Tamra Judge agrees with her “Real Housewives of Orange County” co-stars who believe Shannon Beador should have entered rehab following her DUI arrest in September 2023.
“I do think she needs to go to rehab,” Judge, 56, exclusively tells Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast, echoing castmates Emily Simpson and Gina Kirschenheiter, who each shared the same sentiment in Thursday’s Season 18 premiere.
“But I do think that she needs to acknowledge the fact that she needs to go to rehab. She can’t just go because people are telling her to go,” Judge continues. “She has to go because she wants to stop drinking.”
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The “Two Ts in a Pod” co-host emphasizes that she doesn’t believe Beador — whom she once considered a best friend before falling out over an assortment of issues — has “hit rock bottom yet,” therefore precluding her from seeking such professional help.
“I don’t think she’s willing to [go to rehab],” Judge tells us.
Judge and Beador, 60, clashed during production for the upcoming season of “RHOC” — with many of their arguments being about the latter’s drinking after she crashed her vehicle into a residential building in Newport Beach, Calif., last year.
In the latest episode, Beador tells Simpson, 48, that she only allows herself two alcoholic beverages per outing following the incident.
Judge, for her part, doesn’t believe this change in her ex-pal’s consumption is beneficial.
“You can’t [be] somebody that has a drinking problem and say, ‘Well, I’ll just have two,’” she says, sharing her personal opinion about Beador’s relationship with alcohol. “It doesn’t work like that.”
A rep for Beador didn’t immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
In a recent interview with E! News, Beador asserted that Judge has “no right” to question her drinking habits.
“She has had no part of anything that I have done since my DUI. None. In fact, she left town the day after my DUI, I hear that she’s saying, ‘I was there for her and I did this.’ No you weren’t,” Beador told the outlet.
“Who made you the judge and jury of what I should and shouldn’t be doing in my life? Focus on yours, because I’m focusing on mine.”
However, at BravoCon 2023 — which took place last November two months after her brush with the law — Beador praised Judge for her support in the aftermath, especially as the Vena CBD businesswoman jetted off to Scotland to film “The Traitors” Season 2.
“First of all, these two have been an incredible support system to me,” she told Us Weekly while walking the red carpet with both Judge and “OG of the OC” Vicki Gunvalson.
“Tamra was leaving for ‘The Traitors’ on the day that my DUI became public and she didn’t even wanna go … And then I ended up going to stay with Vicki and she took care of me. So these are true friends and that’s what life is all about.”
When asked if a reconciliation with Beador is on the table, Judge seems cautiously optimistic.
“I never say never,” she says, “but I really just hope that she gets the help she needs.”
Though she didn’t enter rehab in the wake of her DUI, Beador prioritized her well-being by spending time at “a behavioral wellness place with an alcohol component in it.”
The mother of three has continued to “work with a trauma therapist and a psychiatrist regularly multiple times a week,” she told E!
“I was using alcohol as a coping mechanism,” said Beador, noting that she leaned on alcohol throughout her tumultuous divorce from ex-husband David Beador.
“I have in my past in different periods in my lifetime, like when my marriage was ending.”
“The Real Housewives of Orange County” airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
