Gina Kirschenheiter decided on making a victim impact statement on Wednesday’s edition of Real Housewives of Orange County about her ex-husband Matt, who she’s accused of choking her and threatening her life.
Matt, 35, has pleaded not guilty to charges of domestic violence and false imprisonment in connection with the June 22, 2019 incident, as prosecutors say he ‘willfully and unlawfully inflicted corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition upon’ Gina.
On the show Gina, 36, met up with her attorney Michael Fell, who told her about her option to address the court about it.
The latest: Gina Kirschenheiter, 36, decided on making a victim impact statement on Wednesday’s edition of Real Housewives of Orange County about her ex-husband Matt, 35, who she accused of choking her and threatening her life. She was snapped in NYC last year
The New York born reality star said she was reticent to stir up the tense situation, as she feels ‘it’s hard to stand up to’ Matt and that they’re doing well raising their kids – daughter Sienna, five, and sons Nicholas, seven, and Luca, four.
The Bravo beauty told Fell, ‘It feels like it was all a long time ago and where we are now, we’re co-parenting so well.’
She later said in a solo confessional interview that she remains grappling with what had happened to this day.
‘What happened that night, I struggle with it to this day’ she said. ‘I still wake up in the middle of the night, I have bad dreams.’
The New York born reality star said she was reticent to stir up the tense situation
Kirschenheiter said she harbored hope her ex-husband would be enlightened hearing her statement on the situation
She said that she felt giving a statement would help bring some sense of closure to the incident.
‘I spent a lot of time just burying my feelings about a lot of things and it’s not right, so I decided to make a victim impact statement,’ she said. ‘I at least want him to have to hear how I felt about that night because it is literally the most significant event that’s ever happened to me in my entire life.’
Kirschenheiter said she harbored hope her ex-husband would be enlightened hearing her statement on the situation.
‘It’s hard because my desire to make everything happy for my kids is always taking precedent to my own feelings,’ she said, ‘but I’m hoping that if he hears it, it will affect him in a way that will effect change.’
She subsequently talked with some of her fellow cast members about the uneasy situation: ‘It’s really s****y and I’m trying my best to pretend it’s okay and we’re going to coparent and we’re great, and we are to a certain extent.’
Matt, 35, has pleaded not guilty to charges of domestic violence and false imprisonment in connection with the June 22, 2019 incident, as prosecutors say he ‘willfully and unlawfully inflicted corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition upon’ Gina
She said that she would have to appear being happy for her kids in inviting him and his girlfriend Britt to her home for daughter Sienna’s birthday bash.
She said of his potential time behind bars of convicted in the incident: ‘Knowing that this may be the last birthday that Sienna will get to spend with her father for a while, it’s sad, I don’t want that for my daughter and I don’t want to be the person responsible for that and I have a lot of guilt about that.’
She said she was ‘not just gonna let Matt brush this off,’ and that the time was due that he face the consequences for his behavior.
‘Somebody is always swooping in to save him and I just really feel like he needs to know that I’m not that person anymore.’
Matt Kirschenheiter is next set to appear at Orange County Superior Court in January; his lawyer Edward Welbourn told US in September that his client ‘maintains his innocence
He continued: ‘The divorce and the alleged incident is unfortunate, and there are unfortunately three children who also are going through this. In these cases, where there are no witnesses, it comes down to the credibility of the people,’ adding that Matt’s credibility is ‘fantastic.’
Real Housewives of Orange County can be seen on Bravo every Wednesday at 9/8c.
Those experiencing domestic violence should call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org; all calls are free and confidential, and the hotline its available around the clock in more than 170 languages.