Shannon Beador Says Seeing Blood-Covered DUI Selfie Was ‘Traumatic’

Shannon Beador Santiago Felipe/Getty Images

Shannon Beador is taking accountability for her DUI arrest – and that includes sharing a selfie of her lowest point with her Real Housewives of Orange County costars.

Beador told People in an interview published on Friday, July 19, that she was “shocked” to discover the photo and called the whole experience “really traumatic for me.”

“I didn’t want to see myself that way, and I didn’t want anyone else to see me that way either,” she added. “I honestly thought I’d never show it to anyone.”

Beador, 60, shared the photo with fellow Housewife Heather Dubrow in a moment captured for the Bravo show’s 18th season. Beador wanted the photo out in the world so that her costars and viewers could understand the moment that changed her life.

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“When someone Googles my name probably for the rest of my life, that’s what they’ll see: my face, covered in blood, from the night that easily marked the lowest point of my entire life,” she told the outlet. “But I wanted to be able to speak of everything that happened.”

Shannon Beador Bravo/Youtube

Beador was arrested in September in Newport Beach, California after striking a residence with her car and leaving the vehicle. She was charged with misdemeanor hit-and-run and DUI and sentenced to three years probation. In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly earlier this month, she said the arrest “forced [her] to look at [her] life” and “make changes.”

“I have a lot of work to do. It’s probably lifelong, but I feel good about myself,” she related. “I want to have a relationship with myself.”

At the same time, Beador shies away from talking about her crash as kismet, telling Us that she was incredibly lucky that no one was hurt but herself.

“I don’t want to take what happened to me lightly at all and say like, ‘Well, God had a plan,’” she shared. “Because I could have hurt someone.”

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In her interview with People, Beador said she “deserved to get hurt” in her crash.

“I made a very stupid choice,” she said. “I could have killed someone.”

The Real Housewives of Orange County airs on Bravo Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.