It’s likely Gina Kirschenheiter and Braunwyn Windham-Burke’s newfound friendship on The Real Housewives of Orange County isn’t going to last long.
The 36-year-old reality TV personality told Access Hollywood that she doesn’t think her 43-year-old costar should return for season 16 of the series.
“I think that Braunwyn is still going through really a lot with this sobriety and emotionally and her figuring out her marriage and her sexual confusion and stuff like that. These are major things to go through and I just don’t know if this is the right venue to go through those things in,” Gina said. “It puts us in a really kind of scary situation, I feel like. It’s hard for us to navigate too as a group, but then again I know that’s interesting.”
Braunwyn and Gina made a truce during season 15 after the mother-of-seven opened up to her castmate about her battle with alcoholism. Last month, Gina hinted that they were back in a bad place, telling Us Weekly exclusively that she thinks Braunwyn and husband Sean Burke’s marriage is “in crisis.”
Gina explained, “I don’t know if that would survive the modern marriage. But if it works for them now, I mean, it’s less paperwork, it’s less money out of your pocket. It’s less of a headache and it’s, you know, it’s less messy for the whole family.”
Braunwyn and Sean, who renewed their vows for their 20th wedding anniversary during a November episode of RHOC, share seven kids: Bella, 20, Rowan, 18, Jacob, 15, 7-year-old twins Caden and Curren, Koa, 5, and Hazel, 2. The duo have sparked speculation about their relationship in recent weeks, with Sean temporally moving out of their family home and Braunwyn revealing she was seeing someone else. Despite the changes, the pair have insisted they have no plans to divorce.
The costars also argued during a recent episode of RHOC about a text that Sean sent Gina after a season 14 party. The New York native called Braunwyn’s husband’s message “creepy” and hinted that the couple wanted to have a threesome with her.
“Gina has never liked me from the beginning. You know, she’s always had a perception of me that is based on an idea. She’s never really taken the time to get to know me,” Braunwyn told Us about the situation. “I was saddened that she took something like that text message and made it into something else. We went to the tea party last year and we all went out after and we were drinking too much and she was very intoxicated. She couldn’t get her own Uber. And so Sean does something nice. He got her an Uber, got her home, was checking on her and made sure she was safe. And I felt very upset that you took a nice gesture and made it into something else.”
Braunwyn, who has been open about her and Sean inviting a third party into the bedroom in the past, added, “I think because people on the show know that I’m attracted to women, it sort of gives them the sense that they can, I don’t know, weaponize it and make me into a predator. There’s something about that that doesn’t sit right with me, that when it comes to same-sex relationships, it’s somehow, like, dirty or inappropriate. And I think more than the text message, it’s her weaponizing my sexuality that really got to me.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
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