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Credit: Instagram
Katie Ginella clapped back at Gina Kirschenheiter’s claim that she’d consider leaving Real Housewives of Orange County if Katie returns. The star also called out Emily Simpson, revealed more details behind the blogger controversy, and shared what led to her secret recording of Shannon Beador.
Earlier this season, Tamra Judge called out Katie for speaking to a blogger about show drama. Tamra also claimed that Katie secretly recorded Shannon in a voice memo during Shannon’s alleged meltdown and showed it to her nemesis, Alexis Bellino.
Speaking with Decider, Katie shared that she doesn’t plan on quitting the show.
“I’d love to return and actually get the women that I would be with to actually get to know me, because I don’t think I’ve been afforded that yet,” she explained, before addressing Shannon’s reaction to the recording. “[Shannon’s] level of anger is a little bit much, considering there have been a lot worse things this cast has done, and she herself has been caught recording a few times.”
As for Gina’s claim that she would reconsider returning to the show if Katie comes back next season, Katie stated, “It took one person to kind of rile the whole group up to hate me, and it just seems like bully behavior right now.”
She also addressed Emily’s claim that kids are off limits on the show.
“At the finale last season, we agreed kids were off limits. Then we went into the reunion, and [Emily] then brought up my custody and legal battles. I was like, ‘Well, I thought we agreed kids were off limits,’” she said. “I also don’t agree that just because you say it to my face makes it OK to talk about the hardest point of my life when having to choose to give up custody was doing the right thing for my kids. I feel like that was just trying to paint me in a really bad light.”
Regarding her contact with bloggers, Katie explained, “One of the bloggers, the main one, messaged me because she was potentially going to be sued by Tamra. She had posted something that Tamra was running a blogger account … without even knowing it was true or not. Tamra messaged her, ‘I’m going to sue you.’ … And so the girl is freaking out saying, ‘Tamra is going to sue me.’”
She continued, “So I called her on Instagram – forgetting that that even happened, it was so insignificant – and told her, ‘You’re going to be OK. She’s not going to sue you, but I think you should take the post down for your mental health.’ … And that’s how it went … I didn’t know she would want 15 minutes of fame and come back later for it.”
Katie then shared more about the secret recording.
“First let me say it’s not a video. It’s a voice memo. We were all having our gallery shoot right after we got back from London, and Shannon and I were not friends. She actually really disliked me because I was friends with Alexis,” she said.
Katie added, “We were in a shared space [at the time]. It was Jenn, me and Shannon’s teams. We’re getting our hair and makeup done. Shannon showed up a few hours late – two or three hours late – and was talking with production on a speakerphone, yelling and screaming, and disrupted the entire room. I was on a Zoom call.”
“My husband was on the Zoom call because he is a part of my business with investors and other business partners,” she went on. “I abruptly hung up because it was so loud, even in my earbuds, that I couldn’t hear. My husband texted me like, ‘What’s going on?’ And I said, ‘This is what’s going on.’ And I voice-noted him what was happening.”
But Katie seemed to accuse certain co-stars of hypocrisy in this area.
“Kelly Dodd posted something that was sent to me, [claiming that Shannon and Heather] recorded [her] without [her] knowing,” she said. “Also, last year there was somebody that recorded or had a voice call, a butt dial from Tamra and they aired it. Kelly Dodd also put out something that said that Shannon recorded Vicki and Michael when she was staying at Vicki and Michael’s house and they were having an argument. We’re all guilty of something of the sorts. I just feel like I’m taking the brunt of all the anger of her past with [her ex] John and Alexis.”
Despite the cast drama, Katie claimed that one unnamed co-star has been “kind” to her. Teasing the rest of the season, the star said cryptically, “When you see a face that you don’t recognize, you should Google them.”
