Shannon Beador: Ready to Divorce David?!

Shannon Beador's marriage is on thin ice.

We know that from watching The Real Housewives of Orange County, where we saw the star blame her marital troubles -- the loss of affection, the constant fighting -- on her recent weight gain.

But it turns out that their relationship is in worse shape than we'd imagined.

(One of the "mean" comments under this photo of Shannon and David was someone referring to David as her "sugar daddy." Both spouses are in their early 50s, making this one of the nicest things that we've seen a hater say about Shannon Beador)

If you've read our The Real Housewives of Orange County recap, you know that even on camera, the relationship between Shannon Beador and her husband David is rocky at best.

Shannon has been quick to point the finger at one thing that's behind the decline in their relationship: her weight gain.

This is the same weight gain that Shannon had blamed on Vicki Gunvalson.

Absurd, of course, which is why Shannon retracted the statement. Vicki Gunvalson isn't a witch and she wasn't sneaking into Shannon's home and feeding her in her sleep. To our knowledge, anyway.

Shannon Beador had accused Vicki Gunvalson of spreading false rumors about her and her husband -- that David was abusing her -- and said that the resulting stress-eating was behind her gaining weight.

Even though Shannon really didn't gain that much weight and still looks healthy, her friend Tamra Judge worries that Shannon's going to die.

But Tamra is one of those fitness-obsessed types (she's a "fitness guru" so it goes with the territory, we guess), so take that with a grain of salt.

Though Shannon has always denied Vicki's "theory" that David abuses her, it does look like their relationship has gone south recently.

They're arguing and Shannon has been openly discussing their problems on camera.

(She's a Real Housewife so maybe she just needed to be open about it for her storyline and maybe they're even exaggerating things for the camera, but ... these marital problems kind of feel like they could be real, you know?)

It's not unusual, unfortunately, for couples to begin to develop problems when one puts on weight or makes some other dramatic change in their appearance.

It does not mean that their spouse only loved them for their looks.

However, love and physical attraction are different things (though, for many people, they are related).

When a couple is no longer having sex because of a loss of attraction on one spouse's part (or both), then that lack of sexual intimacy can spill over into their lives.

They become frustrated -- at each other but also with themselves and in general.

They get cranky, basically.

It's not that they were only together for sex, but the sex was part of the equation of their relationship. Without it, things got all out of whack.

Vicki's diligently working to lose the weight that she's gained.

Unfortunately, now RadarOnline's source says that things are even worse beneath the surface.

"Things have not improved much since the show was filmed!"

That means that the fight that we saw, the problems that Shannon shared, are more or less still in play, even though the episode was certainly filmed months ago.

"What you see this season on the show is just the tip of the iceberg and Shannon is at the point where she doesn’t know if she even wants to fix things anymore."

Wouldn't it be something if Shannon loses the weight and then leaves David because of his recent behavior?

"David does not touch her anymore and the two are no longer romantic or intimate."

Like we said -- that's not good for your relationship.

"They are still in counseling, but it has gotten to the point where their kids don’t even want them together anymore because they are sick and tired of the non-stop fighting."

Never say together "for the kids," because they don't want to be around you fighting and they certainly don't want to feel like it's their fault that their parents are forcing themselves to stay together.

And it sounds like the kids have the right idea.

"They are both miserable and at this point, divorce seems like the only option"