Shannon Beador and John Janssen.Photo:Albert L. Ortega/Getty
Albert L. Ortega/Getty
John Janssenis sharing his version of events from the night of ex-girlfriendShannon Beador’sDUI.
Janssen sat down for an interview withEntertainment Tonightfollowing the dramatic ending to part three ofThe Real Housewives of Orange Countyreunion. After the reunion wrapped filming,cameras picked back upwhenHeather DubrowandTamra Judgerevealed that Janssen had admitted to hearing Beador crash her car in September 2023.
At the time, Beador was charged withhit-and-run and driving under the influence. Her blood alcohol level wasthree times over the legal limitat 0.24. According to police, her car struck a residential building. Soon after, she exited the car and was found walking a few blocks from the scene with her dog.
During the Nov. 21 reunion episode, Beador said learning Janssen heard her crash made her go “numb” because she always thought she would “never know the answer” about what he knew from that night. “I’ve heard that he says I punched him,” she admitted. “But I don’t remember everything. I don’t know what I did that night.”
In Janssen’s interview withET, he told the outlet he and Beador “weren’t together that night” as he was visiting Catalina Island with friends.
“I got home at about 11, Shannon was in my home at 11, uninvited," he claimed. “We hadn’t talked. I didn’t expect to see her there. The level of intoxication was shocking, and her issue was she had lost her phone. I was always there to help Shannon with her issues, and I guess it had been left in an Uber.”
Shannon Beador and John Janssen.Astrid Stawiarz/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
He went on to explain that the Uber driver brought the phone back to Shannon’s house. After he went “150 yards” to where she was staying to retrieve it, he placed the phone up against her door so she could get it on her way inside to ensure she wouldn’t stay overnight at his house because of her behavior in her drunken state.
“That’s where the story gets bad,” Janssen said. “She went into extreme rage because I hadn’t brought the phone back to her. It’s like she was possessed, and she continued to physically attack me for probably the next minute, and I’m backing away the whole time.”
“I’ve got scratches on me, and I’m pretty upset,” he recalled, later adding: “Archie is now out running around the street, so that’s causing a scene. And finally, she gets Archie. She comes over to try and get her car. I stand in front of her to stop her from getting in her car, and I finally said, ‘Shannon, you’re a drunk idiot and you’re making a big mistake.’ And she gets in her car, she floors it in reverse out of my driveway, comes within inches of hitting one of my daughters.”
Shannon Beador and John Janssen.Todd Williamson/Bravo via Getty Images
After that, Janssen said he felt the situation was out of his hands and he was fearful for his daughters’ safety. They only went inside after Beador sped off, crashed, and left — at which point they felt safe.
“I basically gave up, because I’m not going to touch her in any way, and then have somehow accusations made against me for something else,” he said. “So she reverses out, almost hits my daughter, and then races around the corner, and we hear the crash."
“My instinct was to start running to the crash,” he added. “I did. So both of my daughters stopped me and said, ‘Dad, you can’t go anywhere near her. We’ll go.’”
Janssen says his daughters went over to investigate and police cars showed up about an hour after the crash.
They brought him Archie and he said he “knew she was arrested” at that point. When he didn’t hear back from texts and phone calls, Janssen said he called the local hospital and confirmed Beador was there.
“I said, ‘Can I come see her?’ And [the nurse] said, ‘No, you cannot. You will not be allowed to see her. She’s under arrest, so do not come,’” he shared. “After that, I was on the phone off and on the entire night, zero sleep, with [Beador’s] daughter, and the next morning I was at the police station waiting for her to be released from jail.”
Shannon Beador and John Janssen.Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
Janssen said he picked Beador up from jail the next morning and “put aside my sadness, anger, frustration of being terrorized that night, and my daughter being terrorized that night.”
“I took her home, I helped her get undressed, I bathed her, I fed her, I did her grocery shopping, I took her laundry to the cleaners, I took her to her doctor appointments,” he stated. “I cared for her for the next 10 days. Is that a guy who didn’t care?”
During that time, paparazzi began swarming his home, so Janssen said he took Beador to formerReal Housewives of Orange Countycast member Vicki Gunvalson’s home in a gated community. Another incident, which he said he cannot speak about, later allegedly occurred between Beador and one of his children, and Janssen said it was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“I made a phone call to Shannon saying, ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t be friends with you. I need to completely divorce myself from your world and your life,’” he said.
“I literally never wanted to tell this story,” he explained. “I wanted this story to die, and it’s really sad that that got brought up on the show, because that now forces my hand to have to explain, because the way it’s left right now, there’s too many negative implications on me, and anybody who knows the whole truth of that night would not think I did anything wrong.”
Shannon Storms Beador.Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty
Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty
The reality star previously called the night’s events “my lowest moment of my life” on theRHOCreunion.
In astatementto PEOPLE in September 2023 following her DUI, Shannon’s lawyer, Michael L. Fell, said she was “extremely apologetic and remorseful” and “prepared to accept full responsibility for her actions.”
After beingsentenced to three years probationand 40 hours of community service, Beador appeared publicly for the first time atBravoConin November 2023 and expressed her remorse.
“It’s been a tough six weeks but I will tell you that I made a terrible mistake and — I don’t want to cry. I’m incredibly grateful that I didn’t hurt anyone,” she said. “I, on my own, just completed a 28-day behavioral wellness program with an alcohol component and I have been able to focus on elements of my life that were unhealthy and toxic and I believe that today, I’m going in a good and positive direction.”
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The Real Housewives of Orange Countycan be streamed on Peacock.
source: people.com
