friends), so maybe she's just using tough love on her. It seems to me Shannon got off too easy, I trivialized Shannon's little mishap at first, but when the video (now scrubbed from the internet) of her careening through that area (at that speed) surfaced a few weeks later, I was done. Bravo should have suspended her as well.