Gina Kirschenheiter and Katie Ginella’s friendship has faltered since filming The Real Housewives of Orange County season 18.
“I have a friendship with Katie at this point, but I don’t have a hundred percent trust. I think Katie knows that and understands that,” Gina, 40, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, July 30. “I’m not really one to just throw away friendships. Like, I will move through them and work through them.”
She continued, “I think that it’s really hard to come into this group of friends and acclimate and find your footing. So, I grant grace there, but I also haven’t seen how bad it is, so we’ll see.”
When Katie, 40, joined RHOC season 18, she was introduced as a friend of Gina, whom she met through RHOBH’s Sutton Stracke. As seen in the preview for the season, Katie claims that costar Heather Dubrow often calls the paparazzi about her own whereabouts. Heather, 55, denied the claims and the fallout will air on the Thursday, August 1, episode of the Bravo hit.
“It’s so hard to watch. I just watched the episode and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m scared.’ It’s hard to watch,” Gina teased to Us. “And it’s kind of scary just for Katie. I’m like, ‘You’re really barking up a redwood here.’ It was ambitious of her [and I] give her credit for that. But, it also was hard because they were both my friends, so I kind of got caught in it.”
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According to Gina, Katie and Heather’s feud will play out “down the road” on RHOC. The resulting drama even impacts Gina’s connections to both women.
“There are [also] certain decisions that Katie made that were very surprising to me, and it didn’t bode well with me,” Gina said. “So I don’t really know what all of that was about.”
She added, “I’m actually interested to watch it as well and see what was actually happening when I wasn’t there. To this day, some of it I just still simply don’t understand.”
With her friendship with Katie on the rocks, Gina has been able to find solace in costar Emily Simpson.
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“She was over last night. We were cracking each other up,” Gina added. “We’re literally best friends. Emily is literally my family. And you’ll see, like, we get into it sometimes. Friends fight, [but] It’s like when you’re really friends and you have a fight, it makes you stronger. And when you’re not, then you move away from each other. And that’s how, if you’re really friends or not.”
Gina’s friendships with Emily, Katie and Heather will play out in upcoming episodes of this season of RHOC, which airs on Bravo Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi