The stars of the Real Housewives franchise are known for TV drama, but many of these
stars have found even more trouble off camera.
Check out the serious rap sheets on these reality stars.
Joshua Waring, who appeared alongside his mother Lauri Peterson in The Real Housewives
of Orange County, has been in and out of prison several times over the years.
It started with drug charges, but in June 2016 he was arrested on suspicion of something
far more serious: attempted murder.
According to the Los Angeles Times, police alleged that Waring, then 27, shot a 35-year-old
male in the lower torso outside the man's home, which was said to be a known drug den.
Waring was reportedly apprehended following a police chase, and booked on suspicion of
attempted murder, vehicle theft, felony evading police, hit-and-run, and assault and battery.
Waring went down for the shooting, but both he and his mother maintain that he's innocent.
According to Waring, the real perpetrator is a man named Bryan Goldstein, an alleged
drug dealer and police informant.
Peterson also claims that her son is being mistreated behind bars, but there's one huge
silver lining to his incarceration, he's off the drugs since 2018.
She told Page Six,
"I wish it would have been his choice to become clean.
But regardless, I'm thankful for that."
It was greed that ultimately sent The Real Housewives of New Jersey stars Teresa and
Joe Giudice to jail.
The couple was indicted on federal fraud charges in 2013, accused of exaggerating their earnings
in loan applications and then downplaying their overall worth in a shady bankruptcy
claim.
Both initially pleaded not guilty, but later changed their pleas as part of a deal that
had the potential for them to avoid jail time.
All the Giudices had to do was disclose a comprehensive list of their assets to the
court, but it appears they didn't learn their lesson.
Judge Esther Salas determined that the forms the couple submitted were still not accurate,
and she decided to throw the book at them.
Husband and wife were sentenced to 15 and 41 months in prison, respectively.
Joe was transferred to an immigration detention center after being released from prison in
2019.
The shamed reality star returned to his home country of Italy while awaiting his deportation
case.
The criminal past of The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Danielle Staub was exposed
in 2009 during the show's infamous first season.
According to documents obtained by The Smoking Gun, Staub was a major player in a crime story
worthy of a Hollywood movie.
Federal court records reveal she was charged with eight felonies back in 1986, including
extortion and cocaine possession.
Staub and associate Daniel Aguilar, who allegedly peddled drugs for a Colombian cartel, were
said to have held a man captive after a botched drug deal that cost them $24,000 worth of
narcotics.
Staub got busted, but she managed to cut a deal, which saw her walk away with five years
probation.
Aguilar didn't get off as easy, he was sentenced to down for 15 years.
According to one motion filed by the prosecution, Staub was subjected to death threats after
flipping on Aguilar.
Thankfully, she's still with us.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills veteran Kim Richards made headlines in April 2015
when she was arrested following a report of a possible fight at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
According to the Beverly Hills Police Department,
"Richards was displaying symptoms of alcohol intoxication including slurred speech and
belligerent, insolent behavior."
The TV star was also accused of, quote, "cursing at the officers" during her arrest.
She checked straight into rehab after she got busted, but that gesture apparently wasn't
enough to convince the DA's office that she was truly remorseful about her actions, Richards
was charged with public intoxication, resisting arrest, and battery on an officer the following
month.
According to TMZ, Richards was ordered to complete three years probation, 30 days community
service, and 52 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Richards wasn't out of the tabloids for long.
The troubled reality star was caught trying to shoplift $600 worth of goods from Target
in August 2015.
She was ordered to stay clear of the store in question and was given more of the same
in terms of punishment.
Sonja Morgan is the former wife of John Adams Morgan, one of five sons of Henry S. Morgan,
whose grandfather founded American banking institution J.P. Morgan & Company.
She's clearly very proud to be a Morgan.
"I'm not just a last name, I'm a legacy."
But she brought disgrace to her iconic family name in 2010 when she was arrested for driving
while intoxicated.
Morgan is said to have failed a number of field sobriety tests, which, if true, could
be why she flat out refused to take part in a Breathalyzer test.
She was hauled off to a police station when she declined, where she was handed a DWI.
It didn't look good for the fledgling reality star, who apparently decided that radio silence
was the best tactic going forward.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams turned herself in to police in April
2014 after being charged with a misdemeanor count of simple battery, but not before making
sure she was camera ready.
The reality star looked on fleek in her mugshot, rocking smokey eye makeup, pink lipstick,
and a cheeky little smile for good measure.
She paid her $2000 bail in cash, and left.
The charge levied against her followed a physical altercation between Williams and her co-star
Kenya Moore, which went down during a taping of a RHOA reunion special.
Williams looked totally unperturbed about being in a police station in her sassy mugshot,
but she later revealed that it was a terrible experience.
She told Real Housewives executive producer Andy Cohen,
"I have to go to jail.
Sit in a prison, sit in a jail with other inmates, p---y-smellin', dirty."
Being in the police station didn't scare her straight, however.
In December 2014, Williams was arrested for allegedly going 78 miles per hour in a 55
zone.
Apollo Nida, who appeared on The Real Housewives of Atlanta alongside his then-wife Phaedra
Parks, was jailed in July 2014 for his involvement in a multi-million dollar fraud scheme.
According to U.S. Attorney Sally Yates, Nida was able to steal the identities of as many
as 50 people using personal information gathered through two bogus companies he set up.
Nida, who had previously spent five years in a federal prison for auto title fraud,
was sentenced to eight years behind bars in what turned out to be one of Bravo's biggest
scandals ever.
He was reportedly transferred to maximum security in 2016 after getting caught with a smuggled
cell phone.
His marriage to Parks came to an end the following year, but he had some better luck in 2019
when his sentence was reduced by one year.
After a little hiccup in which he was briefly taken back into custody for breaking his halfway
house conditions, he was set free.
Nida is now engaged to a Pennsylvania-based realtor, and the pair can't seem to stop gushing
about one another on Instagram.
Former teen model Kelly Bensimon was new to the cast of The Real Housewives of New York
City when she was charged with misdemeanor third-degree assault.
The reality star was taken into custody in 2009 following an alleged physical altercation
with her then-boyfriend, Nick Stefanov.
The New York City Police Department told People,
"She was arrested on March 5 at 9:10 a.m. for punching her fiancé in the face.
[She] gave him a laceration under his left eye."
According to Bensimon, things only became violent when her toy boy got clingy.
She told The New York Post,
"I learned that if a man is in your apartment and he won't leave, that you should absolutely
do whatever it takes."
Bensimon entered a not guilty plea, and her lawyer called the charges "unfounded" in a
statement to the press.
To her delight, Bensimon was able to reach a deal.
She would complete two days of community service, but didn't have to plead guilty and would
have the assault charges dropped so long as she could stay out of trouble for 12 months.
The FBI indicted former The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills guest star Dana Wilkey with
quote, "conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aiding and abetting, and [making]
false statements to government agents" in 2014.
Wilkey wrote checks worth about $360,000 in illegal and undisclosed kickbacks through
her company, Adwil Agency, though she claimed that she was unaware she was doing anything
illegal.
She agreed to plead guilty to Count One of Misprision of a Felony as part of a deal,
but she was still facing up to 20 years behind bars for her crimes.
In 2016, she reportedly begged a Federal Court judge not to impose the maximum sentence of
two decades on her.
She maintains that she was unaware that her business partner had been defrauding people
and claimed that she'll carry "everlasting regret" for ever trusting her.
She was clearly convincing, because it appears as though Wilkey never saw the inside of a
cell, she remains active on Twitter to this day.
"I'm never going to be ashamed for that, and I'll kiss her ass all over again."
The Real Housewives of Orange County star Gina Kirschenheiter took full responsibility
for her actions after getting hit with a DUI in 2019.
Officers pulled her over for a traffic violation but then suspected she'd been drinking.
Kirschenheiter told E! News in a statement,
"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."
2019 was an eventful year for Gina.
In August she finalized her divorce from husband Matt Kirschenheiter, who was arrested on domestic
violence charges just a few months prior.
According to The Blast, Gina took out a protective order against Matt a few days before officers
booked him.
She reportedly requested an emergency hearing about her partner's violent streak, and later
gave a harrowing account of what actually went down on a 2019 RHOC reunion show.
According to Gina, Matt got violent after he was kicked out of an Uber for bad behavior
and had to walk home.
"I was really scared.
You know, I ran out of the house, and I rang my neighbor's doorbell, and I was banging
on the door.
And he dragged me back in the house."
According to Gina, her ex is facing up to seven years behind bars.
In 2017, Real Housewives of New York City's Luann de Lesseps was arrested at a Palm Beach
hotel for violently resisting an officer, trespassing and disorderly conduct while intoxicated.
According to The Palm Beach Post, the reality star shoved an officer as police attempted
to detain her in Florida when she refused to leave a hotel room that was not hers, and
reportedly shouted "I'm going to kill you" as she was carted off to Palm Beach County
Jail.
De Lesseps was sentenced to one year of probation as part of a plea deal, which also required
her to complete 50 hours of community service and attend two Alcoholics Anonymous meetings
a week.
She hit one minor hurdle along the way when she reportedly drank again, but Luann de Lesseps
was officially taken off probation in August 2019.
She remains a Housewives OG and apparently has no intention of leaving the show.
In 2014, The Real Housewives of Atlanta star NeNe Leakes was one of the highest earning
housewives on the payroll, but her reputation was about to take a huge knock.
She admitted to shoplifting from a mall when she was in her early 20s in her 2009 autobiography
Never Make the Same Mistake Twice, but she broke the law on more than one occasion.
What she didn't mention in her supposed tell-all was that she got charged with an additional
three felonies and one misdemeanor count of 'theft of services' back in 1992, according
to documents obtained by Star magazine.
Leakes pleaded guilty to all four counts, but she was reportedly arrested three more
times for not adhering to the terms and conditions of her deal.
When mugshots taken at the time resurfaced in 2014, people couldn't help but notice just
how different she looked, but it really shouldn't have come as a shock.
The RHOA star has openly admitted to getting numerous plastic surgeries over the years.
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