‘Southern Charm’ Star Leva Bonaparte Shoots Back At Thomas Ravenel’s “Most Boring Person” Diss: “Maybe He Had a Drink a Little Too Early?”

Southern Charm went off the rails the second the cameras stopped filming the show’s rocky Season 8. Shep Rose and his girlfriend of two-and-a-half years, Taylor Ann Green, broke up shortly after she quit her job to join him on a whirlwind, month-long world vacation — all while infidelity rumors swirled. Newbie couple Olivia Flowers and Austen Kroll, whose relationship seemed to be on the upswing during the summer of 2022, also called it quits in less than friendly fashion. Kathryn Dennis, a cast member since Season 1, exited the show after last year’s emotional reunion episode.

So as Southern Charm Season 9 commences tonight — a supersized first episode premieres at 9 pm ET on Bravo before heading to Peacock tomorrow — we already have a ton of exciting plotlines emerging. Plus there are three new castmembers joining the mix. Plus Thomas Ravenel, a disgraced SoCharm alum, recently decided to lob some verbal grenades towards one of the show’s most likable characters, Leva Bonaparte. Last week, Decider sat down (via Zoom) with Taylor and Leva to talk about a variety of topics: last year’s explosive reunion, the Taylor/Shep breakup, and what it was like filming an entire season without Hurricane Kathryn around. But, of course, we had to start by asking Leva to respond to Thomas Ravenel’s unprompted diss.

DECIDER: We’ve got seven minutes, so let’s do this. Leva, you know we have to start here. What’s your response to Thomas Ravenel coming out of the woodwork to call you, of all people, boring?

LEVA BONAPARTE: I was told to respect my elders. I just think Thomas needs to go back to whatever he should be doing. Like, thank you for the ratings. He’s an older gentleman that should be worrying about his young children. And the nanny.

Why do you think he took on you, of all people? Do you even have a relationship?

LB: I mean, we’re friendly … I thought? Catch you on the streets, Tom! No, we’re friendly, so I don’t really know where that came from. Maybe he had a drink a little too early? I don’t know. Who knows? Who cares?

I love it. Taylor, you’ve been a fan favorite for years now. Can you tell me a little bit about how you feel like your life has evolved since you’ve been able to step out of the long shadow that that Shep tends to cast?

TAYLOR ANN GREEN: I’m a little nervous that I might not be a fan favorite anymore? [Laughs] I think that this season you’ll kind of get to see a different side of me — maybe not so much the best side? — but you’ll definitely see a little bit stronger and more independent side of myself. And, I hate to say, a side that has a little bit of a grudge. I try to do my best with handling my emotions, but we’ll see.

Did you watch the reunion after it aired last season, or are you the kind of person that lives in the moment and doesn’t watch back? 

TAG: I did. I sat down and watched it by myself — and I bawled my eyes out. It was really, really tough, watching it back, living it all over again. And then just sitting there in shock. “What did I say? I said that?” But to be honest, I probably should have started seeing a therapist after Shep I broke up and I didn’t. And so I kind of unleashed and that was not a pretty side of myself.

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LB: I think every girl has been in a position where like they’re not feeling heard. So then they start to just say a lot of things because no one’s hearing them — or the person they want to hear them — is just not hearing them. I think [Taylor] just wanted some validation, or to be heard. And then from there…

TAG: I just spiraled a little bit. I think that’s how it is because Shep’s a completely enigma — he’s very hard to understand. It was just very tough to see him not react, and it just felt like “What was our entire relationship? Did it mean anything to you, hello?!? Wake up.” So when there was zero emotion being reiterated towards me, that’s when I kind of lost it. And I think that kind of plays into a little bit of this year, too. Just trying to get some sort of reaction out of him and it ended up backfiring. 

Shep’s a completely enigma — he’s very hard to understand. It was just very tough to see him not react, and it just felt like “What was our entire relationship? Did it mean anything to you, hello?!? Wake up.” So when there was zero emotion being reiterated towards me, that’s when I kind of lost it.

LB: It’s tricky. I commend Taylor. At the end of the day, it’s probably not going to be easy for her easy for her or anyone involved. But I think that the cast did a really good job of being honest — and that’s the hardest part. I mean, people can judge and people can have all these opinions, but we are genuinely friends. We do make mistakes. We also say things we regret, we make decisions we regret. We’re just people trying to do our best. So I think that this year, you’ll see a lot of that. You’ll see a lot of a very overly interconnected friend group, some in relationships, some just friends. It’s like a constellation that just connects in every way – it gets tricky. 

Leva, have you ever considered cloning yourself? You seem to have such a calm demeanor, but as soon as you leave somebody’s side, something crazy tends to happen. We see that in the first episode this season when, all of a sudden, fireworks go off between Taylor and Craig.

TAG: I would LOVE to have a little Leva in my pocket. She’s the voice of reason.

LB: Yeah, I’m calming for other people, but not for myself. [Laughs] I can pop off from time to time, but I’ve done a lot of therapy, folks — even though it doesn’t seem like it. I have good tools for others that I can’t always access for myself. 

This is the first season of Southern Charm, since its inception, without Kathryn in the mix. In so many ways, she’s been the straw that stirs the drink on this show over the years. Have either of you kept in touch with her, and what was it like going through this season without her presence?

TAG: I haven’t really kept in touch with Kathryn all that much. You know, it’s been a chaotic year for everybody — outside of the show, included. But I think that there was a definite presence that was missing, but that’s not to say that we weren’t able to hold our own and keep moving forward having a great time and a great season. She’s usually the one that keeps it interesting. 

LB: The universe decided to pick a lot of stuff this year. So, you know, I’ve sent texts [to Kathryn] here and there, and kept in touch. Obviously, she’s a real friend of the group, but I do think that she’s closer to the guys. So I think this season, you’ll see a little bit more of girl bonding, because there wasn’t an sort of outlier connection to the guys in that sense. So might be a little bit of a different dynamic — she’s obviously missed — but so much happened this year. My neck was like [makes a whiplash movement]

TAG: We’re gonna need a new neck brace for everyone by the time the reunion comes around.

Southern Charm Season 9 premieres with a supersized episode on Thursday, Sept. 14 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. Episodes will be available to stream next day on Peacock.