The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Bronwyn Newport wouldn’t say no to a possible Monica Garcia return — at least not right away.
Newport, 39, spoke exclusively with Us Weekly on November 18 at the second annual Stonewall In Brick Awards Gala, hosted by The Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative (SIGBI), the official and only nonprofit of The Stonewall Inn bar. While speaking to Us at the Gala, Newport discussed how she would have reacted if Garcia, 39, had returned for season 5, which is currently airing on Bravo.
“I think that’s hard to say because I don’t know the full weight of that betrayal for them,” she told Us. “I do know that there’s always three sides to every story. So I’ve heard Monica’s, I’ve heard the ladies; I have a feeling the truth is somewhere in the middle.”
Garcia made her debut in season 4 of RHOSLC — her first and only season — before a bombshell season finale where she was unmasked as one of the people behind the Instagram gossip account Reality Von Tease. The account had been posting info about the other women on RHOSLC and, upon the reveal, Garcia subsequently left the show.
“Monica did make them feel unsafe,” Newport, who also made her RHOSLC debut in season 4, told Us. “But I believe those girls were messy in Monica’s DMs or Reality Von Tease’s DMs. I’m definitely talking out of pocket because I was not there. I do not know, but I also think you do your best work when you feel a little uncomfortable.”
She continued, “So I don’t know that I wanna hang with her every day, but I’d love for her to make an appearance. Maybe I’m in a real bad place with the ladies if I’m asking for Monica to make an appearance, but, you know, we’ll see.”
Newport showed her support for SIGBI while attending the November 18 event. The Gala benefits SIGBI’s work supporting grassroots organizations committed to LGBTQIA+ advocacy, as well as SIGBI’s Safe Spaces certification program, which institutes policies to ensure businesses and venues worldwide are serving LGBTQIA+ staff, customers and advocating for equality.
“I grew up right outside of San Francisco,” she explained to Us. “I spent part of my youth outside of Amsterdam in the suburbs. So, personally in my family, there were always queer people around, very much a part of my parents’ friends circle, my siblings’ friend circle. So it’s always been a community I identify with and I’m supportive of. A big part of my departure from the Mormon church was, it’s incongruent for me to be part of a church or an organization that doesn’t love and accept everybody.”
As for Garcia, she has few regrets about her time on RHOSLC, but wishes her former castmates did not have so much (alleged) sway on whether or not she could return to the series.
“That was beyond frustrating, because I didn’t think that they had that kind of power to make that kind of stand,” she told Us in October for the Reality Stars of the Year issue.
“I kind of thought, ‘This is your job. You either come and do your job or you don’t, you film with the cast or you don’t.’ I didn’t think it was like they had that much control or say over casting, who they got to film with and not film with, especially that cast. And I mean that with all the shade in the world. They’re not NeNe Leakes, they’re not anything like that. So, it just kind of blew my mind that they had that kind of power.”
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City air on Bravo Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET. Stream old episodes anytime on Peacock.
With reporting by Brody Brown
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