Shannon Storms Beador reflects on her time in prison and the lessons she learned from the experience.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, The Real Housewives of Orange County star, 60, spoke about her brief stint in prison after being taken into custody for her September 2023 hit-and-run that made headlines.
After saying she tends to be “very claustrophobic,” Storms Beador recalled the moment a police officer escorted her to her cell.
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“I told the officer, ‘Oh no, I can’t go in there. It’s too small. I can’t go in there.’ And there were no air vents. They said, ‘Well, these are bigger.’ So I went in to see, and then I said, ‘No, you have to let me go, I can’t be here,'” she recalled.
To alleviate her claustrophobia, the Bravolebrity told PEOPLE that she “laid down on the bed and I turned to face the wall.”
“So I was just pretending to be in the bedroom, like, ‘Oh no, you were just in the bedroom,'” she continued. Although she was embarrassed, Storms Beador admitted that she was there to serve her five-hour “sentence” in jail.
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“I was hurt. I was covered in blood,” she continued. “And when they let me out, literally, it was like in the movies. They opened the garage door. I didn’t even know where. I’m asking myself: ‘What should I do?’ [and] they say, ‘You can go’.”
“I had no shoes. It was surreal and it’s something I will never allow again. I will never make such bad decisions again. I won’t,” she concluded.
Storms Beador was arrested in the early morning hours of September 17 in Newport Beach after she crashed her car into a planter box attached to a house. The police recorded 0.24 alcohol in the blood (three times the legal limit).
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She was cited for two misdemeanors and spent several hours in jail before being released on bond. The reality star would later be sentenced to three years of probation, with a mandatory order to complete 40 hours of community service and a nine-month alcohol program.
The reality star also told PEOPLE what it was like to tell her daughters Sophie, 22, and twins Stella and Adeline, 20, about her arrest.
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“They were shocked,” Storms Beador recalled of her girls, who she shares with ex-husband David Beador.
“I’m a big preacher about never drinking and driving, and for me at my age to set such a bad example was devastating,” she added. “I made a terrible, terrible decision. I think about it every day and I’m so thankful I didn’t hurt anyone.”
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Thursdays at 9pm ET on Bravo.
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Source: HIS Education