Leva Bonaparte From ‘Southern Hospitality’ Says She’s in a ‘Much Better Place’ With Venita From ‘Southern Charm’
Leva Bonaparte from Bravo’s new series Southern Hospitality seems to have reconciled with friend Venita Aspen from Southern Charm after their falling out during the last season.
Aspen wasn’t the only cast member who Bonaparte feuded with last season. Bonaparte and Craig Conover also had an explosive exchange at his Sewing Down South holiday party during the Southern Charm season finale. Bonaparte unfollowed most of the cast on Instagram but said she’s had a change of heart. And credits BravoCon for her reconciliation with many of the cast members.
Leva and Venita had many other issues in their friendship on ‘Southern Charm’
Aspen and Bonaparte’s drama stemmed from when Aspen showed Madison LeCroy a text message from Bonaparte where Bonaparte referred to LeCroy as being “dumb” and that she led on Austen Kroll. Aspen insisted that LeCroy took her phone, but Bonaparte wasn’t feeling it.
“I think all that boiled down to … that really wasn’t the issue that I had with Venita,” Bonaparte said on the Watch What Happens Live After Show. “I had many other things that happened during the season in our friendship.”
Leva Bonaparte from ‘Southern Hospitality’ said she’s in a ‘better place’ with Venita
While they had some issues, Bonaparte said she and Aspen are trying to move forward. “But we’re in a much better place,” Bonaparte said. “And I like to believe the best in people. So I’m hopeful. She’s actually at our premiere party now supporting me. So I’m hopeful.”
But at the time, Bonaparte didn’t feel as though she could trust Aspen. “I learned who my friend was in that moment, I learned a lot about Venita in that moment,” she told ET in September. “It wasn’t like I was trying to hide [my thought] from Madison.”
“Madison and I, if there is anybody who is going to say exactly what we think to the other person’s face, it’s her and I,” she continued. “We have never had a problem, and so in that moment … she wasn’t understanding where I was coming from. I think she does now. But the thing that I would do differently is, I would not advise Madison.”
BravoCon brought the ‘Southern Charm’ friends back together
Bonaparte was also on the outs with LeCroy and others. But said BravoCon ended up being a very healing experience and that the Southern Charm cast is truly supporting Southern Hospitality.
“I feel like BravoCon was such good energy that like Southern Charmers, we like … bonded,” she shared on the WWHL After Show. “We did our apologies. The fans brought the love out. It was a lovefest.”
Bonaparte and Conover are also supporting each other too. But she said Conover was acting like a “clown” on Southern Charm.
“Craig does like to talk about his new persona in business and everything, which I am so proud of him and I am so supportive and always have been,” she told ET. “But in that moment I was like, you are being a really mean guy. Like, you are being rude, you are being mean. I am a person who loves you, who cares about you, and you know when I went to sit down with his partners, I have my own relationship with his partners outside of Craig.”
“We text, we email,” Bonaparte said. “I helped them launch a pillow, I helped them get their [storefront], you know what I mean? Like, we are friendly. We are people who own businesses in the city, so I have my own relationship with them, and I think when in that moment I am having my own conversation and then he is sort of like jumping in, and he was acting like a clown.”
Southern Hospitality is on Monday night at 9 pm ET on Bravo.
