Gina Kirschenheiter Opens up About Her Husband's Affair: "He's Not a Bad Person"

Gina Kirschenheiter shared that her husband had been unfaithful during their marriage in Tuesday night's episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County.

Gina opened up to her good friend Emily Simpson, revealing that before she was an OC Housewife, she discovered her husband had had an affair. "We tried to work through it the best we could. We're in therapy. It opened our eyes to other problems in the relationship," she said. "And so, when I filed for divorce and then meeting everybody going forward, for my kids' sake, I just felt like it wasn't necessary to share that. I didn't want to take that from my kids." 

She decided to not immediately go public with this information for the sake of their three young children, Nicholas, Sienna, and Luca. "I thought I was doing the right thing to protect my kids, and that's all that really matters to me," she said in an interview during the episode. "Like, I don't want my kids to think that their father's a bad person, because he's not. I don't want to be the reason that anyone would look at him badly. He's not a bad person, so it's just hard."

Gina filed for divorce from her husband in April 2018. Things between the former couple appeared to be amicable as they adjusted to their new family dynamic. In fact, at times it seemed as if they had not broken up at all. "We've been co-parenting really well, and I was so proud of us," Gina said. "And then the other day I found out he's still seeing this woman. And has been for like the past six months. And he didn't tell me, and I found out really bad, and it hurts."

Gina told Emily that she found a Valentine's Day card addressed to her husband from his mistress. "Finding the card felt like the day that I found out about the affair in the first place and brought me immediately back to that moment," Gina recalled during an interview in the episode. "So I got really scared because I didn't want to go back to that bad place that I was in when it all first happened because I can't go back there."

She went on to say that she's committed to remaining on good terms with her ex in order to keep their family together. But her husband's infidelity has damaged their own personal relationship, Gina said. "We're still gonna co-parent, we're still gonna whatever, but, for me, this changes things," she shared. "Like, I cannot have a deeper relationship with him because I just feel really hurt."

Gina told Emily that she doesn't know if her husband ever stopped seeing the other woman. "I don't even want to speak to what happened there, because I don't know, I will never know, and it doesn't serve me well to even think about it. It's already taken so much from me that I can't give it anymore," she said while getting emotional. "Because I just feel like I'm having the worst year ever. I can't. I give up."

Opening up about what happened in her marriage proved to be a painful yet cathartic experience for Gina. "I do feel this sense of relief, like this weight off my shoulders because I've just been carrying it around for so long, like not able to talk to anybody about it," she said in an interview during the episode. "It does feel good, at least, to just say it and finally, I guess, try to heal from it."

Later in the episode, Gina opened up to Tamra Judge about her husband's infidelity. "I had heard some rumors around town that he had cheated on her and broke up the marriage," Tamra said in an interview during the episode. "I didn't tell her I knew because I could tell she didn't want to talk about it."

But Gina is looking toward the future, sharing with Tamra that she has started dating again.

Gina's divorce from her husband was finalized after the former couple appeared in court in Orange County on August 14, according to The Blast. They filed a judgment with the court, which will be signed off by a judge. 

Gina and her ex will remain legally married until December 31, 2019, E! News reports. The protective order Gina filed against her husband in June has been extended until their next court date in January.