RHOC star Shannon Beador is breaking her silence on the lawsuit she’s facing at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, John Janssen.
“Even though it’s not warranted, I offered to pay John the exact amount that he wanted,” Shannon Beador said on the Monday, April 1, episode of SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live. “But he turned the deal down because he didn’t want to sign a mutual non-disparagement agreement, and that’s standard in most settlements, and that’s where you say you’re not gonna talk badly about someone.”
After conferring with her legal team, the RHOC star thinks it’s best to let the case play out in the legal system.
“It’s frustrating because now my hands are tied,” she explained. “What am I supposed to do? Say, ‘Here’s all this money that you claim that I owe you, and go ahead. Say whatever you want about me.’ No. My attorney said I can’t let you do that, so I have to now go to trial and that’s a lot.”
As AllAboutTRH previously reported, John is suing Shannon after she reportedly borrowed $75k for a facelift and failed to repay the loan.
On March 20, John filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court against Shannon “for breach of oral contract and promissory fraud, among other things, to recover $75,000 he claims she failed to repay him.”
John alleges that the RHOC star “turned to him for financial support in early 2022, borrowing $40,000 via wire transfer on Jan. 23, 2022, for a facelift procedure. Then, on May 20, 2023, he gave her another $35,000 via personal check.”
In the court filing, the OC businessman claims that Shannon agreed to pay back both loans with interest. However, when he attempted to collect the payments in 2023 and 2024, the reality star failed to do so.
As a result, John is “seeking the full amount, plus accrued interest, costs, and reasonable attorneys’ fees.”
From Shannon Beador’s point of view, she and John both gave each other money throughout their three-year relationship.
“There were two times where he gave me money, and there were many times where I paid for things or gave, which you would say equates to me giving him money, so you wanna go tit for tat,” she told Jeff Lewis. “You want me to show the tens of thousands of dollars that I spent. That’s kind of what I’m doing right now with my time, and it’s not fun.”
The Bravoleb continued, “Let me be clear. For the second half of our relationship, John paid for stuff. But in the beginning, I did. So when we traveled, the hotels, the airfare, I think John only bought me one airline ticket in our entire relationship. I always did, and so, you know, I took him to New York four times in four months in our first six months of dating.”
According to the RHOC star, there was not a written agreement or payment plan in place to repay the money.
“At the very beginning of the relationship, he said, ‘You’re my future. You’re my person. You’re my future,’” the RHOC star recalled. “That’s what he said and I thought, ‘Yeah.’ I felt this comfort with him right away and I thought we were going to be together forever.”
Shannon Beador also believes that John Janssen’s new girlfriend, returning RHOC alum Alexis Bellino, played a role in him suing her.
“Well, I’ve had two lawsuits. They’ve both had Bellino around it,” she said. “Interesting, isn’t it? A little bit.”
The 59-year-old says she can’t confirm that Alexis inspired John’s lawsuit against her; however, she finds it all “very coincidental.”
“I don’t know if she had anything to do with it or not,” Shannon added. “I really don’t know.”
In 2019, Shannon was awarded $138k in Alexis’ ex-husband Jim Bellino‘s lawsuit after she was dismissed from his $1 million defamation lawsuit against her and RHOC co-star Tamra Judge.
Shannon previously revealed to E! News that John’s relationship with Alexis was especially hurtful because of the lawsuit Jim Bellino filed against her in 2018.
“John is very well aware of a lawsuit that I was involved in with Jim Bellino,” the 59-year-old RHOC star said. “Alexis was involved in the lawsuit. I was financially and emotionally devastated for years. I won, but it devastated me financially…John’s aware of that.”
Shannon and John split in late 2022 after three and a half years of dating. The break-up came just days after Shannon wrapped filming for season 17 of the Real Housewives of Orange County, as John didn’t want to dump her on camera. The two initially remained friends post-breakup; however, that all changed when John began dating Real Housewives of Orange County alum Alexis Bellino in November 2023.
This drama is sure to play out on season 18 of RHOC, which is currently filming.
The Real Housewives of Orange County will return for season 18 in mid-to-late 2024.
