Real Housewives of Orange County fans are still talking about the premiere episode for season 18. Many have questions about Shannon Beador and why she was coming from John Janssen‘s house before she got into the car wreck that resulted in her very public DUI. Additionally, much like her castmates, others want to know why she continues to drink after having such a traumatic and potentially life-altering night less than a year ago. Now, Shannon is opening up and explaining why she was coming from John’s house as well as why she continues to drink.
Fans will recall that Shannon and John dated for three years before he broke up with her in November of 2022. She got her DUI in September of 2023 and first tried to hide the fact that she was even driving. More recently, pictures of the injuries she sustained in the crash have surfaced, and they illustrate how dire the situation was.
Now, Shannon is opening up to People about her and John and why she was at his house that night before speeding away and hitting a neighbor’s property. According to Shannon, they had reconnected in 2023. She says, “For about six months, he dated someone else and I dated someone else but after that, we reconnected.”
She continues, “Both of us told everyone, ‘No, we’re not back together,’ but we were acting like we were back together.”
She goes on to say that they were together again for about six months starting in March of that year.
“I think deep down, he and I both knew that it was never going to work. So, I wouldn’t say we were back together publicly, but we were together privately, for about six months.”
Shannon also admits that she was unsure of what John wanted out of their renewed romance. She says, “I’m not sure what he was really in it for. But at the same time, he moved very quickly with me and told me that he loved me right away, that we were going to spend the rest of our lives together.”
Fans knew from the episode of RHOC that Shannon was coming from John’s house, but now it makes sense why she was so angry as they were dating at the time. However, she tells people that he broke up with her via a phone call about a week after the DUI. It wasn’t long before he started dating Alexis Bellino.
According to Shannon, “It wasn’t a good time.” However, she has not given up on love. It’s also important to note that John denies that they were back together. He says, “Several months after our break-up, I attempted a friendship with Shannon. As we both privately agreed and publicly declared, there was never an intent to rekindle our relationship. Any suggestion that we were back together as a couple is a mischaracterization of the situation.”
Shannon also opened up to People about her drinking. She says, “I acknowledge that I was drinking a lot — a lot — back then, but today I’m not.”
She goes on to say that the emotional turmoil from her divorce and her toxic relationship with John caused her to seek ways to cope.
She continues, “I was using alcohol as a coping mechanism. And I know I can’t do that anymore. I want to be a healthier and better person for me. I still see my therapist and my psychiatrist from the facility I went to on a regular basis. And I’ll probably be working on myself for the rest of my life. But today, from where I was almost a year ago — because I’m approaching the year mark of my DUI — I’m proud of where I’ve come.”
Regarding her drinking today, Shannon says, “If I choose to drink when I go out, I keep it to a minimum. And one or two drinks typically is what’ll happen — especially if I go on vacation. And you’ll see the season when we went on our all-cast trip, I ordered a drink or two when we went out — because I never want it to look like I’m sneaking — and I was fine.”
She continues, “There’s a part of me that enjoys a cocktail. I like the whole sit down, take a breath, be with your friends, have a cocktail, have dinner — that routine.”
The interviewer then asks if she would ever give up drinking, and she says, “Absolutely. When I did the program, they would randomly drug [and] alcohol test, so I couldn’t drink for that during that period. But I don’t want to sit here and say I’m never going to have a drink again. Because I am drinking. So I want to be open and honest.”
Shannon goes on, “If I get to the point where I think alcohol is negatively affecting my life, then I will address that. If I find that alcohol is messing up my life, like it was when I was using it to cope, then I’ll gladly talk about it.”
