Tamra Judge claimed she has “no sympathy” for her former friend Shannon Beador amid her struggles following the DUI car crash, reacted to fan backlash, and slammed Gina Kirschenheiter for “com[ing] for” her on Real Housewives of Orange County.
![Tamra Judge Says She Has “No Sympathy” for Shannon Beador amid DUI Controversy, Reacts to Fan Backlash and Slams Gina Kirschenheiter for “Com[ing] For” Her](https://realityblurb.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Tamra-Judge-and-Shannon-Beador-onWWHL.jpg)
Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo
Many fans think that Tamra exited her friendship with Shannon so she could go after her in the current season like she did with Heather Dubrow in season 17.
Meanwhile, Gina claimed Tamra is negatively influencing Emily Simpson amid their budding friendship, and she suggested the co-stars are competing to see who can be the “bigger b**ch.”
Amid fan backlash over Tamra’s actions, some viewers now believe she’s trying to save face, making her case for why she treated Shannon unkindly.
“Oh, everyone hates me this season,” said Tamra in an interview with PEOPLE. “I know it looks like I’m being a bad friend to Shannon, or that I’m just attacking her for no reason. But as anyone who has someone in their lives who drinks like this will tell you, it’s very frustrating to watch that person refuse to get help and just keep making the same mistakes over and over again … There are going to be times when you just reach a breaking point where you can’t do it anymore. And that was my reality when the cameras went up.”
“Throughout the 10 years that I’ve known her, minus the two she didn’t speak to me when I wasn’t on the show, her life was always in shambles,” Tamra went on. “She would call me crying, almost daily — usually inebriated late at night — and she would be riled up about this or that. And listen, I cared about her. I was her friend. I wanted to help her, but she never did anything to help herself.”
Tamra claims her issues with Shannon stem from the drinking.
“I knew she had a drinking problem, but I was too afraid to say it to her. And I’ll take responsibility for that, I should have said something sooner,” said the star. “But every single person on our cast called her out on her drinking, and she would fight with them and ice them out. And I was worried if I did that, she’d cut me out, too.”
“After her DUI, we had a long, heart-to-heart conversation and for the first time ever, I actually told her what I thought,” Tamra shared. “I said, ‘Listen, you have a drinking problem. It’s time for you to get help.’ And she acknowledged it, and I comforted her and encouraged her to use this rock bottom moment to really make changes in her life.”
“Walking away from that conversation, I felt relief,” Tamra added. “I thought it was going to be a turning point; that crashing your car into the side of a house with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit would be a wake-up call. But days later, I heard she was talking about me behind my back, saying, ‘Who do I think I am saying she has a problem?’ and telling mutual friends of ours that other people in our cast were the real ones with drinking problems.”
Tamra claims she exited their Tres Amigas comedy show after seeing Shannon drink there. According to Tamra, Shannon started calling her again, blaming the accident on “the toxic people in her life,” and this made Tamra feel unable to go on.
“It was always someone else’s fault. I just lost respect [for her] and told myself, ‘If she’s not going to change, then I am,'” she said. “I couldn’t do it anymore. I had to get off the train; I had to choose me. Nothing I was saying to her was helping, because she doesn’t want to get help.”
“I won’t enable her anymore,” Tamra went on. “She won’t admit that she has a drinking problem because then she will have to stop drinking.”
“I have empathy for Shannon but I have no sympathy for her anymore,” she continued. “I know people make mistakes. I know plenty of people get DUIs who aren’t alcoholics. And I know alcoholics struggle to come to terms with their drinking. But this has been going on for so long. and if you can get behind the wheel that drunk, run your car into a house with your dog in the car, leave the scene while covered in blood with a broken nose, broken arm, and then go back to drinking again? I can’t have sympathy for that.”
Tamra claims people have reached out with kind words.
“I’ve heard from so many people who have been impacted by someone in their lives close to them who struggle with drinking problems. And they have said, ‘Believe me, I know where you’re coming from,'” said Tamra. “They’ve said, ‘The pressure it puts on you is overwhelming. I don’t blame you, that’s what happened to me too.’ And they’ve reminded me, ‘If someone isn’t making amends for how their drinking negatively affected you, they’re not doing the work.’ So it’s helped me understand that I’m not wrong in my feelings. And that sometimes, all you can resort to is tough love.”
Other fans, however, believe Tamra might be using this as a storyline to keep her job on RHOC.
Speaking with Decider, Tamra claimed she was “shocked” that Gina thinks Tamra is “turning Emily into an a**hole.”
“Me and Emily do not have powwows talking about how we can possibly be b**ches to people,” Tamra stated. “And I took offense to it.”
“Wow, Gina. That’s what you think of me? You think that low of me, that I’m going to go persuade people to be mean?” she asked. “I will take that up at the reunion, because I have always had a decent relationship, friendship with Gina.”
Tamra claimed her co-star is now “com[ing] for” her in the confessionals, which has been Gina’s “pattern for many many years.”
“And I’m like, I don’t get you,” said Tamra.
