Coming forward. Real Housewives of Orange County star Gina Kirschenheiter pleaded guilty to driving under the influence on Tuesday, July 9, Us Weekly can confirm.
The reality star, 35, was arrested on January 31 after she was pulled her over for a traffic violation on Santa Margarita Parkway in Santa Margarita, California. A source told Us that Kirschenheiter took responsibility for her blunder.
“She has been candid about this being a stupid mistake from the beginning,” the insider noted to Us. “She’s into taking accountability for her actions and knows it was a mistake and wants to move forward.”
According to court documents obtained by Us, she pled guilty to one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of alcohol and one misdemeanor count of driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.08 percent or more. She was sentenced to three years’ informal probation and has to submit to six months in an offender alcohol program and complete 20 hours of community service.
Kirschenheiter told Us in a statement on February 1 that she didn’t make a sound decision by choosing to drive while intoxicated.“I made a very bad choice the other night after a mom’s night out,” she told Us at the time. “I am extremely disappointed in myself and regret my actions wholeheartedly. I have learned a valuable lesson and hope to show you all that this one incident does not define me.”
Kirschenheiter then got candid with fans about her headline-making situation in an Instagram post later that month. She noted in the post, which featured an image that read, “The best apology is changed behavior,” that “bad choices have bad consequences.”
“As embarrassed and hard on myself as I’ve been in these past few days, I’ve been shocked by the astonishing amount of ‘it could have happened to anyone’ and ‘we’ve all been there’ that I’ve received through friends both close to me and on social media,” she wrote. “I could easily join in with the chorus saying, ‘You’re right, it could be any of us,’ but it shouldn’t be any of us. EVER! It’s terrible that this has become a social norm. I am disappointed in myself and that I am a part of this social norm. Especially since everyone who knows me knows I’m the queen of Uber/Lyft.”
The Bravo star continued to stress that she “made a conscious decision to do something epically stupid.” She also pointed out that “one time is one time too many.”
Kirschenheiter joined the RHOC cast for season 13 in July 2018. The New York native split from her husband Matthew Kirschenheiter during the filming of her debut season. The former couple share sons Nicholas, 7, and Luca, 3, and daughter Sienna, 5.
