Gina Kirschenheiter is finally speaking out.
The 39-year-old “Real Housewives of Orange County” star addressed her co-star Shannon Beador’s DUI arrest for the first time on Wednesday’s episode of her “Orange Country” podcast.
“I’m happy that I didn’t address this so far,” she began before explaining that she felt her podcast was a “safe space” to share her thoughts on the incident.
“This is where I’m comfortable … yes, obviously … the irony of it is major, but honestly, at the end of the day, I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and Shannon and in general, I just don’t have it in me,” she continued.
“I’m not going to kick someone when they’re down, you know what I mean? I’ve been down. I know where she’s at right now,” Kirschenheiter said, referencing her own prior DUI arrest and Beador’s subsequent criticism on the Bravo reality TV series.
“It’s not a good place to be, mentally, emotionally … you do have this platform and this celebrity, and you make a really bad decision, and you think ‘Well, that’s it for me,’” she continued.
Kirschenheiter went on to recall that her “first instinct” after hearing the news of her 59-year-old co-star was to “thank God, obviously” because “she didn’t hurt herself seriously or injure anyone else.”
“It’s obviously the worst mistake you can make … so I’m just glad everybody’s OK,” she continued.
Kirschenheiter went on to explain that there was another “part” of her “that also felt ‘oh s–t, this is like a karma.’”
“But very quickly, I moved past that,” she noted. “Then I got angry about a lot of it for a minute. And now, I really have settled into appropriate sympathy for the situation, and for her. I don’t want to see anybody down. I never have.”
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Ironically, Kirschenheiter has been feuding with Beador in the latest season of “RHOC,” where she spoke out about the latter’s alleged drinking problem and said she should go to rehab.
Just two weeks ago, Beador was arrested for crashing into a house in Newport Beach, Calif. while under the influence of alcohol.
A video of the incident showed Beador zooming around a corner before losing control of her car and slamming into the side of a house. She narrowly missed the home’s front door, but damaged the concrete outside, according to photos exclusively obtained by Page Six.
Despite the drunken crash, Beador reversed her car and fled the scene. TMZ reported at the time that she then parked her vehicle “in the middle of the street” before she was apprehended by police.
Beador was booked for two misdemeanors: driving under the influence and the hit-and-run.
“She is extremely apologetic and remorseful,” Beador’s attorney, Michael Fell, said in a statement to Page Six after she was released on $2,500 bail. “We will be awaiting the official information on this case as it becomes available, and Shannon is prepared to accept full responsibility for her actions.”
