Credit: Instagram, Charles Sykes/Bravo
Leva Bonaparte is setting the record straight about the controversial Southern Charm season eight finale, which saw her longtime friend and co-star, Craig Conover, kicking her out of his holiday party for Sewing Down South.
After an argument erupted between Leva and Craig after she and Naomie Olindo were forced to sit at a different table, and Leva was seen talking to Craig’s business partners, Leva took to her Instagram page, where she admitted their feud “was never about the seating” and responded to several questions from fans.
“What happened? It looked like you and Naomie were mad about being at a different table!” one person wrote.
“Partially yes… But that wasn’t the real issue,” Leva explained.
Another Instagram user suggested she had no accountability, called her out for talking crap about Craig at his event, and wondered why her girlfriends didn’t have her back, which prompted Leva to reveal why her castmates weren’t able to follow her out of the event after she was booted by Craig.
“The other girls have to stay and sadly not everyone is built to stick up to a person who has such a big screaming presence,” Leva replied, explaining that they were required to stay “because we are filming a show.”
According to Leva, Southern Charm viewers didn’t see the full story.
“What you didn’t see is [people] screaming, demeaning others, etc. I’m not scared of a bully,” she continued, seemingly in regard to Craig.
A third person wondered if they would have to wait for the reunion to find out what really went down and noted that editing did not work “in [Leva’s] favor.”
“It absolutely did not! I don’t what you’ll see but eventually the truth comes out!” Leva vowed.
In another message, Leva called out Craig for the way he spoke to her after 10 years of friendship and labeled his behavior as “super misogynistic.”
According to Heavy, Leva told another fan she didn’t want to attend Craig’s event but was forced to because she needed to “film a show.” And when another person pointed out that she had “skipped” other events and “barely filmed with cast mates,” Leva insisted she has to attend trips and noted that it “wasn’t okay that I didn’t go on the cast trip.”
As for why she backed out anyway, Leva said she didn’t go because she was “tired of guys yelling at me then being upset when [I] put them in their place.”
Continuing on with her online audience, Leva reacted to a fan who said they wished she wouldn’t have told Craig’s business partners that he was out of control and instead showed respect for what he’s accomplished, saying fans “missed a lot.”
“This [is] my reaction to a lot of girth things that didn’t air. That’s why it seemed so severe,” Leva explained of her outburst.
Leva also noted that she had her own relationship with Craig’s business partners and said that before being kicked out of Craig’s event, she attempted to leave on her own not once but three times.
“I had my own relationship with who also thought my earlier reaction (trying to leave [three] times) to the incessant screaming was about them and I was assuring them that it was in fact not the case but you see only half of what I said and not what I was actually talking about or actually reacting [to],” Leva shared.
“Ehhh you seemed pressed from the jump… Maybe you should’ve not went,” another person said.
“That’s what you seeing [five] minutes of a [four-hour] event will make you think,” Leva replied.
Someone else shaded Leva for “scolding” and “asking people to behave based on [her] expectations.”
“I sure can’t. But I’m not okay with men screaming at women again and again and again because they are jealous [or] have some sort of unresolved stress or issues that have nothing to do with the women on the receiving end,” Leva clapped back.
Leva was also forced to react to claims of potential hypocrisy.
“Does Craig go into your bar and talk crap about you was this some kind of pay back if he didn’t he should! Because you [don’t] do that to other entrepreneurs like yourself that was just low brow,” an Instagram user wrote to her.
But according to Leva, “[Craig] has” bad-mouthed her at her bar and she “couldn’t care less.”
Another Instagram user joked about Leva saying, “Do you want me to run?” as she left the party.
“Right… or no wait call fake security that didn’t exist. As a man back up off my personal space!” she declared, poking fun at Craig’s threat to have her escorted out of the event by security.
Heavy also shared that Leva accused Craig of yelling at people “[four] times” and making “one person cry.”
The two-part Southern Charm season eight reunion begins airing Thursday, October 6, at 9/8c on Bravo.