Braunwyn Windham-Burke is not happy with Gina Kirschenheiter after she accused Sean Burke of sending her a “creepy” text message during the Wednesday, October 21, episode of the Real Housewives of Orange County.
“Gina has never liked me from the beginning. You know, she’s always had a perception of me that is based on an idea. She’s never really taken the time to get to know me,” Braunwyn, 42, exclusively told Us Weekly. “I was saddened that she took something like that text message and made it into something else. We went to the tea party last year and we all went out after and we were drinking too much and she was very intoxicated. She couldn’t get her own Uber. And so Sean does something nice. He got her, an Uber, got her home, was checking on her and make sure she was safe. And I felt very upset that you took a nice gesture and made it into something else.”
Gina, 36, detailed her text message exchange with Sean to Emily Simpson during Wednesday’s episode of the Bravo hit, explaining that he reached out to her after a season 14 party. According to the screenshot shared, Braunwyn’s husband wrote, “Hi Gina, just checking in all is OK 🙂 Braunwyn is asleep, but I got her to the condo first. Anyway, have a good night, and it was great to spend time with you 🙂 Oh this is Sean probably should have started with that.”
Braunwyn, for her part, told Us that she felt Gina was implying she or Sean wanted something sexual to happen. (The couple, who wed in 2000, have been open on the series about having threesomes in the past.)
“I think because people on the show know that I’m attracted to women, it sort of gives them the sense that they can, I don’t know, weaponize it and make me into a predator,” Braunwyn told Us. “There’s something about that that doesn’t sit right with me, that when it comes to same-sex relationships, it’s somehow like dirty or inappropriate. And I think more than the text message, it’s her weaponizing my sexuality that really got to me. I was like, ‘Wow, just because I’m attracted to women doesn’t mean that I’m talking to all [women], you know, or that I would do something like that.’ Like that’s not OK, it’s 2020. We can’t just make those broad sweeping, you know, proclamations like that.”
Earlier this month, Braunwyn revealed that she and Sean, who share seven kids, are no longer living together. While the Bravo star also admitted she’s seeing someone “special” — who isn’t her husband — she added that they have no plans to divorce.
“We are very honest in our communication. There are just some things that I have discovered about myself that I wanna explore a little more and he’s very supportive,” she told Us. “He understands and, you know, I am living a very authentic life right now and I’ve never given myself permission to do that. … I’m 42 and there are just parts of me that … I pushed down and now I’m allowing myself to live authentically.”
For more from Braunwyn — including if she still feels like Gina moved in with boyfriend Travis Mullen too quickly — watch the video above.
The Real Housewives of Orange County airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.