Katie Ginella appeared to take a jab at Emily Simpson via Instagram, as she enjoyed a lunch outing with a “real lawyer” on Sunday at Javier’s restaurant in Newport Beach, California.

Credit: Instagram

As anticipation builds for the 20th season of The Real Housewives of Orange County, Katie, 41, shared a photo on social media featuring herself and another woman, seemingly questioning Emily’s credentials as an attorney.

“Lunch with a real lawyer,” Katie captioned her December 28 post, which showcased her dining companion, immigration attorney Kathleen Martinez. Notably, Martinez is also followed by fellow Housewives Tamra Judge, 58, and Gina Kirschenheiter, 41.

Dedicated fans of RHOC will remember the origins of Katie and Emily’s feud in season 18, when Katie’s daughter alleged that Emily’s children, who she babysat, claimed their mother had criticized Heather Dubrow, 56. The conflict escalated in season 19 when Emily arranged for a lie detector test for the cast, including Katie, questioning her about a roofie rumor involving Gretchen Rossi, 47. Although Katie did not pass the test, she and other cast members challenged its validity and accused Emily of orchestrating the situation.

As RHOC fans will recall, Katie’s drama with Emily, 49, began back in season 18, when Katie’s daughter claimed that Emily’s kids, whom she babysat, had suggested their mother had spoken ill of Heather Dubrow, 56. Then, amid season 19, their tension reached a new level as Emily hired someone to give the cast, including Katie, a lie detector test and questioned Katie about what she’d been told about the roofie rumor regarding Gretchen Rossi, 47. While Katie failed the test, she and others pulled its legitimacy into question and accused Emily of a setup.

Following the sharing of the post, Katie’s fans and followers took her caption as a slight against Emily.

“Watch out. Emily might see this and exploit her son some more,” one person wrote, signaling Emily’s comments about the health struggles of her son Luke.

Others left messages like “faves” and “this energy,” and praised Kathleen’s designer bag.

“Emily plays one on TV,” said someone else.

As RHOC fans may have seen, Emily recently mentioned Katie on Page Six’s Virtual Reali-Tea, accusing her castmate of defamation and lies after the airing of the season 19 reunion.

“I think she went in having the expectation that all of us are supposed to apologize to her, but I don’t feel as if that was reciprocated in any way, because I do feel like there are a lot of things that she should also apologize for,” she stated. “She’s made it a mission to defame all of us offline and to perpetuate false stories about us. I mean, there’s a lot of things … that we didn’t bring up because we just didn’t want to bring them up, but we’re aware, and we know about it.”

“It’s hard to forge a path forward with someone when they didn’t take the time or effort to try to build any type of friendship from the get-go,” she continued.

Although an official cast for season 20 has not yet been confirmed, Katie revealed in a comment shared on Instagram weeks ago that she was open to returning and denied having exited the series, either via a firing or her own decision.

The Real Housewives of Orange County season 20 is expected to go into production sometime in early 2026.