Shannon Storms Beador Claims RHOC Ladies Used to Have Secret “Code” : ”If You Hear…”
The Real Housewives of Orange County castmate discussed how her ex-husband's affair played out on the show, and why it might air differently if it happened today.
Dealing with “the rumors and nastiness” is a main event on all Real Housewives franchises, but one Housewife shared it wasn’t always that way. Shannon Storms Beador sat down with former executive producer Alex Baskin to talk about her time on The Real Housewives of Orange County, including the secret “code” the ‘Wives went by — at least at first.
“Well, I am gonna say something you might not like, but when I started, there was just kind of like this code of if you hear a rumor or something about another person, you don’t talk about it on camera unless you verify that it’s true,” Shannon shared on a past episode of Baskins’ Bravo's Hot Mic podcast, now in its third season.
That code was put to the test soon after Shannon began filming Season 9 on Oct. 13, 2013 with her now ex-husband, David.
“The very next day, David left on a trip with a group that he was in, and [David] started an affair that very next day and I had no idea … I was like, so stupid. I had no idea,” Shannon admitted on the podcast.
Shannon Storms Beador on RHOC rumors
Shannon shared what it was like when the rumors started floating that David was cheating on her during her first season on RHOC.
“Both Heather [Dubrow] and Tamra [Judge] had heard rumors about it around town, but they didn’t have substantiation,” Shannon shared of the ‘Wives following the “code.” “So, they didn’t bring it up.”
She’s not sure an affair rumor would play out on the show the same way today.
“I think that today, there are certain people that if they just hear a nugget, they’ll run to the cameras and just put it out there,” Shannon added.
She explained how the ‘Wives would previously “substantiate” before gossiping.
“You could go to the person, or you could make sure that this potential rumor you heard, whether it’s true or not, investigate, do your homework, before you potentially hurt someone and put something on the camera,” Shannon said on the podcast.
But Alex Baskin refuted the fact that there was a so-called “code.”
“It’s so funny, because I still remember a lot of that in those days, and even the group that we’re talking about then, seemed to me to be guilty of not doing that, of not, you know, adequately verifying and authenticating rumors,” he said on the podcast.
“Yeah, I mean, maybe so, but for me, at least with the affair, I mean, I so appreciate that they didn’t talk about it without knowing for sure,” Shannon responded.
It wasn’t until the end of Season 10, which aired in 2015, that it was revealed David had an affair.
“We went through the entire Season 10 of, you know, Vicki [Gunvalson] knew about the affair because I had discussed it with her,” Shannon said on the Hot Mic podcast.
Shannon ended up sharing David’s affair with Tamra and Heather in Episode 18 of that season.
“I’m not gonna say that I’m shocked,” Tamra said in her confessional. “There’s been a lot of rumors around Orange County of David’s affair.”
“I knew that David had an affair, but I didn’t repeat it to anyone,” Heather added in her confessional. “So if you want to know what girl code is, even when Shannon and I were not getting along at all, I did my best to protect her.”
But in the next episode, at Tamra’s baptism, the truth came out to the rest of the cast.
“For the other cast members to not find out until that baptism when Vicky brought it or someone else brought it out, that’s incredible to me,” Shannon said on the podcast. “I don’t know that that could have happened today. I think that it’s gone a little bit different with cast members, at least on our show. But you know, the fact that nobody knew about it. I mean, people were astonished in the first episode to see David and I at the boot camp saying he had an affair. It was like, ‘Wow.’”
Watch the video edition of Bravo's Hot Mic podcast at BravoTV.com/podcast or listen for free wherever you get your podcasts.
