‘RHOC’ Star Gina Kirschenheiter Opens Up About Being 3-Years Sober

Saying no to alcohol has transformed the life of The Real Housewives of Orange County’s Gina Kirschenheiter.

“Honestly, the biggest tip and trick and lifestyle change for me is coming up on three years sober, three years not drinking,” Kirschenheiter, 40, exclusively told Us Weekly at Emily Simpson’s RHOC reunion watch party on Thursday, November 14. “That is the most incredible change and shift and edit I’ve ever made to my life. I fully recommend it to everyone.”

While the Bravo star said she doesn’t talk about it often, the mom of three “feels good” about her decision to no longer imbibe.

“Because I feel the way I feel, and how much positivity that has come into my life since I made the decision to stop drinking,” Kirschenheiter said while supporting The Innocence Center, “I would love to share that with other people and just say, ‘Look, if you’re thinking about stopping drinking, do it. It will literally change your life for the better in every way.’”

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Back in April 2023, Kirschenheiter first revealed that she stopped drinking in 2021. She was partly inspired to make the change after noticing she was starting to become dependent on alcohol in a way she hadn’t been before.

“Turns out when you stop poisoning yourself, good things happen,” Kirschenheiter told Us at the watch party held at Five Vines Wine Bar in San Juan Capistrano, California. “Honestly, the biggest thing that it did was it made me have to deal with some of the stuff that I think I was avoiding.”

“Then it was just the pure toxicity of what I was putting into my body that was a huge edit shift, and then processing out all that trauma that I was trying to avoid,” she continued. “The combination of the two things has just been life-changing for me.”

As Kirschenheiter prepares to celebrate the end of RHOC season 18, she’s grateful for her continued friendship with Simpson, 48. She’s also happy to be in a much better place with Shannon Beador.

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After Beador, 60, apologized for the things she said about Kirschenheiter’s 2019 DUI arrest, the pair have put a hard pause on their previous feud.

“It really did mean a lot to me that she apologized and she was genuine,” Kirschenheiter explained to Us. “I could tell. I know when people are full of s— or not, which is mostly why I had a problem with Shannon for the first five years. I could just tell she was truly genuine and that was incredible. That’s all I needed for her to understand and for her to be sorry and that was it.”

The Real Housewives of Orange County airs on Bravo Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET. Stream old episodes anytime on Peacock.