Shannon Beador is responding to ex-boyfriend John Janssen's lawsuit against her.
The Real Housewives of Orange County star, 60, made a Monday, April 1, appearance on SiriusXM's Jeff Lewis Live, where she told her side of the story after her former partner sued her for allegedly borrowing $75,000 for a facelift and not reimbursing him.
"It was about a month ago. I got a letter saying, 'You need to come up with a payment plan to pay this money back,'" Beador told her close pal Jeff Lewis and his co-host Doug Budin.
"I offered to pay John the exact amount that he wanted, but he turned the deal down because he didn't want to sign a mutual non-disparagement agreement, and that's standard in most settlements and that's where you say you're not going to talk badly about someone," she claimed.
The Bravo star went on to explain how Janssen allegedly refused to sign the agreement, making her feel like "her hands are tied" over the legal situation because what she's paying for attorneys will "surpass the amount of money he was seeking."
"What am I supposed to do? Say, 'Here's all this money that you claim that I owe you and go ahead. Say whatever you want about me.' No," Beador noted. "My attorney said I can't let you do that, so I have to now go to trial and, you know, that's a lot."
The matriarch specified there were two occasions when her former flame lent her money. For the surgical procedure, she noted the amount was over $30,000 but clarified it was not the $75,000 Janssen alleged.
"I'll just be truthful, because I just do, I tell the truth, but the show, we were on a different payment... We didn't air the show right away after we wrapped filming, so they stretched our pay out, and so I wasn't getting paid as often," she said. "I was getting the kids ready for school, I had paid for the college counselors and stuff, so it added up and I was really stressed out."
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Beador, who split from the businessman in 2022, even alleged that at the start of their romance, she lent Janssen cash. "Sometimes he'd say, 'Oh, can your stylist pull some stuff for me, and then I'll pay you back?' And then, yeah, he wouldn't," she noted.
"At the very beginning of the relationship, he said, 'You're my future. You're my person. You're my future.' That's what he said and I thought, 'Yeah,'" she explained of why she covered certain costs. "I felt this comfort with him right away and I thought we were going to be together forever."