The storm in Charleston was only beginning to brew as Kathryn Dennis returned at the tail end of Monday’s season 4 premiere of Southern Charm. And though the controversial reality star is insistent she’s focusing on regaining custody of her children and maintaining her sobriety after a stay in rehab, it’s only a matter of time before she has at least one potentially destructive distraction in local rival Landon Clements.
The two women had several explosive arguments last season over Dennis’ ex Thomas Ravenel, who Dennis believes is lying about keeping his relationship with Clements strictly platonic.
Dennis feels vindicated now that footage is surfacing that seems to support her suspicions, and she tells PEOPLE that her ex and her adversary are “both kind of just so ridiculous that I think that perhaps they kind of deserve each other.”
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The mom of two (daughter Kensie, 3, and son Saint, almost 18 months) continues, “But the fact that this season [brings] to light exactly as I was saying was going on between the two of them, it’s kind of an ‘aha’ moment to the rest of the cast. And I’m thinking, ‘Jeez, I realized this a year ago.’ They called me paranoid over it, but it looks like [Landon and Thomas] were the ones that should have been paranoid because they didn’t want to be found out.”
She adds, “But I guess they’re owning it now that Landon sees a sliver of a chance to be with him now that I’m out of the picture. It’s kind of, like, ‘Hmmmm, who’s trying to land a rich husband now?’ ”
Dennis’ latest round of scathing words stem directly from Clements’ claim that Dennis went to rehab to “look for her next rich victim.”
“She’s pretty ballsy and kind of an idiot because the things she says are such a polarizing, dramatic version of what someone ever could say,” she tells PEOPLE. The fact that she said that is so pathetic because she’s grabbing at straws to remain relevant.”
She continues, “And to especially target someone that is going through a process that’s not only difficult regarding the rehab … it’s sheer obviousness what her intentions are, and I think she projects those onto me. Because what did she do in L.A.? She found herself a rich husband who decided to divorce her. And now she’s in Charleston doing the same thing.”
According to Dennis, when Clements joined the cast in 2015, “I specifically recall her approaching Thomas when she came here, telling him, ‘You need to introduce me to all your rich guy friends.’ ”
Dennis says she’s coined a nickname for Clements: “Land-a-Man-don — trying to always land a man.”
As she braces for a new season to air, Dennis knows that seeing her life replayed — not to mention finding out what others have to say about her choices, mistakes and struggles — will be a challenge. Trying to sidestep meltdowns like she’s had in the past, she says she intends to fall back on the positive work she did on herself in treatment as she inevitably scuffles with both Ravenel and Clements.
“When I see things, of course I feel that natural, knee-jerk anger,” she admits. “But afterward I think to myself, These people are so— I don’t want to use the word shallow, but they’re like potatoes and I’m the meat. I’m real and straightforward, and I’d rather live like that any day than be somebody that’s spending their time judging others. I don’t care about their lives and their personal choices.”
Stepping back as she watches people gossip about her now “makes me realize is how much of a more realized life I live,” she says, “because that’s such a petty life to lead. I was so much younger than them [when the show began], and they used that as a catalyst to launch this smear campaign. Rather than fail, I kind of rose from the ashes of whatever that situation was. And guess what! I’m still the same person I always was: I’m strong and resilient and I don’t give a damn.”
Source : people.com
