Maddi Reese Keeps It Real

Maddi Reese is in survival mode — but not because of the drama unfolding on this season of Bravo’s Southern Hospitality or the fact that she just returned from a massive cross-country DJ tour. Instead, it’s the blistering cold wind tearing through New York City in mid-March. The low 30s is a stark contrast to the mid-to-upper 60s she’s used to back home in Charleston, South Carolina.

Dressed in a russet-brown Song of Style faux-leather matching set she rented from the fashion sharing site Pickle, the DJ-turned-Bravo-reality-star braves the cold with a vintage Coach bag on her arm as she heads inside Rubirosa, a trendy Italian spot in Lower Manhattan. “I’m gluten-free, and, down South, everything is fried or breaded. Every time I’m in New York, I indulge because there are so many gluten-free options,” she says as we order a Caesar salad with gluten-free croutons, gluten-free arancini, gluten-free rigatoni alla vodka, and the restaurant’s famed Tie Dye pizza in a gluten-free version.

Reese is in the city promoting the new season of SoHo, hopping from one meeting to the next before we meet in the early afternoon — but it hasn’t dampened her energy. She speaks passionately about the things she loves and isn’t afraid to share harsh truths, even if it might hurt some feelings.

Originally from New York — her Irish-Catholic family is from the Bronx — Reese moved to Charleston for college and, in 2017, found a job at Republic Garden & Lounge, owned by Leva Bonaparte. A few years later, Bonaparte joined the cast of Southern Charm before shifting her focus to its spinoff Southern Hospitality. Little did Reese know that her nightclub gig would change her entire life when the venue and its staff became the focus of the reality show.

You’re going to be fulfilled and proud of being authentic. And being honest and transparent is also a super big aspect of recovery.

“I was the b*tch that runs the b*tch,” Reese jokes, referencing her iconic line from the show’s first episode and reflecting on her 2022 casting. Four seasons in, she’s become a permanent fixture, often one of the main players in the show’s drama. Yet, despite SoHo’s success, Reese says she doesn’t feel famous — even when she’s being recognized in airports and stopped abroad to take photos. “I was in the middle of Mexico one time, and someone’s like, ‘Oh, my God, I love your show!’ and I’m like ‘Am I famous? I’m a Z-list reality TV star.’ That’s the stuff that really is surreal,” she says as the waiter delivers the first half of our meal. The phone, of course, eats first.

Before becoming a Bravo star, Reese had only seen a few reality shows. Now, she tunes into everything. “Pretty much my part-time job is a reality TV show watcher.” Like the rest of the world, Reese recently finished The Traitors, and while she’s a “massive” Rob Rausch fan, she says Maura Higgins telling Rausch he’d never get a girlfriend was iconic.

Reese says she and her boyfriend, and fellow castmate Joe Bradley, often talk about whether they’d do well on The Traitors. “I feel like I’d be a good Traitor and he’d be a good Faithful, because he has such golden-retriever energy. But at the same time, I’m not very good at keeping a secret, so I don’t know if I would give myself up.”

Being transparent is the hallmark of what makes Reese the perfect personality for reality TV. While she’s not reading the comments about her online — a piece of sage advice she was given before stepping into her role as a public figure — she’s trying her best to stay true to herself. “There were many times I felt like I needed to conform to whatever the narrative was or conform to who people thought I should be or who I thought I should be, but at the end of the day, you’re not going to be fulfilled by that,” she says. “You’re going to be fulfilled and proud of being authentic. And being honest and transparent is also a super big aspect of recovery.”

Reese, who’s 12 years sober, says that having people DM her or reach out about their own journeys is one of the best parts about reality TV. In fact, talking about her own sobriety on the show helped her connect with Summer House’s Carl Radke, another sober Bravolebrity who invited her to DJ at Soft Bar, his non-alcoholic venue concept in Brooklyn.

“It’s cool to be DJing somewhere people aren’t going to be drunk. I don’t think that’s ever happened in my whole life,” Reese laughs, noting that Radke was one of the first people to reach out to her after she shared her story on SoHo. Despite working in a nightclub and having a growing DJ career, Reese says staying sober in this environment has become easier over the years. “I didn’t go out for the first three years of my sobriety,” she says. “I had a lot of time and practice with it, but I also didn’t want to hold my life back just because I am sober. I still wanted to have fun, and a huge outlet for me was music.”

I didn’t deal with my nerves for a while, but now I’m on beta blockers. God save beta blockers.

Reese has gotten accustomed to sharing every aspect of her life online as a reality star, so it doesn’t seem to faze her as we do a mini photo shoot in the middle of the restaurant, with servers and patrons alike staring at her as the flash goes off. It’s almost like second nature at this point. Still, she insists that being in the spotlight doesn’t come naturally to her. “I am typically a very anxious person, but you would never know,” she says. “I didn’t deal with my nerves for a while, but now I’m on beta blockers. God save beta blockers because it prevents me from having a panic attack.”

After the Season 3 reunion — where Reese learned that her castmates had fabricated a story about her then-boyfriend Trevor cheating on her last season, which prompted her to break up with him — she was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and PTSD. Reese says learning the truth also made her revisit the 12 Steps. Step 9, she explains, is making amends. She says she reached out to her ex during this stage to address the situation, but they haven’t communicated since. (She notes that Bradley was “fully aware” of the situation.)

In addition to her prescribed medication and a new emotional support dog, a Bernedoodle named Ozzy, Reese says writing things down, whether it's journaling or making a PowerPoint, also helps her better express her thoughts and feelings. This season on Southern Hospitality, she gives viewers an inside look at her coping mechanisms. In Episode 2, Reese shows her Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, Julia, a presentation she made about herself and castmate TJ Dinch after he claimed they were never friends — prompting Julia to joke, “You have so much free time.”

“That scene was hilarious,” Reese says. “In the moment, it was so real for me, and I was going through it, but after re-watching it, it’s so funny. Julia called me out on my sh*t, and that’s exactly what a sponsor is supposed to do. That’s their job.”

Although Reese never showed Dinch the presentation — complete with photographic evidence that they were, in fact, friends — she says he watches the show “over and over and over again,” so he’ll definitely see it. “I’m glad I never showed it to him and I just kept it to myself and my sponsor.”

The PowerPoint presentation was only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to drama on this season of SoHo. In only three episodes, viewers have witnessed the “Wiener Wars,” an argument involving a cardboard cutout of castmate Mia Alario, and an intense behind-the-scenes look at Reese and Bradley’s relationship as they discuss moving in together. “Settling down — getting a dog, moving in together, potentially getting married — doing all those things scared me for a really, really long time,” Reese says. “But I feel like I’m transitioning more in that phase with Joe where those things aren’t out of the question, and I’m actually kind of excited to be in that area of my life, which I never thought I’d say out loud.”

While Bradley has cut back on his partying and drinking, Reese says she recently froze her eggs in an effort to feel more control over her own timeline. “We’re more like a husband and wife couple, like a mom and dad couple, than a boyfriend and girlfriend couple,” she says. “It’s a weird place to be in. It scares the sh*t out of me, and it always has, but I feel like I’m becoming a lot more in love with it.”

The admission comes a day after she and Bradley appeared on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, where Bradley addressed how he felt learning Reese used to think her ex-boyfriend was her soulmate — something she’s said on past seasons and brought up again in a recent episode when discussing the residual effects of her castmates lying to her about him cheating.

I think Joe is one of my soulmates. You can watch the show and tell we are meant to be together.

“I think you can have multiple soulmates in life. I’m big on that,” Reese says. “I’m one of those people that doesn’t believe that there’s one person out there for you. I think there’s many people out there for you. At the time, I thought Trevor was my soulmate when I was in the relationship, and I think Joe is one of my soulmates. You can watch the show and tell we are meant to be together.”

And, while we’re on the topic, Reese wants you to know that she’s not obsessed with talking about her ex. “It’s more about me being gaslit and portrayed as this liar and all these things when I just wish I could have broken up with him on my terms versus theirs,” she says of the experience. She notes a double standard when she talks about her ex. “It’s also super hypocritical that they’re like ‘Oh, move on, stop talking about your ex,’ but when I was fully dating Joe, I had to talk about his three love interests for a full season.”

“But those are my castmates,” Reese continues. “They’re extremely hypocritical people.” Still, Reese isn’t in the habit of holding grudges. She’s a huge proponent of time healing all wounds, always allowing herself room to learn and grow. “I feel like the whole experience made my skin thicker.”

This season of SoHo will dive deeper into her castmates’ betrayal, and viewers will watch in real time as Reese mends her wounds and moves forward. She’ll continue to chase her music dreams, manifesting playing shows in Miami, Amsterdam, and even Ibiza. In the meantime, she’s going to bask in the success of her two new songs, “Poppin It” and “Beating Heart,” while eating her way through all of New York’s gluten-free treats — starting with the Rubirosa leftovers.