Gina Kirschenheiter Apologizes to Shane Simpson for "Being Rude" About Him Passing the Bar

Emily Simpson kicked off this season of The Real Housewives of Orange County with some major news about her husband, Shane Simpson. After following his journey with the bar exam on the show over the years, Shane finally passed.

When Emily noted to Gina in the RHOC Season 16 premiere that the State Bar of California had lowered the minimum score needed to pass the exam due to the pandemic, Gina asked, "Am I allowed to make fun of him for that?" Emily told her friend, "Oh, go ahead," and seemed to have a sense of humor about it as well, which is good since Gina then proceeded to poke a little fun at Shane in an interview during the episode.

However, Gina doesn't find this moment so funny these days. During her appearance on the Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen After Show on December 8, Gina showed remorse for how she reacted to Shane passing the bar exam. "I am going to apologize to Shane, actually, because I regret, I do though, wholeheartedly regret being rude about that," she said in the above clip. "I love Shane, and that was not right, and I feel bad about that."

The subject of Shane first came up during the WWHL After Show when a member of the virtual audience asked Gina if she thinks "Emily and Shane's relationship has improved now that he's finally passed the bar." In all seriousness, Gina only had nice things to say about the couple. "They love each other. They're a real marriage. And marriages are down and up. I think it's awesome that when they started this [RHOC], they might have been down. Now they're up, and you get to see that," she shared. "And I think it's really cool to see that. It's a real marriage, and they really love each other, and I really love them."

Emily confirmed that she and Shane "are in such a great place" these days while updating fans on her marriage in a video first shared exclusively with Bravo Insider members. "I know you've all just been on the ride with us as we've gone up and down," Emily said. "But that's what marriage is, right? It's a roller coaster."

She went on to share what has helped her and Shane get their relationship back on track. "I think to make a marriage work, you really have to invest in the marriage but also one another, and that's what we've tried to do to really make our marriage better is to invest in each other and to spend more time together. And to try to listen to each other more, which is really, really hard for me, because I don't like to listen to people. I just like to talk. But I am trying to do better at that," Emily said. "But really, date nights are great if you can carve out time every week or once a month or whatever works for your schedule. You really have to commit to spending time together one-on-one, and that makes a huge difference in a marriage — at least it did for us."

The December 8 episode of RHOC showed Emily and Shane out on one such date night, during which the couple reflected on one of their most challenging times last year when Shane battled COVID-19. "I'm glad that we went through what we went through," Emily told her partner of 13 years. "Even though it was awful and it was terrible and I cried a lot."

Emily also echoed Gina's sentiment from WWHL, stating that she and Shane are solid as a rock after sharing some trials and tribulations in their marriage with RHOC fans during the past few seasons. "Shane and I are in such a good place in our marriage. We're getting along great. We're not fighting," Emily said in an interview during the December 8 episode. "We're just in such a good, loving, amazing place."

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Photo: Getty Images; Emily Simpson/Instagram