Shannon Beador opened up about the $75,000 lawsuit her ex-boyfriend, John Janssen, filed against her while appearing on Jeff Lewis‘ podcast on Monday.

Days after it was revealed that John, 60, had taken legal action against the Real Housewives of Orange County star, 59, claiming she never paid him back for the pricey plastic surgery, Shannon spoke to Jeff, 54, about the case, admitting that she needed money at that time and wondering if John’s new girlfriend, Alexis Bellino, 47, had anything to do with it.

“I got a letter saying, “You need to come up with a payment plan to pay this money back,” and so it culminated with me realizing that attorney’s fees were going to surpass the amount of money he was seeking,” Shannon began on the April 1 episode of SiriusXM’s Jeff Lewis Live. “I’ve been down that road before. I lost a lot of money in legal fees, so I also know the mental anguish that goes along with a lawsuit.”

Although Shannon said John’s lawsuit was “not warranted,” she offered to pay him back the amount he wanted — on the grounds that he would sign a mutual non-disparagement agreement that would keep him from trash-talking her in the press.

“But he turned the deal down,” she explained. “It’s frustrating because now my hands are tied … What am I supposed to do? Say, ‘Here’s all this money that you claim that I owe you, and go ahead. Say whatever you want about me.’ No. My attorney said, ‘I can’t let you do that,’ so I have to now go to trial.”

Looking back at their four-year relationship, Shannon admitted that John gave her money on two different occasions but noted that she contributed financially to their time together as well.

“There were many times where I paid for things or gave, which you would say equates to me giving him money, so, you know, you wanna go tit for tat. You want me to show the tens of thousands of dollars that I spent, you know, that’s kind of what I’m doing right now with my time and it’s not fun. It’s not fun to go back and say, look at all your bills and say, ‘Oh, well what did I do here this day?’ … I don’t wanna go back. I want to move forward with my life,” she stated.

Shannon then admitted that John did play a larger role in their finances during the latter half of their romance.

“I took him to New York four times in four months in our first six months of dating. Sometimes he’d say, ‘Oh, can your stylist pull some stuff for me and then I’ll pay you back?’ And then, yeah. He wouldn’t,” she shared.

According to Shannon, she felt confident in their relationship, and what John was telling her, to contribute financially to John early on. After all, she thought they’d be together forever.

As for the facelift itself, Shannon said John gave her the first distribution payment.

“I did need money at the time … He said, ‘I wish you could get a low-interest loan.’ I go, ‘Well, you have money,’ and then he goes, ‘Oh, yeah,’” she explained, noting that the second payment was more than $30,000.

While John did give Shannon the money for the surgery, Shannon said he did not do so on the basis that the funds would be returned and “never asked” for the money back.

“The show, we were on a different payment, or they stretched, we didn’t air the show right away after we wrapped filming, so they stretched our payout, and so I wasn’t getting paid as often, so I was getting the kids ready for school. I had paid for the college counselors and stuff, so it added up and I was really stressed out, so you know, I remember I was crying on a walk, and he called me and said, ‘What’s wrong?’ I said, ‘Nothing,’ and then finally I said, ‘Okay, well I’m just stressed out because I have these bills that I need to pay,’ and he said, ‘Let me give it to you,’ and I said, ‘Thank you,’” she shared.

Then wondering why John didn’t ask her for the money when they split, Shannon noted that she’s been sued twice and “they both have Bellino around it.”

“Interesting, isn’t it? A little bit,” she stated, giving a nod to the defamation lawsuit Jim Bellino filed against her years ago.

“It is, I mean, very coincidental … but I don’t know. I don’t know if she had anything to do with it or not,” she added.

The Real Housewives of Orange County season 18 is currently in production and expected to premiere on Bravo sometime later this year.