Bronwyn Newport Opens Up About Her 'Real Housewives' Journey
An interview with a Bravo fan favorite! Plus: My thoughts on Andrew Garfield's 'Chicken Shop Date.'
I like to pride myself on being plugged into pop culture, but there are some gaping holes in my knowledge: Notably, the discourse surrounding The Real Housewives franchise.
In the past, I loved watching Bravo’s Real Housewives of New York City and its sibling shows in Atlanta and Beverly Hills, which featured women who were all the things: Hilarious and petty, vulnerable and human. They served plenty of attitude as well as iconic soundbites — exhibit A: “Be cool, don’t be all, like, uncool” — that true fans devoured and quoted back to one another.
I used to be that fan, but somewhere along the line I stopped watching reality TV altogether. No Housewives. No Bachelorette. Not even Love Is Blind. Everyone watches that show! I feel so out of the loop! Meanwhile, I’ve gravitated toward cozy culinary shows like Be My Guest with Ina Garten and Somebody Feed Phil, where the only tense encounters happen between host Phil Rosenthal and Scandinavians he cannot charm with his sitcom-y humor.
Then Bronwyn Newport, whom I know and like, announced in August that she had joined the cast of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. The series became a huge hit for Bravo when it first aired over the pandemic. Season five premiered last month, and with Bronwyn on the roster, I boarded the Housewives train to Salt Lake and was glad I did. The show is, naturally, a compelling blend of combustible personalities, and Bronwyn has quickly emerged as a fan favorite, thanks to her outrageous outfits, witty one-liners and willingness to be her authentic self. Above all, she keeps it real.
I met Bronwyn six years ago at an SFMOMA event, where we were seated next to each other. She was super-friendly with a super-modern career arc: After working in finance, she pivoted to fashion, her passion, and became an Instagram influencer with a maximalist style that she aptly describes as “funny chaos.” Her archives include pieces she’s worn on Housewives: A rare Saint Laurent heart coat and a whimsical Moschino hot-dog dress, not to mention a dramatic red tulle top made by her friend Christian Siriano. (He recently told Andy Cohen that she’s the only Real Housewife who will pay for his designs.)
Behind the seams, Bronwyn lives in Salt Lake with her husband, Todd, and their six Boxer dogs. She grew up Mormon and left Brigham Young University after becoming pregnant with her daughter Gwen, who’s now 18, and facing judgment from the church. Yesterday, Bronwyn and I connected to discuss her Housewives journey and how she’s adapted to her growing fame.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Had you seen Salt Lake before joining the show?
No. I mean, I had definitely seen social-media clips, that kind of a thing. Who hasn’t seen receipts, proof, timeline, screenshots? It was everywhere. … I had girlfriends who were on the show. I’ve known Lisa Barlow a long time. I’ve known Meredith Marks socially in Park City. We went to a lot of the same events.
I'm a Bravo fanatic, but because I knew the girls, I felt like it was almost invasive to watch the show!
Now that you’re part of the cast, it feels like you’re the new girl in school — and everyone’s fighting over you.
I mean, at first, they were fighting not to know me, which was fine. Doing Housewives is a really interesting psychological experiment. I don't know that that's what I set out for it to be. But I’ve realized, in watching myself [on the show], so many things about myself. I didn’t realize that I was hard to get to know until I watched the show.
I guess I have more of an application process than I thought I did. I vet new people very heavily and I didn't realize — until I watched it — that to know me is to love me, but you've got to want to get to know me. And I’m tricky to get to know.
You made your Housewives debut at a Valentine’s-themed party hosted by Lisa, who wound up fighting with Whitney Rose, whom you and Lisa later discussed on camera during a Wendy’s run with Heather Gay, who told Whitney that you were gossiping about her, and it became a thing!
I went to this event, and I knew some of the girls and they're all screaming at each other, and they have all these lists of “when you've lied to me” and “when you've talked about me” and I thought, “Wow, this is very different.” My girlfriends outside of the show are very honest and we do talk to each other very frankly, but this was a different level of frankness. I mean, they were really going in on each other. And so, I kind of felt maybe this odd overconfidence — that this is a group that really tells it how it is, and we really speak our minds. So, we went to Wendy's, and I really spoke my mind. “I don't know her; I don't know if I want to know her. I don't appreciate the storming out with the pre-practiced flipping-off of the middle finger.”
You know what I mean? I thought it was OK to say that. And then I got caught in this little “Well, maybe Bronwyn’s gossipy,” and I was like, “Oh, OK!” I need to remember that I don't know these women, they don't know me. I've not earned their trust. They should not have earned mine. I need to tread lightly here. This is a normal group of girlfriends. So, it's odd to figure that out while you're figuring people out and there's cameras following you. For sure. I've had to learn really quickly that I need to be myself no matter how everybody else is, because that's all I am responsible for at the end of the day. Right? It is odd.
Well, I do appreciate how you stood up for yourself and pointed out the hypocrisy of labeling you a gossip when, in fact, your fellow Housewives are always talking about each other, all the time.
All of us are wonderful friends and awful friends at different points throughout things, like every single person is. … Sometimes we’re all selfish. Sometimes we all say hurtful things or stupid things or thoughtless things.
You’ve got major credibility in the fashion world. Brands like Valentino and Carolina Herrera invite you to attend their couture shows. You recently added a sartorial masterpiece — Schiaparelli’s red jacket and skirt with faux ant embroidery! — to your collection. Last year, another fashionista, Jenna Lyons, joined The Real Housewives of New York City. Did Jenna’s participation inspire you to sign on to Salt Lake?
I have talked to [Bravo] off and on for years about doing it, and honestly what kept me from doing it was this idea that I want to be totally honest and transparent. Always. And I think you see that in this last episode. [Where Bronwyn and daughter Gwen had a heart-to-heart about Gwen’s paternal grandparents reaching out to meet her for the first time after years of ignoring her.]
So, when they had spoken to me before, [Gwen] was really going through a lot of hardships that I actually really wanted to be very outspoken about. Being the caregiver for somebody who is having mental health struggles is very isolating, is very lonely. There are lots of big decisions to make and it's private. Somebody’s mental health. Somebody’s health records. And I felt this huge, overwhelming, like “You can’t make a mistake when it comes to someone’s mental health. You can’t get it wrong. Even one time could be drastically detrimental.”
I also knew that in that moment, cameras coming into our house when we didn’t have any perspective, when we weren’t on the other side of it, wasn’t a place where I could speak about it articulately or in a way that was helpful.
So, we had said “no,” and we had said “no.” And then, of course, I had seen somebody was arrested on the Salt Lake franchise and somebody else might've been stalking them and maybe someone was a racist. And honestly, I felt like the more I learned about it from afar, the more I was glad I hadn't done it. Then I did see Jenna doing New York — and there's a couple of girls that I'd worked with as a stylist in Beverly Hills who did Beverly Hills — and they'd all had really wonderful experiences with it. And [Bravo] approached me again last year and we were in a place where my daughter is happy and healthy and thriving. We're not just surviving. We've really come [through] and she's on the cusp of doing her own thing in her own life.
I think that’s really wonderful. And now, you’re embarking on what you dub your “fifth or sixth” act.
I'm not even 40 until next year, so to think that “I'm done” was more of a midlife crisis than anything else for me. And I thought, “I'm going to do this. I'm going to put myself on the show and it is going to really encourage me to be — not just honest with the people that I'm close with — but honest with exactly who I am and where I am with whoever watches and whatever comes from that.”
The footage of Gwen trying to decide whether she wants a relationship with her grandparents, who are back in the picture, was very emotional. You said that she deserved to learn more from them about her father, who died when she was a toddler. A lot of viewers connected with that moment.
She's very brave. I mean, since she was a little girl — before even knowing what a boundary was or whatever — I remember she would come to me at the playground and say, “That little boy said something to me that I don’t like. It’s OK for me to tell him that.” I'd be like, “Well, maybe just play somewhere else.” And she'd be like, “No, I think he needs to know that so he wouldn't say that to somebody else.” And I was like, “OK, so how are you planning to say that to him?” She'd be like, “Well, I think I'm just going to tell him, You can talk however you want, but it hurt my feelings and you should know that.” And I was like, “OK!” She's just always been very self-possessed and very sure of herself and very confident.
I don't know where that comes from, but I'm so proud and it's been this beautiful journey [over the] last week to watch how many people have reached out to me — [Gwen] doesn't have social media — wanting to get that message to her or to me or to both [of us]. They grew up in a similar situation or they didn't know their mom, or a parent has passed or they were adopted. And lots of the same questions come up in many different scenarios: Who am I? Where did I come from? What do I have in common with a parent? What degree of knowledge do we deserve to have about people? Is it just medical history? Is it more? I don't know. So many people have been so kind and honest with me about what's happened with them. And I did not expect that.
Switching gears: How do you decide what to wear on the show?
I don't know if it's a tactic of the producers or not to create drama, but they tell you very last minute what we're doing and what the theme is … which is exactly how I would play it if I was filming a reality show. The more tense and insane and riled-up you can get people, of course the more we're going to blurt things out. “I think you’re a gold-digger.” Of course, they create that foundation for that. But I looked at [filming] first and foremost as a fashion lover, as a challenge. … It was like supermarket dash for me. [I pulled clothes from] my archives.
I felt like buying something new, to me, would feel like cheating. It would feel like trying to look cool on camera and cool is not an adjective I ever go for. Quirky, unique, myself, odd, artsy, creative. Those are words I would like better.
People call it pretentious, but sometimes I have this little smirk on my face because I truly love the way I look in that moment, not because I necessarily love the argument I'm in!
Your friendship with Christian Siriano is goals. What do you love about his work?
We have gotten to be close friends, and I adore him personally, and he really, truly means what it is that he puts out on the runway. And that is he wants women to feel beautiful. And you see that in every step of the process with him, from having gender-neutral and body-neutral runways. Everybody is dressed beautifully.
For as long as I’ve known you, you’ve been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and other progressive causes.
A lot of the choices I've made in my life have made me feel ostracized or not part of the group. And I'm very aware that those are choices. I could dress less wildly. I could have chosen to be with somebody that I didn't have a significant age gap with. I didn't have to have a child and raise her by myself. I made those choices for myself. When I felt like [my choices] weren't mainstream or culturally accepted, I was very comfortable with the fact that I put myself in those positions. But in doing that, it really made me think about people who are not in an option for it to be a choice for them.
If you are born queer or trans or LGBTQ, if you are born in a different socioeconomic situation, if you are born to parents who are not citizens — I was born to parents who are not citizens, I was not born in the U.S. — I understand that those are things that you can't choose to change. That is the circumstance of your life. And to feel like those people are not made to feel included or accepted or loved or supported because of who they are is just intolerable to me. And I don't know that I set out to be a loudmouth, but I'm very good at being a loudmouth.
Yes! Never stop!
I know somebody on [Salt Lake] said I'm the villain. I don't think I am. But if being villainous is being willing to just loudly say, “This is what I think happened here and this is wrong,” or “I'm not going to watch this happen,” then yeah, I might be the villain. I don’t know!
You have many dogs. How do you handle that?
We divide and conquer. We definitely have a two-team strategy here. We have “The Smalls” as we call one team and “The Bigs.” … My daughter tends to be the keeper of The Smalls, and my husband and I [oversee] The Bigs. And we switch so that everybody gets love, attention and all those things.
You have to play teams. And I am not above bribery. Of course, if I want them in jammies, they get a salmon-skin treat. If they need to get in the car to go to the vet, they get a puppucino, a little pup cup from Starbucks. I mean, you can see [that] Gwen turned out great despite my parenting. You don't always get that. The dogs are wild and unruly, and they jump on everybody, and they get on my furniture, and they sleep in my bed and they help themselves with food off my counters because I parented them much like Gwen and all my good luck was used up with her.
Do you think you'll get another dog?
My husband says, “No more dogs.” He's really done with dogs.
But for years, I've been campaigning for a llama. I love llamas. I think they're so funny. I think it would be big enough to play with our dogs and wrestle with our dogs, but also if it didn't want to, [would] spit on them and keep them away from it. And nagging works at my house. I don't know if that helps or hinders my “I'm not a gold-digger” claim but nagging works. So, I've been nagging my husband for years. Finally, about a year ago, he said, “Just buy this llama.” I've always wanted a llama, but I fixated on this one called Thunder Bumper that was on a site where he was for sale. And I just thought the name was ridiculous. He was beautiful. And my husband finally said, “Fine, just buy Thunder Bumper, get it for yourself.” And I called, and I was so excited. And the woman said, “And what other two would you like?” And I was like, “Oh no, just the Thunder Bumper for me is great.”
And she says, “Well, I can't sell you just one llama because they're really social, kind of pack animals and they sleep in shifts, and they always need a buddy. So, three would kind of be a minimum, but five would be ideal.”
I texted my husband and I said, “Oh my gosh, amazing news. Thunder Bumper still available. And I get two of his siblings.”
He was in a board meeting, and I thought I was just going to fly under the radar. And he immediately steps out and calls me, and he is like, “We are not getting three llamas. What are you talking about?” And I said, “Well, she told me I have to.” And my llama dream was dashed because three llamas was too many for my husband. So, I'm still working on that. I think you are more likely to see a mini-version of my house built in the yard for the llamas than you are another dog right this second. But also, I’m an impulse shopper. So never say never.
You can catch Bronwyn on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, Wednesdays at 9 p.m. Eastern. If you’re a true fan, then you’ll love tonight’s episode, she says, because it involves “an element of whodunit” and cast members “screaming at each other over charcuterie.” You can also follow her on Instagram and check out her adorable (and canine-friendly) collaboration with Bedhead PJs here.
A FEW WORDS ABOUT CHICKEN SHOP DATE
Scene: A fried-chicken restaurant in London. The worst — or best? — date of Andrew Garfield’s life.
Both, it seemed. The actor grinned sheepishly while Amelia Dimoldenburg grilled him for her satirical YouTube interview series, Chicken Shop Date, where she plays a heightened version of herself: Sharp-witted. Socially Awkward. Deadpan. He tried to get her to break character and have an earnest conversation, but whenever her guard came down, she recommitted to the bit.
“I think we’d have a really nice time without the camera,” Garfield told Dimoldenburg. “I think we’d just enjoy each other’s company.”
Reader, I was on the edge of my seat watching their flirty banter and palpable chemistry. The video, released last Friday, spread across the internet with astonishing speed. “Twitter, for once, went appropriately ballistic,” Evan Ross Katz wrote in his brilliant hot take, listing fans’ breathless reactions. A sampling: “i can’t believe the best rom com of 2024 is an 11 minute promo interview between amelia dimoldenburg and andrew garfield.”
Quoth Katz: “Are we that starved for romantic-comedies? Well, yes. Though we have movies that imbue romance and comedy (see: No Hard Feelings or Anyone But You), these films are missing the kind of chemistry that we say leaps off the screen. It’s a kind of chemistry that has you, the viewer, believing not only in their love, but the possibility of their love being a kind of love that could exist for you. It makes you compare your love stories, whether current, past or future — to this template of great love before you.”
END CREDITS
Before I sign off, I want to honor the memory of legendary movie producer Lynda Obst, who died Tuesday after battling illness. Lynda was a force of nature and a real tough broad like you see in the movies. She welcomed me into her home, told the best stories and vouched for me as I reported my first book. She really cared what a young woman thought, and her big heart can be seen in the beloved films she produced: Sleepless in Seattle, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Flashdance, Contact and Interstellar, to name just a few.
“She was very savvy and smart about how things worked and how movies got put together. Her special sauce is this crazy intuitive intelligence and taste,” Hollywood agent Bryan Lourd said in The Hollywood Reporter’s obituary for Lynda. “She loved the audience as much as she loved the filmmakers and understood that the ultimate win was when you could tick both boxes in making something great with great people and creating an experience for the audience that was not only satisfying and entertaining but moving.”
Rest in peace, Lynda. I’ll never forget you.
With gratitude,
Erin
Love Bronwyn, love Chicken Shop Date, and love this entire post
Oh my God, I didn't know about Lynda Obst. I'm so sad. We were both speakers at the Frankfurt Book Fair about 10 years ago, and I just thought she was so amazing. We shared a few meals, and she told me all about Flashdance, etc., and she was just so smart in so many ways. Including philosophy. I think she majored in it. She liked to sneak a smoke after dinner. I liked her orneriness, in life and thought.