Season 17 of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” has started.
Heather Dubrow, Shannon Beador, Gina Kirschenheiter, and Emily Simpson, who were the main stars last year, will be joined by Jennifer Pedranti, who is new to the show, and Tamra Judge, who has been a Housewife for a long time. The second one is coming back after being fired before season 15. She has already said she will bring drama.
Fans may be happy to see Judge back on the Bravo show, but she fights with several of her castmates in an exclusive sneak peek of season 17 that was given to PEOPLE.
The first episode of the show will air on Bravo at 8 p.m.
Tamra Judge
Tamra Judge is coming back to RHOC after being fired in January 2020, just before the 15th season.
During her break, Judge worked on her businesses, Vena CBD and CUT Fitness, which she ran with her husband, Eddie Judge, until August 2022, when the gym closed.
In December 2021, the reality TV star with a lot of experience joined forces with another former housewife, Teddi Mellencamp, to start their top-charting iHeart show, Two Ts in a Pod.
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Heather Dubrow
Heather Dubrow is back on RHOC for her seventh season, and her home life has changed a bit since last season.
For one thing, she no longer lives in the famous “Chateau Dubrow.” She and her husband, Terry, sold their Newport Beach home and bought a penthouse in Los Angeles.
Max, 19, and her twin brother Nick, also 19, went to college last fall, and in March 2023, Dubrow told everyone that Ace, her 12-year-old son, was transgender.
Dubrow told PEOPLE that one of the reasons she stayed on Real Housewives was to connect with other people who support LBGTQ+ family members. She said, “I felt like our purpose is to keep those conversations going in other families.”
The reality star also hinted at some of the tensions fans can expect to see in the next season, which she told PEOPLE was “very difficult” for her.
She said in May, “I’m interested to see how it looks because I think our memories of events aren’t always right.” “I have my story, and someone else has their story, but when you see it play out, you think, ‘Okay, maybe I misunderstood that, or maybe I went too far, or maybe I exaggerated. So we’ll have to wait and see what happens.”
Shannon Beador
Shannon Beador is back for more Real Housewives of Orange County, but the most recent season won’t show one of the biggest changes in her life: the end of her relationship with John Janssen, whom she had been with for three and a half years.
Shortly after she finished shooting season 17, Janssen ended their relationship, which Beador says “blindsided” her.
“All I can do is repeat in my head what he said to me while we were filming,” Beador said, thinking back on what led to her breakup. “We were in a wonderful spot. But when the cameras were turned off after seven days, the story was very different. He told me that he was done with us. And what he said to me at that time was a terrible blow.”
Gina Kirschenheiter
Gina Kirschenheiter is back for her fifth season. The new season will follow her as she stays sober, a choice she made more than a year and a half ago. The Housewife talked to PEOPLE in April about how not drinking has helped her, but she has been quiet about the change in her life since then.
Kirschenheiter also said that making the latest episode of the Bravo show was good for her journey in the end, even though it wasn’t always easy.
“People will see that I’m reacting to what’s going on in a very natural, real way that I don’t think I’ve done before,” she teased. “And it’s not always easy, but it turned out to be a really good thing for me and a great way to keep me from drinking.”
Emily Simpson
Emily Simpson will be back on the show for her fifth season with the other Orange County Housewives. The mother of three has been open about her health journeys in the past, like when she lost weight in 2020 and when she recently showed off her facelift.
“Being middle-aged, gaining 30 pounds and then losing them, and going through menopause,” she wrote as the caption for a set of before-and-after pictures of her face on Instagram. “NOBODY KNOWS FOR SURE WHAT DID IT, BUT A FEW YEARS AGO, I was watching myself on TV and was completely shocked to see that I had lost my jawline.”
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Jennifer Pedranti
Jennifer Pedranti is a new Housewives character, but most of the other women are known.
Her Instagram says that the newcomer is a mother of five and a yoga teacher. On the website for Bravo’s The Daily Dish, Pedranti’s bio says that she is “currently separated from her husband, but with a twist.” Even though they are no longer together, she still lives with her husband, and he runs the family business.
Taylor Armstrong, who used to be on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and will be on season 17 as a friend of the Orange County Housewives, posted a picture with Pedranti to Instagram.
Armstrong wrote in the text, “Two Oklahoma girls trying to figure out this #RHOC world… .” “The first episode of the new season starts in one week!”
Taylor Armstrong
Taylor Armstrong wants to start a new chapter on season 17 of The Real Housewives of Orange County. She is the first Housewife to move between towns.
“The difference for me is that I went through so much trauma when I was on Beverly Hills,” Armstrong told PEOPLE in October 2022, referring to the beginning of her reality career.
In 2011, Armstrong asked her husband Russell Armstrong for a divorce. At the time, she told PEOPLE that her husband had hurt her physically and mentally during their nearly six-year marriage. Russell took her own life a month after she asked for a divorce. In 2016, after the sixth season of RHOBH, she quit.
Armstrong told PEOPLE that in the future, his fans will “get to know a different side of me.” She also wants to be a sign of hope for other people who have been abused. “I’m excited for the fans, viewers, and people who are also leaving a situation of domestic violence to know that there is life after,” she said.
