Naomie Olindo joined Southern Charm as Craig Conover’s girlfriend and a part-time cast member. Now, she’s in a new relationship and she’s a full-time cast member. It’s funny how things change sometimes.
However, it wasn’t actually Craig who initially approached Naomie about joining the cast. It was actually Southern Charm creator (and occasional Kathryn Dennis hookup) Whitney Sudler-Smith. And she claims that he wanted her on board from the very beginning. So, why did it take so long for her to join the cast?
During a recent appearance on the Mouthing Off With Olivia podcast, Naomie opened up about joining the cast.
Before that, she backtracked a bit. Naomie shared, “Craig went to College of Charleston too. We met at college and we knew each other there. He had kind of pursued me a little bit, but I always had a boyfriend at the time. But, I thought he was cute.”
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She continued, “Then, Whitney reached out to me and was like ‘Hey. We’re filming this pilot for this show?’ This girl named Rouge, she and I went together. She and I went together and filmed summer 2012. So, this was a really long time ago.” Where is Rouge now? Why didn’t she end up on Southern Charm?
Naomie shared, “[Craig] was there and that was the first time Shep [Rose] was there. Cameran [Eubanks] wasn’t even on yet. We didn’t even know what was going to happen.” She started dating someone else, but eventually, she got together with Craig and she had to make a choice about appearing on the show.
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Olivia Caridi asked, “Were you afraid at all about going on the show?” Without hesitation, Naomie confessed, “Oh yeah.”
She also claimed, “When we first started dating, the deal was ‘This is your thing. It will never be my thing, I want nothing to do with this.'”
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Really? Why wouldn’t she want to appear on the show and acquire some Instagram followers? Naomie explained, “What people don’t know is in Charleston, the show when it was first starting, and honestly, still now a little bit, was really ill-received. People wanted nothing to do with it. They were like ‘How could you guys ruin our town with this trash?’ And all this stuff.” That’s not unusual in reality TV. Jersey Shore had this problem and so did Summer House.
Naomie admitted, “I was more so on that kind of bandwagon at the time.” However, her life changed and she kind of had no choice but to film. Naomie admitted, “I actually was not ‘fired,’ but mutually kind of let go from my job at the time because they were concerned about me even dating Craig and his connection with the show. Crazy.”
RELATED: Naomie Olindo Defends Cameran Eubanks Calling Her Boyfriend “Exotic”
Then Olivia asked a question we’ve all been wondering: “After you and Craig broke up, was there ever a chance that you wouldn’t come back on the show?” Naomie responded, “That was the idea, right?”
Naomie recalled, “I was like ‘Wow. That was a really cool experience. That was fun. Goodbye.’ And then I got a pickup letter with everyone else and was so confused. I actually called Craig and was like ‘Listen, this is my offer. I wasn’t planning on doing this, but this could be a really good opportunity. What do you think?'”
RELATED: Southern Charm Star Craig Conover Said He Had Depression After Breakup With Naomie Olindo
And, believe it or not, he was all for Naomie seizing the opportunity. Naomie revealed, “He was like ‘You would be so stupid not to do it. Just do it. You and I will duke it out if we have to or whatever, but I think that you should.’ So, he was really supportive, which was nice. I don’t think I would have been able to do it without his support even though we weren’t together and all that.” Wow. How evolved. Or maybe he was just hoping that they could get back together. Either way, that was still pretty cool of him to say.
TELL US- DO YOU BELIEVE THAT NAOMIE WAS APPROACHED TO BE ON THE SHOW FROM THE BEGINNING? WHAT WOULD THE SHOW BE LIKE IF SHE WAS A CAST MEMBER FROM THE START? WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT CHARLESTON RESIDENTS BEING AGAINST THE SHOW?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]
