Leva Bonaparte is changing ‘Southern Charm’ for the better: Here’s how

Tune into We Should Talk every Thursday, where In The Know’s Gibson Johns interviews your favorite celebrities and influencers. Subscribe to We Should Talk here.

Less than halfway through her first season on Southern Charm, Leva Bonaparte has already changed the long-running Bravo hit for good.

The hospitality entrepreneur, who had previously appeared on the Charleston-set reality hit several times over the years alongside former star Cameran Eubanks, proved right off the bat that she isn’t afraid of addressing the elephant in the room and tackling tough issues. Whether it’s confronting Kathryn Dennis for spreading cheating rumors about Cam or having frank discussions about institutional racism and the Black Lives Matter movement on camera, Leva is up for it on Southern Charm.

For this week’s episode of In The Know’s pop culture interview series We Should Talk, Leva Bonaparte opened up about her fearless approach to reality TV, addressed accusations that she joined the show to take Kathryn down, shared her true opinion on Austen Kroll and Madison LeCroy’s romance and much more.

“The South is changing, even though many people don’t want it to be. It’s changing on many levels,” Leva said of the show evolving with the times. “Charleston is changing. It’s not the old Charleston anymore, and what I would like to see is a bigger friend group. I’d like to see a little bit more fun next year, because this year was really heavy. It was hard.”

Listen to Southern Charm star Leva Bonaparte’s full episode of We Should Talk below, and keep reading for highlights from the interview:

On accusations that she joined Southern Charm to take Kathryn Dennis down: “It’s because the viewers just don’t know my personality. Whatever Cam and Kathryn had before has nothing to do with me. I’ve told Kat that. I’m like, ‘Whatever y’all had, or whatever this is, I don’t care for it.’ I’m a really loyal friend to a fault so, for me, the only thing with Kathryn was, ‘Don’t speak on [Cam’s marriage]. Please! If you do, we can’t be friends.’ I have to set friendship boundaries. […] It was just like, ‘That doesn’t feel right to me, so shut up. That’s grimy.’ And I respect her for stopping talking about it. When it came to the other stuff, it just seems like people are tone deaf. Like, you think that my issue with [the racist things] Kathryn said had to do with avenging Cam? No, it had to do with respecting people and how you speak to them and educating yourself about the history of minorities in the South.”

On knowing the cast through her bar, Republic: “I’ve known Craig for years and that’s through Republic, because he’d be dating girls and me and [my husband] Lamar would be at the front, and he’d be like, ‘I don’t know about this one, and I don’t know about that one.’ I introduced him to one of the girls he dated for a while. So, I get to see everybody in the dark. Those are trade secrets that I will always keep! Everyone’s always like, ‘Tell me this, tell me that,’ and I’m like, ‘No, that’s not what I do.’ I’ve known everybody [on the cast] and, like I always say, they’ve all been invited by birthday party, but so have another 150 people.”

On missing out on filming with Cameran: “I was just saying the other day that Cam and I in recent years, not that we’ve drifted apart, but we’ve just been really busy. We’re moms, we’re working, she’s filming, I’m doing a gazillion things, so just being able to schedule time, I was thinking in my head, ‘Yay! We don’t have to schedule it anymore, we can just see each other!’ I’m also very close to Naomie, almost closer to her than Cam in recent years, so I was over the moon about just being able to see them. Then, when they didn’t sign on, I was like, ‘Noooo! What the f**k?!’ But I respect it. It doesn’t serve them anymore. I get it.”

On Austen Kroll and Madison LeCroy’s relationship: “They shouldn’t be together. It’s super toxic, and it will just continue to be. It’s none of my business, but after a few months, I was like, ‘Can y’all f***ing break up? I literally feel like you’re my brother and sister-in-law. This is bleeding over into me!’ They weaponize us as friends, because it becomes toxic. […] We’re trying to support them, but at this point everybody was like, ‘Listen, if y’all stay together, it’s y’all against the world. We’re done with you. If you want to be apart, then we can be friends. But we don’t even want to be friends if you guys are together.'”

Watch our full interview with Southern Charm star Leva Bonaparte below, and tune into Southern Charm on Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST only on Bravo:

If you enjoyed this article, check out In The Know’s recent interview with Real Housewives of Potomac star Wendy Osefo!

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