Jeff Lewis is shedding light on the confusion surrounding Shannon Beador‘s comments about whether or not John Janssen could’ve heard her DUI crash.
After Shannon, 60, was seen telling Jeff, 54, that it never occurred to her that John, 62, may have heard the wreck, but sharing otherwise with Heather Dubrow, 55, Jeff explained why Shannon lied while also revealing why he opted against filming with her for The Real Housewives of Orange County.
“It never occurred to Shannon, it really didn’t,” Jeff began on SiriusXM Radio’s Jeff Lewis Live, as heard in a clip shared by The Bravo Investigator on Instagram.
While Jeff insisted that Shannon didn’t really think that John could’ve heard her hit the Newport Beach house she hit in September 2023 while driving intoxicated with her dog, Archie, in the car, he admitted that the thought occurred to him right away.
“I had been to John Janssen’s many times, and as I got all the information from the accident, I had said, ‘Wait a minute. You backed up. Literally, you hit that house in seconds.’ She’s like, ‘Seconds.’ And I said, ‘Okay,’ and I had said to Shane, and then I mentioned it to Shannon. And I don’t regret doing it because I’m her friend. But I said, you know, the front door … It’s like a waterfront house, and then the front door is all the way at the front. So you have to walk down that long sidewalk. So I said, ‘I just don’t understand, Shannon. How did he not hear that accident, because that would’ve been a huge crash,’” he recalled.
Noting that he wasn’t “certain” about his suspicions, Jeff stated that if John didn’t hear, he had to have been “practically running to that front door” so that he was inside before Shannon drove off and crashed her car.
“I think [he] could probably hear the crash. Or maybe he didn’t. Or maybe he was intoxicated or whatever,” he reasoned.
According to Jeff, he was scheduled to film with Shannon and talk about the issue until he ultimately chose to back out.
“The problem was that was when the lawsuit had kicked up. And so I said, ‘I’m not doing this because he’s litigious.’ And I said, you know, ‘Even though I don’t know anything. I don’t know for certain. I’m not making any claims,’” he explained. “I’m just saying I just question it because I have been to that home.”
“Bravo wouldn’t indemnify me. So I said, ‘I can’t.’ I’m like, ‘I can’t risk this. I can’t risk getting sued,’” Jeff continued.
As for Shannon’s appearance on his radio show, Jeff said that after he brought up John and the crash, Shannon backpedaled out of fear.
“We were both scared … She’s like, ‘I don’t wanna talk about this because he’s already suing me once. I don’t want to make any claims at all that he could have potentially heard me. Because who knows? Defamation, whatever,’” Jeff revealed. “She was scared … [So] she did lie on [Jeff Lewis Live]. She did. But she did it because she was afraid because she is already dealing with him, with legal issues.”
Last week, while appearing on Watch What Happens Live, Shannon addressed her conflicting statements about John and her crash, explaining that sometimes she “[says] things and [gets] the wrong words.”
“On Jeff Lewis Live, I was super tired, you can hear it in my voice, and he said, ‘Have you ever thought about that?’ And I meant to say, ‘I hadn’t until he brought it up.’ I had thought about it — I hadn’t thought about it. See? Okay. I hadn’t thought about it until Jeff called me 10 days after the DUI and said, ‘Did you think about this?’” she stated. “And it had never occurred to me. So when I said I had thought about it, I meant to say I hadn’t thought about it.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County season 18 airs Thursdays at 9/8c on Bravo.
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