Tamra Judge Slams Claims She Was 'Bad' Friend to Shannon Beador After DUI

In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, Judge detailed the pair's most recent falling out, which is playing out on Season 18 of The Real Housewives of Orange County.

Following Beador's DUI arrest and the dissolution of their Tres Amigas tour with Vicki Gunvalson, things between Judge and Beador appear to be worse than they've ever been -- and we're only two episodes in.

"She knows that I know so much, and she's so afraid, like, I'm just gonna discredit her and make her look bad, which is horrible. It's absolutely horrible," Judge told ET. "You know, she wants to tell lies about me to make me look bad. I had to tell lies about her to make her look good for so many years."

Beador was arrested for the DUI in September and has since pleaded no contest. She was ordered to serve three years probation for the incident, in which she slammed her car into the side of a residential building while said to be at three times the legal limit.

While they put on a united front as the "Tres Amigas" at BravoCon in Las Vegas in November, things were anything but behind the scenes.

"Going into this season, we were absolutely not speaking anymore," the RHOC OG explained to ET. "It's hard for the viewers to see .... [because] I was by Shannon's side ... I was crying on the phone with her. I was having hard conversations with her saying, 'This is a wake up call...'"

While the trio had a stage show together at the time of Beador's arrest, with a date scheduled just weeks after the DUI made headlines, Judge wanted to cancel it. As much of its humor centered around alcohol, she thought it wasn't a good time to be making light of drinking, given what had happened with Beador.

"I thought that maybe Shannon needed some professional help, and that she should take a beat from just being on tour, and all that pressure with everything that was coming her way at that time," she said.

Beador, did meanwhile, complete a 28-day program for alcohol before BravoCon.

Judge ultimately agreed to continue with the show, seeing as they were committed to a contract, and it would up being the final Tres Amigas outing on stage.

"I found out after the first time we did our show in Irvine that [Shannon], that night, got drunk and started saying horrible things about me to somebody I know, and I kind of let it slide," she revealed.

She said she later confronted her co-star and told her what she'd learned, telling her, "If you continue to talk about me like this, I don't want to be involved in this. I don't need to do this show. You need to do this show. So, figure it out. if there is something wrong, tell me. Tell me if you have a problem with me," Judge said, adding. "And once again, she did it again."

"I just, I can't do this anymore," Judge continued. "Here I am, helping you. I have been by your side. Nobody knows you better than I do, for the past 10 years. I am trying to help you through this, and you are talking behind my back?"

Beador has behind talking behind Judge's back about this whole thing, suggesting that Judge exaggerated comments she did make about small frustrations surrounding Tamra's schedule which made it difficult to do their stage show.

"You have to be careful with that Shannon Beador," Judge warned. "She's very good with her soundbites, and persuading the audience and the viewers into thinking something's happening that isn't."

Judge said she's seeing that even more so this season, with Beador claiming that Judge abandoned her just after the DUI. But Judge was actually out of the country when it happened, filming Season 2 of Peacock's The Traitors in Scotland.

"I was by Shannon's side," Judge insisted, maintaining that she was keeping Beador's drinking "a secret" and dealing with erratic calls where she claims Beador was "calling me, going off on something, hanging up and calling me again, and doing the exact same conversation. Not remembering it!"

While Beador later admitted to have been going through a tough time, drinking more after the arrest, she said she stopped drinking for a period of time and now maintains a two-drink maximum -- and is adamant that she does not have a drinking problem.

"I just can't do it anymore," Judge went on to say. And for those saying she's not being sympathetic to her former friend, Judge countered, "I think that people have to understand, if you were in my shoes and here you are trying to help somebody, and all that has gone on in the past 10 years that I had to deal with with this woman was very toxic and exhausting."

She said she told Beador this DUI is is a wake-up call, you need to get help." She even said Beador agreed, but then "went to one of our mutual friends and just laid into me, 'Who the eff does she think she is?!' And I'm like, 'I'm a friend that cares is what I am!' I'm a friend that wants you to get better."

"You're always sad. You're always depressed. You're always crying," she continued. "Is this the way you want to live the last half of your life? It's time to make changes." As it stands, she doesn't feel Beador is taking accountability for her alcoholism.

"I think she needs to go to rehab," Judge declared before revealing that Beador told her that after she got the DUI she told Judge that she was going to therapy to figure out why she was dating the wrong men -- i.e. her ex, John Janssen.

Janssen has since moved on to RHOC alum and returned Housewife Alexis Bellino, who is back as a "friend of" the cast. That's all serving as a sore spot for Beador, with Alexis and Shannon jumping straight into a heated confrontation during the show's Season 18 premiere.

"I always thought that it would be better to have Alexis come in maybe second or third episode," Judge reflected. "That way, we can get through all this DUI stuff and what is going on, but now, it's being overshadowed by John Janssen, and everybody is like -- she is the only person I know that can crash her car into a house, three times the legal limit and people are saying, 'I am so sorry this happened to you.'"

"You know, if that happened to me, I would be getting eaten alive!" she added. "Everybody is like, 'Oh, poor Shannon! Oh, poor Shannon! Oh, poor Shannon!' and, let's be honest, if she had a super power, you know what it would be? The victim. She is very good at playing the victim."

As for Judge's relationship with Gunvalson, she told ET, it's sadly pretty nonexistent these days.

"I didn't know that Vicki and I had an issue," she shared. "I didn't know we had a problem. Evidently, she has been saying a ton of horrible things about me. You will see, she is on the show this season. We have a ton of fun. I mean, she had her [and Shannon's] audience chant 'Eff Tamra!' and I was like, we were just texting the week before! What are you doing?"

"Sad" and "disappointed" to see Vicki turn on her, Judge said she's honestly pretty surprised, as she thought they shared similar concerns about Shannon.

"You want to stay by Shannon's side, that's fine, but you personally have told me, 'Yeah, she has a drinking problem,'" Judge claimed. "I said, 'If you want to enable her, go right ahead, but I am not doing it anymore.'"

"There's a lot of cattiness that goes on in the show, and a lot of talking behind people's back on the show, but this is real life," Judge said. "This is friendships that have been for decades, and you're gonna do that to me, when all I've ever done is be there for you. In fact, when I left the show, when I was let go, [Shannon] stopped talking to me for two years, did the same thing to Vicki."

When it comes to the toxicity, Judge, a veteran of the OC, says she's done with it, and focusing instead on what's ahead of her.

"I'm just moving forward," she said,. "I don't like to be around toxic people that just talk behind everybody's back all the time."

See all the drama unfold when The Real Housewives of Orange County airs Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.