Leva Bonaparte and Naomie Olindo hope the upcoming Southern Charm reunion will answer the lingering questions fans have about season eight.
During a joint interview, Leva and Naomie looked back on the reunion taping before shaming Craig Conover for his “unacceptable” finale behavior, targeting Paige DeSorbo‘s antics as childish, sharing their thoughts on the potential season nine cast, and more.
“That was a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot,” Leva said of the reunion on In the Know‘s We Should Talk. “There was a few things that had my jaw on the floor, that I didn’t know. And it’s actually about a person I’m close to. A lot happened very quickly. And even throughout the reunion, I feel like things changed between people.”
“You’ll get a little context to about a lot of things that I think viewers were like, ‘Wait, this seems like severe’ [or] ‘This doesn’t make sense,’” she continued.
And Naomie agreed, “It was so surprising.”
“It was almost too raw. It was very, very intimate. And things were discussed that… There’s always sort of a barrier of things you don’t talk about. And that barrier was definitely broken on several levels,” she added.
As fans saw last week, Leva and Craig were involved in a blowout fight during the finale episode, which was shot amid a holiday party for his business, Sewing Down South. However, as Leva has since explained, the fight was the result of a culmination of things.
“There were certain things that I was just sick of, which is why you see me sort of peace out at [certain events] and not go on a group trip because I was just like, ‘These are outside of my boundaries of mental health,’” Leva admitted. “As a mom… If I’m leaving my husband and child, I want it to be happy time. I don’t want to go home crying or upset or drained.”
In addition, Leva felt that Craig was being “out of pocket” with Naomie and taking things out on her and others that weren’t her fault.
“[Naomie] doesn’t want to engage. [So] it would be me being like, ‘Stop doing that.’ And then it would get turned on me. And I think you’ll see some of that in the finale,” she explained. “[And] if Naomie’s not going to engage, that rage turns to somebody else. And I didn’t want to be the receiver of that. And I have boundaries.”
During the Southern Charm finale, Craig screamed at Leva for bad-mouthing him to his business partners, who are also friends of hers, before kicking her out of the event.
“I don’t want women to see that. It’s not acceptable,” Leva stated. “I have my own relationship with them. And I think Paige, being an outsider, and kind of being like, ‘Oh, you’re talking to his team.’ And I’m like, ‘Are we 12? I know his team.’ She didn’t have context of what was happening.”
According to Leva, she believed much of Craig’s behavior was prompted by his romance with Paige.
“He wanted to respect Paige’s wishes that he keeps a major distance with Naomie. But I think he couldn’t communicate that to Naomie because he was so hard on her when she was respecting [Metul Shah]’s wishes,” she explained.
Following the filming of the finale, Leva said she “blocked” several of her castmates, including Kathryn Dennis, Madison LeCroy, Venita Aspen, Austen Kroll, Craig, and Paige, “because the girls, when Craig was going out at the grill, piled on,” even though she’s been “gracious” to all of them.
“I expected Austen to sort of like… wrangle him in,” Leva noted.
Meanwhile, reflecting on her own friendship with Leva, Naomie said that her co-star has done a lot for Craig over the years, which makes his behavior towards her even more appalling.
“I met Leva eight years ago or something… And when I met [her], she was already helping Craig then try to do something with himself, and hooking him up with things, and doing deals with him, and helping him tag along with things,” she revealed. “And so it’s a pile on off things that so many people don’t know about because Leva is not going to go shout it from a mountaintop. It’s a lot of really generous things that she’s done. So to be treated any type of way other than with full respect was unacceptable.”
“I was like, do you know how much I’ve done for you?” Leva admitted.
In addition to her drama with Craig, Naomie was also in the spotlight on Southern Charm season eight due to her hookup with Whitney Sudler-Smith, which she claims was “kind of blown up on the show.”
“We’re still great friends… It was really important to us that it doesn’t ruin our friendship, doesn’t affect our friendship whatsoever. We’re still great with each other. And [I have] nothing but respect for Whitney,” Naomie said.
But the same can’t be said for Metul, who Naomie split from last summer amid allegations of cheating.
“He didn’t want to film and didn’t want to be on the show but did want a blue checkmark… It was very confusing,” she said of Metul’s past refusal to film — while also suggesting he secretly wanted fame.
When Leva was then asked about why Kathryn and Madison weren’t around for much of the second half of the season, Leva suspected that Madison simply didn’t have enough ties to the group.
“I think Madison may have had — you know, her connection to the group is really Austen. And then I think Kathryn was going through a breakup [from Chleb Ravenell]. And then she wasn’t in the best place, I think, with maybe all the girls,” Leva explained.
“I think Kathryn is just not that close with those people,” Naomie agreed.
And while Leva has made amends with some of those she unfollowed, including Madison, she said a future friendship with Venita is out of the question.
“Not for me,” Leva confirmed as Naomie said she’ll “be cordial.”
As for their hopes for the season nine cast, the ladies said a “more cohesive” group would lead to a better show after noting that the number of cast members of season eight seemed to lead to editing cuts that took away from the overall story.
“I think they probably realized once they start editing, like, ‘Oh sh-t, there’s too many people.’ [So] I’m interested to see what changes are made,” Naomie explained. “I hope that we get a more cohesive group. And whether that means we’re a part of it or not, we have no idea what’s going to happen. We haven’t even heard of a new season yet or anything. So I hope it’s more cohesive group. And I think it will translate better.”
“When it’s more cohesive, then we can talk about all our stuff — our real personal stuff,” Leva added. “When it feels disjointed, it’s like, I don’t trust these [people].”
Also during the interview, Leva teased her upcoming spinoff series.
“It’s super exciting,” she shared. “It’s just a different side of Charleston that you guys have not seen. And it’s sort of younger, more coastal. I almost feel like it’s Laguna Beach meets [Vanderpump Rules] meets The Hills… And the cast is just– I love them.”
Source : realityblurb.com
