Starting off with a bang! The Southern Charm cast brought the drama — and the fights — during the season 8 premiere on Thursday, June 23.
The Bravo series picked up filming in late summer 2021 and all eyes were on Kathryn Dennis, who was celebrating her 30th birthday, and Naomie Olindo, who fans last saw on season 6, which aired in 2019.
Following her exit, Naomie, 29, moved to New York City in spring 2021 with her then-boyfriend Metul Shah only to split shortly after learning that he was unfaithful.
“I think the biggest takeaway was just to keep a very strong sense of self and to not lose my sense of self in a relationship,” Naomie exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the show’s premiere. “I think with my personality type and stuff, I tend to sort of morph into whatever I think the person in front of me wants and lose my true, like, authentic self in the process. And I think a lot of people go through that.”
The L’Abeye founder further explained how she found herself back in Charleston, South Carolina, during the first few minutes of Thursday’s premiere. Naomie jokingly told pal Venita Aspen, “Some of us peaked in high school,” when looking back at her life trajectory.
“The thought of coming back was depressing,” she revealed while driving to tennis. Naomie noted that she became “real humbled, real quick” after learning that Metul stepped out on her.
Following her split, Naomie reconnected with ex-boyfriend Craig Conover, whom she’d dated for three years before calling it quits in 2017. Despite sidestepping the topic during Thursday’s show, they both eventually confessed to hooking up in Las Vegas, with Naomie seemingly still having some lingering feelings.
“Two months ago, I went to Vegas with some friends. Yeah, I mean, we met up,” Naomie told the cameras, hinting that the exes had been intimate again.
Craig, for his part, lied to pal Austen Kroll about the hookup after previously being burned by Austen, 35, when he spilled multiple past secrets. The Sewing Down South founder, 33, was officially boyfriend-girlfriend with Paige DeSorbo when filming season 8, but he was just casually seeing her at the time of his and Naomie’s hookup.
Naomie and Craig’s drama, however, wasn’t the only thing making the France native’s return to Charleston a popular topic of conversation. After telling Kathryn, 30, that she should be ashamed of herself for allegedly starting a rumor that Cameran Eubanks’ husband, Jason Wimberly, had a mistress in 2020, Naomie was on Kathryn’s bad side. (Cameran, who left the show after season 6 has denied the allegations about her husband.)
The two ladies had a confrontation about the incident during Kathryn’s Great Katsby party on Thursday’s episode, and it didn’t go well.
“I thought your whole shtick was you guys are polite?” Paige, 29, told Madison LeCroy after witnessing a screaming match between Naomie and Kathryn at the bash. “See in New York, we’re just like, ‘F—k you.’ And then we walk away. But you guys … f—king linger.”
Scroll down for the biggest moments from the season 8 premiere: