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Eliza Limehouse
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In honor of completing her first full season on the show, we caught up with Southern Charm newbie Eliza Limehouse this week to get her thoughts on everything from the craziness of the Colorado trip to the finale party to the reunion. She jumped on the phone to speak with Decider while her boyfriend, Struthers McBride, drove her and products from her Snaffle Bit Bracelet Co. line to a show in Charlotte, NC. Yes, we were sure to ask about how their relationship is going and if they’ve done any other wedding photoshoots, which is the activity they did on their very first date.
Here, Eliza explains why the reunion was a “disaster,” if she’s kept in touch with Ashley Jacobs, and why she’s glad she slept right through one of the show’s craziest moments.
Your fellow cast members have all expressed how sweet and kind you are, and I think we’ve definitely started to see that portrayed on the show by the end of the season. Did you get that vibe too?
Aww, thank you. I don’t really know what to think. I definitely felt like it got better after Episode 2 and I felt like it’s just gotten better and better. We have a lot of guests in our hotel who watch the show and a lot of people who come by and say hey. Every single person that comes by is like, “You’re so sweet. I love how you talk about God.” And I’m like, okay, I’m glad you think that because I was a little worried.
I have good feelings. The unknown was scary to me, but now that it’s done I feel a lot more peace. I never had anxiety before. It was something I’ve never experienced, so I think if we do have another season I’m going to be a lot calmer and confident just because I’m not so nervous about the unknown [now].
Have you learned things about yourself over the course of the season and then watching it as well?
This has been probably one of the biggest learning experiences of my life. I’ve definitely learned to stay out of other people’s problems. I care about people and I obviously care about what people think of me, but I’ve had to get some thick skin because whether you’re the nicest person or the meanest person on TV, you can’t control people’s perception of you and you just have to do your best. I get so many nice messages, but every blue moon I’ll get some jerk that just wants to rain on my parade. So I’ve had to learn that not everyone is going to love you and you can’t control that.
My businesses have gotten a lot more online exposure. I’ve had to learn how to be a better businesswoman. I’ve had to learn how to have better time management, how to prioritize, and how to support the people that are important to me in my life. Prioritizing is something that has come out of this whole experience. I would do it again if I got the opportunity.
Would you also do over that time you slept through all the drama during the Colorado trip?
Heck yeah. Oh my god, I’m so thankful for that. Obviously, I love Danni and I feel bad that that would happen and I would’ve been there supporting her. But yes, I’m so glad to sleep through any drama that goes down because this friend group was definitely stressful.
I’ve had to set alarms on my phone to breathe and take five minutes to chill because I’m always running around like a crazy person these days and getting stressed. I let people stress me out so I try to breathe…oh, and I talk slower. That’s another thing. If you’re noticing that I’m talking a little slower and I’m enunciating more because in some of my interviews I’m like, oh my god I can’t even understand what I’m saying.
Definitely glad I slept through that. My mom used to think I had narcolepsy when I was little because I can fall asleep anywhere, anytime in under 20 seconds. We didn’t think I actually had it, but I’m a very good sleeper and I’m very thankful for it.
How was Patricia’s finale party experience for you?
Oh my god. Well, I went into it being nervous because as you saw at the hair salon, I was begging Ashley not to go. In the minute I was like, oh Miss Pat’s having a party, I was like, oh my god, why did I say that? And so I went thinking, oh god, Ashley is going to be here. I’m just going to hide. So I literally hid in a corner basically the whole night and had Ginny, Naomie’s best friend, tell me when she was coming and I just sort of walked in the other direction. Because I’m like, you know what? I have done so much for you and why are you doing this? Like, come on.
Has she been in touch with you and either thanked you for all of the opportunities that you keep inviting her to and being nice, or apologized for causing a scene at some of those things?
Yeah. We talk a lot over the phone because she’s now back in California. She has apologized to me and part of me still feels for her even though she screwed up so many times and obviously didn’t take the opportunity I gave her and used them like I wanted her to. I mean, she did have that apology with Kathryn, which was good. But I think that she doesn’t do well in a group setting and she’s better one-on-one.
Not Patricia’s party, but all of the other failed apologies, she kind of goes into panic mode and does these rollercoaster apologies because she’s in defense mode. I wouldn’t have even gotten involved with this if I realized that everybody had an issue with her, but my understanding was that she had said some mean things to Kathryn and she wanted to apologize. I didn’t know that there was a whole other chapter of this, that everybody had a problem with her and she was tweeting – I don’t even have Twitter. There was all this other stuff that happened that no one felt the need to tell me about until she was there. Since I’m the younger one of the group, I’m the last to learn of things. And so nobody told me! And I think that since everybody had issues with her, she was kind of already drowning before she even got there. She goes into defense mode. It’s human nature. And she just goes kind of bananas. And I’ve told her, look, I can’t do this for you anymore. I’ve helped as much as I can. You need to work on not letting human nature take over and just sit there and apologize and be done. I’m frustrated with it. That’s all I have to say.
How was your first reunion experience? Was it what you expected?
Honestly, it was kind of a disaster because I got food poisoning the night before. So I didn’t feel very good. I was just so nervous because all my friends and fellow cast members kept telling me their opinions and my family kept telling me their opinions. My friends who watched the show told me their opinions on how I should be and what I should do. There were just so many nerves. I was just so emotional. And this is a hard month for me anyway, because this is the month of my horse dying, my parents’ divorce, a lot of terrible things happened for me in this month, so it was already just a rough month. Andy was super nice, but I definitely think that there were too many emotions and I just…I don’t know if it went the way that I wanted it to. But I’m glad I went and experienced it and I know I’ll do better next time.
What’s it been like to share so much of your life and feel people connecting and relating to a lot of the things you’ve opened up about this season?
It’s been awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I get some hate mail every blue moon, but I’ve had so many people reach out to me and thank me for being so open and honest. You wouldn’t believe all of the women that have reached out to me that have been in similar situations with their family, with divorces and affairs, and really giving me their whole stories and said that I’ve helped them find peace. That’s so awesome to me and most of the reason I shared my story is because I want to connect with other people and let other people know you’re not alone.
But I definitely also love getting to connect with other female entrepreneurs. I honestly thought that I would get a lot more negative feedback than I have just because I’m the newbie, I [brought] back Ashley and her whole drama. And then just going into this spotlight everybody warned me, hey, you’re going to get negative feedback. But I would say it’s 90% positive, 10% negative. I’ve gotten so much support and so many people thanking me for sharing my belief in God and my passion for business and my love for all the cast members, whether they’ve done stupid stuff or not.
How is your relationship with Struthers going? Do you watch the show together and what has he thought about it? Also, have you done any more wedding photoshoots together?
Yeah, people are so confused. Oh my gosh, it’s so good. You won’t believe how many people have been like, “I’m so glad you got rid of Dirty Don, Struthers is so beautiful.” And I’m like, “Thank you. Me too.” He’s sitting next to me right now. He’s my driver and my therapist. And he helps with orders. We were packing orders at 11 o’clock last night for Snaffle Bit.
We do have another wedding photoshoot lined up, we’re actually doing it at the Bolt Farm Treehouse where they had Kathryn’s little get together. So that will be fun. We love doing the wedding shoots. We’ve gotten a lot of wedding shoot offers since then, and a lot of people are commenting and trying to correct the people that are like, “I’m confused are y’all married?” People will comment for me like, “No, this is the photoshoot.” And I’m like, “Thank you for handling that.” And then a couple of people have commented and been like, “I hope you’re pregnant. This is so exciting,” thinking it’s a shotgun wedding. I’m like, “Oh my god, I’m not pregnant. This is not a shotgun wedding.”
I originally said I wasn’t going to watch it at all because it makes me so nervous, but then I was like, you know what? I worked really hard on this so we’re going to watch it. We first said we weren’t going to watch it together, but then I was like, “You can handle it. Who cares about Dirty Don being on the show?” Clearly, you can tell from body language the lack of love I had for him. So we’re cool. [Struthers] is fine with watching it. I warned him about it, he’s been mentally preparing himself, so it’s all good. It’s all good.
Southern Charm airs Wednesday at 9pm ET/PT on Bravo.
