‘RHOC’ Star Gina Kirschenheiter: Everything You Need To Know About New Bravo Housewife

When The Real Housewives of Orange County premieres its first episode of Season 13 Monday night, longtime fans of the show will begin getting friendly with new castmate Gina Kirschenheiter.

As one of two new O.C. members this season, Emily Moore Simpson is the other newcomer, Kirschenheiter will be dealing with a lot of drama — both onscreen and off.

But the 34-year-old seems poised to handle all of it.

The Long Island, New York native, born Gina Archer in Rockville Centre, decided to become a reality TV star after meeting longtime series stalwart Tamra Judge.

“We met at a get-together my friend was having and hit it off, and she said, ‘You’d be a really good addition to the group,'” Kirschenheiter explained during a new interview with New York newspaper Newsday that was published last week.

The current resident of Coto de Caza, California, wasn’t sure if she wanted to do it at first, but Judge passed along her contact information to RHOC producers and she soon began filming her life for everyone to see.

This season, fans of the widely popular Bravo franchise will get to know Kirschenheiter and her family firsthand.

The only daughter of Susan and Gene Archer, she has one brother, lawyer Chris Archer.

She studied psychology at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, “but not enough to pull the trigger on it” as a career, she told Newsday.

Instead, after college, she traveled the world as an international flight attendant, served as an executive assistant for the owner of a car dealership, and worked at Hofstra’s School of Medicine when she returned to the educational institution to try to get a master’s degree in health administration.

“Then I became a mother, so that was just my focus,” she explained.

Married to fellow Hofstra University graduate Matthew Kirschenheiter, a financial planner, since May 15, 2010, they have three children together, 6-year-old son Nicholas, 4-year-old daughter Sienna, and 3-year-old son Luca.

However, her current family situation is all about to change.

On April 2, she filed for divorce from her husband of nearly eight years, as previously reported by Inquisitr, due to “irreconcilable differences.”

“We’ve always been really good friends and realized we’re better as friends than as a married couple,” Kirschenheiter told Newsday, adding that her soon-to-be ex will not be a part of RHOC.

“We’re trying to be the most amazing parents still to our children,” she continued. “We’re always going to be a family, doing things as a family.”

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Meet Kirschenheiter when Season 13 of The Real Housewives of Orange County premieres Monday, July 16, at 9 p.m. ET.