Gina Kirschenheiter reveals why ‘RHOC’ cast feels ‘unsafe’ around co-star Katie Ginella

Gina Kirschenheiter is getting real about how the “Real Housewives of Orange County” cast feels about their co-star Katie Ginella. 

In an exclusive interview with Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea,” Kirschenheiter, 41, says that Ginella, also 41, makes the women of “RHOC” feel “unsafe” after filming Season 19 of the unscripted Bravo hit. 

The real estate agent says that such feelings generated among the ladies after it was revealed that Ginella secretly recorded Beador, 61, having a purported meltdown behind the scenes of a cast photo shoot days after production for Season 18 wrapped last year. 

Tamra Judge was the one to relay the info to the group, also alleging that Ginella played the recording in front of Jennifer Pedranti and, more notably, Alexis Bellino — Beador’s onscreen foe and fiancée of her ex John Janssen. At the time, Beador was embroiled in a since-settled legal war with Janssen over $75,000 that he allegedly loaned her for a facelift.

Ginella maintains that she never sent the audio recording to Pedranti or Bellino, both 48, and only shared it with her husband, Matt Ginella. 

“It’s never bad enough to record anyone. It would never be my instinct. And I think the fact that that’s her instinct is what the problem is. When your instinct is [to] record? Problem! It’s just as simple as that, right?” Kirschenheiter says. 

“With that said, I mean, I didn’t hear it, but I’m quite certain that Shannon probably was losing her s—t. But she also was having, like, the worst year of her life.”

The Long Island native, who joined “Orange County” in 2018’s Season 13, says that Katie’s “instinct to record” Beador was “icky” and “violating.”

“Don’t record it. Go into the next day of filming and tell Shannon,” she says of the advice she gave to Katie, who she feels would have had a “better trajectory” onscreen had she not chosen to capture Beador’s alleged outburst on her phone. (Katie has repeatedly apologized to Beador for recording her, but the women have yet to make amends.)

“I just think her instinct is different than what the show really calls for,” Kirschenheiter laments.

Katie is currently on the outs with the majority of the “RHOC” cast, including ex-pals Pedranti and “friend of” Gretchen Rossi. Though the details of their fallout remain unclear, an anti-Asian video shared by Pedranti and Rossi, 46, on social media certainly made matters worse. 

Katie is of Korean descent and made history as the first Asian American to star on “RHOC” in a full-time role when she joined the reality show in 2024.

“There’s a very inappropriate video going around where two girls are pretending to fight, squinting their eyes and making Asian faces to Asian sounds,” she recently told “Virtual Reali-Tea.” 

“It’s very hurtful and inappropriate. It’s 2025 and I think we should read the room.”

When contacted by Page Six, Rossi insisted that she meant no harm. 

“The video we made was not directed at Katie and was not meant to be hateful,” she told us in a statement. “Once it was addressed to us that it could be taken offensively, we took it down immediately.”

Pedranti, for her part, had no comment. 

“The Real Housewives of Orange County” airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo with new episodes available to stream the next day on Peacock.