‘RHOC’ Star Emily Simpson Feared Her and Shane Might Divorce Due to a Family Crisis

Let's be honest: The married couples of The Real Housewives franchise are some of the toughest people on reality TV, as marriages are often tested. But few Bravoholics have demanded that The Real Housewives of Orange County star Emily Simpson leave her short king, aka her husband, Shane Simpson.

Emily and Shane have shared their marriage and family with viewers since she joined the RHOC cast in Season 13. While they seem to complement one another, with the Bravolebrity having a more boisterous energy than her laid-back husband, they've opened up about their marital woes in the past. However, after seeing them reveal more about their family, fans are wondering if Emily needs her BFF Gina Kirschenheiter's divorce attorney.

Here's the scoop.

Despite their challenges, Emily and Shane aren't planning on ending their marriage. However, Season 19 of RHOC showed that even Emily wasn't sure if their marriage would last. In the Season 19 trailer, which many fans of the show saw ahead of the season, she cried as she worried they might "end up divorced." When the season premiere aired on July 10, 2025, we witnessed why Emily wasn't confident in her marriage.

Season 19 showed Shane and Emily navigating their son, Luke's ARFID diagnosis. According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), ARFID, which stands for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, includes an individual engaging in a diet that is so limited it leads to medical, nutritional, and/or psychosocial problems. The selective eating that comes with ARFID is often "motivated by a lack of interest in eating or food, sensory sensitivity," from the taste or texture of a food.

Luke's ARFID diagnosis had begun to cause tension in Emily and Shane's marriage. During a scene in their car from Season 19, Episode 2, the couple argued after Emily told Shane that Luke's therapist said he had "declined over the last week or so." The idea of their son "declining for the rest of his life," didn't sit well with him. Shane also shared in a confessional that he felt Emily wasn't giving Luke the patience he needed to heal.

"I think my approach is a little bit more try to make it like it's normal for Luke and it’s nothing that stands out or makes him lesser than or feel inferior," he explained. "But Emily just wants to flip a switch and fix it. And I know it doesn't work that way."

Emily reminded Shane of a trip to the movies where Luke examined the fries she bought for him at the movie theater.

She also recalled him having trouble getting ready for school and said she had to assist him with getting dressed and "hold his mouth open and brush his teeth for him." Later in the episode, she said Luke would be undergoing "intensive testing" for autism spectrum disorder and was worried she and Shane weren't "even on the same page" regarding their son's health, causing her to "feel alone in that."

"It is a daily struggle," Emily further explained in a confessional. "I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't know if he should be in a different school, I don't know if he should be in special classes. ... I don't know what to do."

Despite their back-and-forth, Emily and Shane have decided to weather their family's storms together. On Valentine's Day 2025, the couple celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary. Emily commemorated their special day with a reel of them and wrote on the video, "Thank you for putting up with my unpredictable emotions, reactivity, and emotional baggage I brought to you 16 years ago."

The attorney then added a heartfelt caption encompassing their life together.

"16 years ago, we married at the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas without a lot of forethought or planning," Emily reminisced in one section of the caption. "We didn’t really date first, it was just a giant leap of faith into the unknown."

"It hasn’t always been roses and rainbows… a lot of it has been hard, emotional, trying, draining, and challenging," she added. "We had to overcome a lot of s---ty circumstances that life threw our way, and I’ll be honest … I’m not the best at navigating trying times. But we made commitments to each other and we stuck to it. Through the really dark times and through the really amazing times. We remained steadfast in our commitments to each other and our children."

Catch new episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County on Thursdays on Bravo at 9 p.m. EST.