Lara Sophia 
The sixteenth season of the Real Housewives of Orange County started off with Shannon Beador stirring the pot.
Shannon claimed that new “friend of the Housewives” Nicole James sued Heather Dubrow’s husband, Dr. Terry Dubrow, years prior.
The accusation happened off-camera with Shannon telling costars Emily Simpson and Gina Kirschenheiter about Nicole’s alleged legal drama with the Botched doctor.
“OK, I’ll spill the tea. I’m going to spill the tea. It’s piping hot. Just last night, Shannon told Emily and I that she had this secret about Nicole, that Nicole sued Terry Dubrow,” Gina said in her confessional interview. The details about the lawsuit remain unclear.
Later in the episode, Heather met up with Shannon, Gina, and Emily for lunch. Gina and Emily encouraged Shannon to share what she knew about Nicole’s lawsuit against Terry with Heather.
However, Shannon would not comply.
“Stop it. Like, I’m serious right now. Stop,” she fired back while reminding Gina that she “made a promise” not to discuss the gossip about Terry in front of Heather.
Then while driving to a party at Heather’s house, Emily talked with Gina on the phone and claimed that Shannon asked her to look into Nicole’s alleged lawsuit against Terry.
“She called me last night. She kept saying, ‘Emily, you’re an attorney! You need to find this information about this Nicole,’” Emily said. “What am I supposed to do with this information? Bring it up at a dinner party?”
Emily dubbed this move “typical Shannon behavior” in her confessional interview.
“She likes to stir up trouble on the down-low so that everybody is privy to it,” she said. “That way, if it comes back up, she can play the innocent victim like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’”
Meanwhile, Gina made it clear that she had “no problem telling Heather what’s going on.”
She explained, “Shannon is just not self-aware. She was very eager to share her juicy gossip about this girl Nicole. And the right thing to do is to tell Heather because I don’t think I’m capable of pretending that this is OK.”
And it turns Gina did spill the tea as an explosive fight goes down at the Dubrow’s house in episode 2.
