As she gears up to watch season 8 of Southern Charm, Naomie Olindo is reflecting on her split from Metul Shah.
“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,” the 29-year-old Bravo star exclusively tells Us Weekly ahead of the Thursday, June 23, 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.”
News broke in July 2021 that Naomie and Metul called it quits after she accused him of cheating on her. After briefly moving to New York City with the doctor, the L’Abeye designer returned to Charleston — and rejoined the cast of Southern Charm.
“It was important for me to show [and] to be honest about that,” Naomie continued to Us. “I can acknowledge that that’s what happened and [it’s] not his fault or anything like that. I think a lot of people try to be what they think people want them to be. And really the most important thing is just to be true to yourself.”
While fans will be getting their first insights into the breakup when the reality show returns, it feels like “ancient history” for Naomie.
“I think it’ll probably just be weird for other people to be hearing about these things for the first time. Cause I’m like, ‘Oh, this is like so far long ago.’ I don’t think it’ll be hard in the way I’ve processed it. Let’s just say that,” she explained. “It really ended up being the best thing that could have happened. I didn’t know that at the time — at the time I hated it — but hindsight’s 20/20, and I’m just very thankful for exactly the way that everything went down.”
Following the split, Naomie hooked up with her ex Craig Conover. “It was sort of like a time and place thing where it’s like, ‘OK, I know you, I trust you, we were both like fresh off breakups,’” she told Us. “This is a really long time ago now, but it was never like, ‘Oh, we need to get back together, blah, blah.’ It was just like a comfort thing — a very temporary comfort thing.”
While Craig is now in a relationship with Paige DeSorbo, Naomie told Us that she’s casually dating.
“I’m dating. I’m, like, having a great time. I’ve very happy,” she continued. “I keep saying I’m happy for the experience — as s—ty as it was — because now it’s brought me to this place where I’m so much more aware of so many different things and life is good.”
Southern Charm returns to Bravo Thursday, June 23, at 9 p.m. ET.
