Shannon Beador is over working with Alexis Bellino — but would Shannon really let Alexis prevent her from returning to The Real Housewives of Orange County?
Us Weekly caught up with Shannon, 60, at Emily Simpson’s RHOC reunion watch party on Thursday, November 14, supporting The Innocence Center, and she clarified her past comments about being undecided about her future on the show.
“I was on Nick Viall’s podcast, and he said, ‘What will you do if Alexis is back on the show?’ And my answer was, ‘I’m not filming with Alexis ever again,’” she recalled. “If they choose to bring Alexis back on the show, enjoy, but I’m not filming with you.”
Shannon pointed out, “I’ve never said I’m not coming back. I might have done that in my third or fourth year and I’ve never done it since.”
The reality star explained, “I’m grateful for the job. I am,” adding that fans shouldn’t be worried about her leaving the series.
“Oh, absolutely I am [returning]. I’d be grateful to come back,” Shannon told Us while hanging out at Five Vines Wine Bar in San Juan Capistrano, California.
While Shannon is ready for more RHOC, she reiterated, “But if Alexis Bellino comes back, sorry, not gonna be around [her].” She hinted that her reason becomes clear if fans “just keep watching the reunion.”
Shannon and Alexis — who returned to RHOC as a “friend” for season 18 after exiting in 2013 — butted heads all season. Part of their feud stemmed from Alexis dating Shannon’s ex-boyfriend John Janssen, whom she split from in 2022.
Alexis and John, 64, became an item in 2023 and in August, they announced they are engaged. While Alexis’ threw her relationship in Shannon’s face on multiple occasions, Shannon’s lawsuit with John is what really brought their fight to a head.
Shannon and John have been battling over $75,000, which John claimed Shannon refused to pay him after he previously paid for her facelift. Shannon initially agreed to give him half the money, but changed her mind when she learned John had damning footage from her September 2023 DUI arrest. (Alexis threatened to show the videos in an “unseen” scene from RHOC.)
Shannon claimed during part 2 of the RHOC reunion, which aired on Thursday, that she agreed to pay John $70,000 but alleged that he wouldn’t sign a non-disparagement clause, so she didn’t go through with the deal.
“John has never brought it up. So, there is no extortion,” Alexis argued on the episode, referring to her own “weak moment” when she discussed the videos.
She claimed Shannon was the one who brought up the videos, telling her, “You’ve gotta go back to your emails and check the truth. Because you have a really strange relationship with the truth.”
While Shannon and Alexis’ feud doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon, she isn’t the only Housewife who has issues with Alexis after season 18.
Emily, 48, exclusively told Us at the viewing party that she was “annoyed the first time [she] filmed with her.” She recalled Alexis showing up “two hours late” to drive to the Balboa Bay Club to shoot and then having a “nervous breakdown” in her house when she spotted chocolate on her skirt.
“By the time I got in the car with her, I was done,” Emily recalled, claiming Alexis was “so mean to production and that’s a huge turn off to me.”
After that exchange, Emily told Us she had “really bad taste in my mouth” which grew worse when Alexis “brought receipts to dinner” and later sued Shannon (with John).
“It all seemed so premeditated and planned out and methodical, and then bringing up the videos and using it in a blackmail type of way when she didn’t immediately agree to pay the full amount,” Emily continued. “I don’t want to be on the show with someone like that. I think that there has to be boundaries. It gets dirty on Housewives sometimes and that’s where I draw the line.”
Gina Kirschenheiter couldn’t agree more, telling Us on Thursday that her issues with Alexis grew out of her problems with John.
“I never really liked John. It’s tough. I know Alexis likes to defend him, but my issues with John were not just stemming from things that Shannon said,” Gina, 40, exclusively revealed. “She likes to say that. She likes to make it like, ‘Oh, it was just things that Shannon was saying about John’ and that’s not true.”
Gina explained that John was “disrespectful” to her both to her face and behind her back. “You can say that it’s, ‘I’m defending my girlfriend,’ but that’s not the way you defend your girlfriend,” she said. “To me, that just shows who you are.”
Gina claimed that all John ever did was “try to make that relationship worse” between her and Alexis. “I don’t like that, and I don’t play that game,” she concluded.
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs on Bravo Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET. Stream old episodes anytime on Peacock.
With reporting by Mike Vulpo
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