The Truth About Southern Charm's New Cast Member, Leva Bonaparte
After a filming delay and Cameran Eubanks' departure, Southern Charm is finally back for a new season. Craig Conover, Kathryn Dennis, Shep Rose, and Austen Kroll are back. Madison LeCroy is officially a cast member, getting into a possible love triangle with Austen and newbie John Pringle. Additionally, Leva Bonaparte has joined Southern Charm as the show's first cast member of color. According to her cast member bio, Leva is a Persian woman, born in India, who lived in Canada and Bolivia as a child. Her family moved to Charleston 18 years ago to grow its business. In addition to her role as a Southern Charm cast member, Leva and her husband Lamar are "business partners dominating the Charleston nightlife and hospitality scene." They own the bar Bourbon 'N Bubbles, which she described as "very Gucci... but Mad Men at the same time" during an interview for Bravo's The Daily Dish. The bar has one room focused on whiskey and another devoted to champagne.
Aside from running their business, Leva and Lamar have a two-year-old son together, who is half Black and half Persian, according to Bravo's The Daily Dish. Given the diversity in her own family, it's only logical that Leva doesn't shy away from having tough conversations related to racial equality — and based on the Southern Charm Season 7 trailer, the subject will make for some notable reality TV drama.
Leva Bonaparte confronts Kathryn Dennis this season on Southern Charm
Even though Leva Bonaparte hasn't appeared on Southern Charm in the past, she told E! that she's "been friends with these people for so many years." She also remarked, "It wasn't this sort of moment for me until I guess now that people are noticing like, 'Oh, this is a show with a cast and its formal person of color.'"
In addition to capturing moments related to the coronavirus pandemic, Season 7 will also include some tough talks about race. At one point in the trailer, Leva calls out Kathryn Dennis for her "white privilege" and for allegedly using a monkey emoji in a conversation with a Black woman. Leva described those moments with Kathryn as "awkward." Leva explained to E! that she was "was trying to allow her to come off of the anxiety of just burying her head in the sand and allowing her to understand why navigating through life without understanding the person that you're talking to's background can be dangerous and can be harmful and can be hateful even if it's not meant to be."
Just like many other reality shows filmed in 2020, Leva teased some heated discussions about "COVID, all of the Black Lives Matter, and politics," explaining that "all these things bled into our friendships." While it may be intimidating to join the cast of an already-established show, it seems like Leva will be able to hold her own among the veteran reality stars.