On Monday, September 18th, news broke that Real Housewives of Orange County cast member Shannon Beador had been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol (known colloquially as DUI) on Saturday night. Beador was also charged with committing a hit-and-run during her intoxicated drive in a suburban area of Newport Beach, Southern California.
Beador has been a cast member of the hit reality series since season 9 back in 2014. Currently, the 17th season of the show is airing on Bravo, with the 18th season said to be in pre-production, and due to start filming soon. Beador is a known enthusiast of alternative health methods, and is the CEO and founder of Real for Real, a holistic medicine business, which makes her intoxication and arrest all the more surprising.
According to an exclusive report by TMZ, Beador drove her car on a residential property in Newport Beach on Saturday, striking the house in the process. As is the definition of a hit-and-run, Beador did not stop her vehicle to assess the damage or reach out to the property’s residence.
The report did, however, describe Beador’s behavior when she eventually exited the vehicle. On the same street as the incident, Beador turned the car around after striking the house, and “kept going,” before parking in the middle of a street that she did not have a residence in, before leaving the vehicle with her dog.
After a 911 call was made by a witness to the incident, Beador was arrested and taken into custody. According to reports of the incident, Beador appeared visibly intoxicated. The reality star was then taken into custody, and her car was seized as part of an investigation into the incident.
Newport Beach police department confirmed that Beador had been booked on both DUI and hit-and-run offenses. Later, she was cited — a legal term for named and identified — and released without bond. In the same TMZ report, it was confirmed that Beador is not currently in the process of filming RHOC.
Shannon Beador has yet to make a public statement on her arrest. However, a legal team representing Beador has released a statement on her behalf. “I spent quite a bit of time with Shannon yesterday. She is extremely apologetic and remorseful,” Michael Fell, a lawyer for Beador, said today. “We will be awaiting the official information on this case as it becomes available, and Shannon is prepared to accept full responsibility for her actions.”
Beador will likely face court in the next few weeks due to the incident. If the lawyer’s statement is anything to go by, it seems that the reality star is prepared to plead guilty on both counts of DUI and hit-and-run.