Southern Hospitality has easily become one of my favorite Bravo shows this season. The drama was unmatched, the cast was authentically themselves, and the vibes were always wavy, baby. Now that Season 3 has come to an end — with several shocking twists, by the way — series star Joe Bradley a.k.a. Joey Bottles is weighing in on some of the most jaw-dropping moments from the finale and reunion, both of which aired Thursday night (March 5).
One of the most surprising moments from the reunion, which fans immediately noticed in the trailer, was that Will Kulp opted to skip it altogether at the last second, sending his emotional girlfriend Emmy Sharrett into the lion’s den to defend him and their relationship amid allegations that he had cheated on her while he was away at law school.
According to Bradley, Kulp was ready to face everyone at the reunion when they got beers together the night before — which is why he was “not buying” Kulp’s “mental health” excuse as the reason for his absence. Instead, the VIP manager thought Kulp was “nervous” that TJ Dinch and Bradley Carter were going to drop “deeper” receipts than what we saw in the season finale that would’ve proven the rumors about his alleged infidelity.
While Bradley said Kulp — who watched on from the other room —”regretted” sitting out of the reunion, he couldn’t understand why he’d let Sharrett fly solo in the first place.
“I would not be able to fall asleep or live with myself watching my girlfriend get berated by the whole group on a screen right in front of me when she’s two doors down,” Bradley said, before adding, “Will, I consider him a friend. But I lost a lot of respect for him, unfortunately.”
As for whether he thinks Kulp will return to the show, Bradley said it was “hard to say.”
“I don’t really see a bright future for him with the show and the group anymore,” he admitted. “Because the whole point of the reunion is to reconcile and move forward. And if he’s not willing to do that, I don’t know how we can move forward back in Charleston.”
When DECIDER caught up with Bradley, he also revealed why he thought it was a “good thing” that Season 3 was only 10 episodes, how Kulp and Sharrett first presented that bombshell information about Maddi Reese‘s previous relationship, and where he stands with Dinch after their emotional conversation at the reunion. Check out the full interview below.
DECIDER: Joe, so much has happened this season. After your Vegas wedding, you were ready to propose for real in the near future, while Maddi wanted to slow things down. Was it hard for you to pump the brakes?
JOE BRADLEY: It was kind of hard for me to rewatch that. I think my frustrations when we were talking about moving in together, I think that, you know, I’m coming downstairs — that was at my house, that scene — so me walking down the stairs and seeing her look at Zillow, she’s looking at homes, I’m like, “Oh, my God, is she looking at our next house?” But I think I kind of cringed at myself a little bit looking back on it, because I don’t want to pressure her. In my mind, I have been in love with Maddi and I’ve been fantasizing about our future for four years. And for her, at that point, it had been four or five months. So it was hard for me to remind myself that. Leva, my mom, I feel like, are the people I can actually accept advice from. It’s really hard for me to accept advice from Brad and TJ and Michols. They’re not the love doctors. No one in our group, especially Emmy and Will, no one in our group — love them to death — but they can’t give me relationship advice. So to hear from my mom and Leva, I needed to hear that and pumping the brakes is something I should have done in that moment.
Do you have a timeline? Do you know when you want to propose?
Yeah. I mean, me and Maddi live our lives like we don’t even know what the hell we’re going to do tomorrow let alone 10 minutes from now. We live a very spontaneous life. Maddi could get a DJ booking. It can be Wednesday and Maddi’s like, “Oh, I’m going to Toronto on Friday.” You know what I mean? We live that life. I’ve never planned anything in my life. Now for me to be like planning a wedding seemed a little far-fetched for my personality. Like the Vegas wedding [was] very impromptu, very spontaneous. I know in my head [that] this is my person, this is someone I’m going to marry. I just want to do it when we’re both ready.
I think your prom-posal to Maddi was absolutely adorable. What are your favorite rom-coms?
Yeah, so I wanted to do the romantic boombox outside the door, like Love Actually, Say Anything. Those are the two ones I did. And then One Tree Hill. When me and Maddi are stressed out, like during filming, we’d go home and she introduced me to One Tree Hill. I [was] like, “Maddi, I’m not watching One Tree Hill.” I’ve seen Gossip Girl, whatever. One Tree Hill, in my head, I thought that was a chick show. Maddi comes back from a trip after two days, she walks in the room and I’m, like, on Season 5. I’m like, “I don’t want to be anything …” They do this thing in Wilmington where they actually do a One Tree Hill — it’s like a BravoCon, but they play a basketball game and that’s in Wilmington. That’s like an hour away. So me and Maddi are, like, dying to do that.
There’s one at the end of this month! You guys have to go. Speaking of prom, there was a lot that went down, including an accusation Grace made about Maddi and Oisin, which Maddi obviously denied. Were you shocked that Grace stood by her allegation at the reunion?
That was bizarre. [Grace] went from being like, “You’re my ride or die, you’re my best friend,” to being like, “Nope, I stand by [it].” Like, no, [Maddi] did not [suck Oisin’s d*ck]. So here’s what happened. Maddi was on a moped. Her moped broke down in Tulum. Her first time meeting Oisin, they ended up going to the beach. They kissed. This was before I even met Maddi. This was 2019, 2020. That’s it. I think with all the drama and everything, all the accusations of Grace being a bad friend, I think whenever you see the group attack Grace — let’s say the Vegas dinner and then at the prom and at the reunion as well — people will be around her and she will say the wrong things. I think when she’s hurt, she says things that hurt other people. [I] love Grace to death. But like I said at the reunion, I’m not going to take her word for it because, you know, did she hallucinate that happening while she was on ayahuasca? I have no idea. But no, I do not believe her. I believe my sober best friend, girlfriend. And weirdly enough, I believe Oisin.
There was a lot of drama surrounding Will and Emmy and this girl who allegedly stayed at Will’s place while he was in New York. Do you believe Will’s side of the story? Or do you think there might’ve been more to it?
In this town, with Charleston, I’ve been a victim of being in the rumor mill and things being stretched out of proportion. So I’m kind of right on the fence where I feel like if there’s so many different rumors going on and he’s not showing up to all these things — he’s the lawyer. That’s giving guilty to me. And my biggest thing is if you can’t show up and defend your girlfriend at the reunion and you can’t defend her even at a dinner table and you just walk away from it, how the hell are you going to defend someone in the court of law? So, I mean, it just doesn’t make sense. Until there’s proof, I don’t know if I can say that I believe everything. But if I knew I was not guilty, I would be there with facts. I would be there telling everyone, “No, none of this stuff happened. This is a rumor.” Instead, he ran away like a coward.
Like you mentioned, Will backed out of the reunion at the last second and Emmy cited his mental health as the reason why. What did you think of that?
Here’s what’s frustrating [for] me. I don’t joke about mental health. Mental health is something we’ve all gone through. I’ve had friends that have really suffered, like, RIP to some of my friends. I don’t joke about mental health. To insinuate that his mental health wasn’t good enough for the reunion, I’m not buying it. I think it’s a cop out. He was with me. I met up with him the day before the reunion. We were getting beers. He looked me in the eyes. He goes, “Dude, I can do this.” He shook my hand, saying that he was going to come to the reunion.
That morning, he shows up to the studio wearing gym shorts and he’s in the dressing room the whole time watching it on TV. I would not be able to fall asleep or live with myself watching my girlfriend get berated by the whole group on a screen right in front of me when she’s two doors down. Can you imagine? Like, I couldn’t imagine doing that. Will, I consider him a friend. But I lost a lot of respect for him, unfortunately. And I just don’t know, like, in Emmy’s head, how she could be like, “That’s that’s my man. That’s my guy.” I know that their love is real. Their relationship — that’s between them two and whatever works for them. I just can’t really relate. I can’t relate to it.
Did you talk to Will after the reunion? After seeing Emmy break down, did he feel bad at all that he didn’t go out there to help her since she spent most of the time defending him and their relationship?
Yeah. I mean, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but I think that Will was super nervous. OK, if there’s two people on the cast you were gonna guess that they were gonna bring their receipts to the reunion, who would you guess?
TJ maybe?
TJ and Brad. My theory is TJ and Brad had some receipts deeper than what we saw on TV and [Will] was afraid to show up to the reunion because they were going to drop it on him. That never happened. So after the reunion I walk into the dressing room and he is like, “Oh, I feel so bad. I feel like I could have done that. I just couldn’t handle it at the moment.” I’m like, “Bro, OK, so now you’re regretting doing it?” I don’t know. It was bizarre and it was such a stressful day. But to hear him say that he kind of regretted it was maybe a step forward. Or maybe that’s just bullshit. I have no idea.
When Andy asked if Will was quitting the show, Emmy said he hadn’t talked about that. We also saw Grace tell Emmy that this career path might not be for her. Do you think we’ll see them come back for Season 4?
It just kind of hurts my feelings a little bit. If you sign up to do a job, you finish strong. When you sign up to do this show, part of this show is the reunion. And he couldn’t finish it. He’s getting paid to do the show like we all are. There are some days I’m hungover and don’t want to film and I still show up to work. It’s hard to say if he’ll come back or not. I don’t really see a bright future for him with the show and the group anymore. Because the whole point of the reunion is to reconcile and move forward. And if he’s not willing to do that, I don’t know how we can move forward back in Charleston. We’ll see what happens, though.
Like you guys said in the show, it would be so easy for him to shut everything down if he just calmly explained his side. But him running away is what makes it look guilty. That’s why I think he definitely could’ve just showed up to the reunion and put everything to bed.
Exactly. I mean, if you showed up [to court] and there was the defendant and the prosecutor and the defender doesn’t show up, they’re like, “Oh, that’s an easy win right there.” Just show up. Maddi in Season 1, she’s like, “Be a man, Joe.” Be a man, Will. Show up to the reunion. Anyway, enough about that. It was a lot and I hope that he can figure his shit out with Emmy because I do want them to be happy.
Yes, that is the most important thing.
I feel for her. We love Emmy. I want the old Emmy back. She’s been working a lot at Republic recently and I see in her eyes, like, she’s doing good.
I’m glad to hear that! At the start of the reunion, we learn that Trevor never cheated on Maddi with Sami and that Brad and everyone else had knowingly continued the lie. Maddi was approached with this information the night before the reunion. Can you walk us through that conversation and how that went?
Yeah. So, I’m in my bed. I knew I couldn’t go out because we had the reunion the next day. I’m trying to watch the Super Bowl. I’m in this tiny New York hotel room, I’ve just ordered wings, I want to watch the Super Bowl, like, with Kendrick Lamar. So that was my goal was just, like, [unwind], watch the Super Bowl, and gear up for the reunion.
We hear a knock at the door. Emmy and Will come in and we have a nice little powwow talk with them. And then out of nowhere, Emmy and Will pull up the receipts, pull up the texts. Brad and TJ — more so Brad — found the Sami girl from Season 2 and I think maybe she was a little thirsty to be on TV. She’s a young girl. That girl used to work at Republic and Maddi trained her. I think she was maybe trying to get in the situation because she liked to be in the scene a little bit. And Brad straight up — there’s receipts — he manipulated her to say that she hooked up with Trevor. And then Brad found out when it was too late, halfway through the season, that they didn’t hook up. And so they went a year and a half looking at Maddi, being nice to Maddi once they reconciled, knowing that that never happened.
Maddi does not care about Trevor. He was a worse boyfriend in different ways. In my mind, I’m like, “Alright. We skipped a few steps. You broke up with him sooner than you would have.” So in my mind, they knew better not to tell me about their whole conniving plan — about lying about him getting with Sami — because I would have told Maddi even when she was with Trevor. Like, we were still best friends.
So part of me was like, “Alright. They broke up. That’s good.” But then the other part is, this whole time, Maddi has felt guilt about living this lie — that she ended her relationship based on something that wasn’t true. You can see her face at the reunion was swollen from crying for 12 hours before that. We barely got any sleep before the reunion. She was second-guessing her whole past. And that was a really hard thing that we’re still dealing with right now. Maddi is a very forgiving person. I think there’s a way to move on from this, but it was a lot for her to take in.
I felt so bad to see her so upset because she really is such a good person.
I know. I’m going to cry right now. We’ll bounce back from this. Like she says at the reunion, there was a big burden, that 800-pound gorilla was lifted off her shoulders. And I feel like all of that realization and all of that emotion came out of her within that 12 hours. The timing was bad for it at the reunion. But looking back on it, she’s glad she found that out. It needed to happen. I thought they hooked up, though. I had no idea. I had no idea it was all a lie. But I wasn’t as shocked as she was.
TJ ended up getting really upset when you guys were talking at the reunion. Where do you stand with him now?
I always have a special place in my heart with our friendship. The way he was crying at the reunion, he’s cried to me many times about the struggles he deals with with his love life. And so that I can empathize, I think instead of attacking him. I think he’s told a lot of lies. And I think he tells a lot of lies out of insecurity about his relationship and his love life. I think it is tough to see, in Charleston, all of his friends coupling up and approaching 30 and being happy. And I think he’s a picky guy. You go to Charleston and you scroll down Hinge and it’s just like, “Refresh,” and it’s like, “No more people.” And I think for heterosexual people, even in Charleston, it’s an ocean. I think with him it’s a pond and the pond ran dry. I think TJ is a huge catch. My biggest hope is that TJ finds his person so that he’s happy, but also so he won’t involve himself in all of our relationships.
He was another one who had me teared up! Between TJ, Maddi, Emmy and Michols.
I thought I was like a sociopath for not crying. I was like, “Is there something wrong with me?” I wanted to stay strong for Maddi. But we all know I cry when I watch rom-coms and stuff.
I was shocked to see JT Thomas’ name brought up at the reunion. Are you friends with him? What do you think of everything going on with him on Southern Charm?
Jarrett Thomas, JT, I met him in 2019. I met him at a bar — him and his best friend Rob Bennett. Those are two of my first friends in Charleston. JT watched me start bar-backing at Republic. He watched me start Southern Hospitality. And then, you know, two years later, they’re calling me and my friends, and they’re like, “Who do you think would be a good fit for Southern Charm?” And I’m like, “I know this crazy guy named Jarrett Thomas.” I have a longer lasting friendship with JT than I even do with Maddi and TJ. It’s crazy, I know. I’m rooting for him. I think it’s hard for him. Like, we all started our show [with] equal footing. And I think it’s hard. Like those guys on Southern Charm, I actually love all of them. [But] they’re pretty intimidating. Not only as a group, but they’re all like 6’5” too. JT is actually not that short but next to them he looks like Lord Farquaad. I look like a short king next to these guys. So he’s not as short as people think.
I have to say, there have been a lot of fans upset that the reunion is only one part. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think this season needed a multiple-part reunion?
Even though we only got 10 episodes, I think we definitely could have gotten more episodes. There was a lot that was left out. But that’s a good thing, you know? I would rather have more to tell then for them to be scrambling to have filler just trying to fill a 10-episode season. So that’s a great feeling, that we have so much going on. We are such organic friends that we have a million things to talk about. And yeah, I love Watch What Happens Live. I love that studio. I would have been there for three days straight if we got a two or three-part reunion. We had so much to talk about. But I look at it as it’s a good thing moving forward because this group has such real friendships. We have so much going on. We actually have a lot of layers. Even the newbies. They’re young, like, I don’t know how Michols and Lake are 22. When I was 22, I was still in a fraternity at Michigan. I was still slamming beers. And these two are just so emotionally intelligent and add so much to our group. So I love this group. I think hopefully in the future, knock on wood, we can see a real set. I like this set. Maybe we could be in here.
Yes! Southern Hospitality Season 3 also happens to share a reunion night with The Traitors Season 3. Have you been keeping up with that show? Who are you rooting for?
Every Thursday, me and Maddi are really busy at Republic, sometimes she’s DJing. Friday morning we wake up, we look at each other – “Traitors.” Me and Maddie are diehard Traitors fans. I didn’t watch Season 1 or 2. I started watching a lot more reality TV because I spend most of my time in The Islands with all the girls. That’s what we call the house Maddi lives in — The Islands. It’s on Daniel Island. But yeah, The Traitors is my favorite show to watch right now. I am a huge Dylan Efron fan. From the first episode, I go, “This guy’s a star.” This guy is not only smart [and] put together, but I feel like I kind of see a little bit of myself in him in the way where I’m just going to try to be everyone’s best friend. I don’t know if I’m as smart as him or I’m certainly not as jacked as that guy, but he’s a perfect fit in that group. I’m rooting for him to win. And I’ll see I’ll see Dolores [Catania] later. So I have a lot to ask her. I feel like she’s so intimidating that people are like, “Alright. I don’t want to pick her.” Even though she might not be the smartest game player like Boston Rob, like, I would not want to vote her out.
We’re getting closer to summer, which means Season 4 could potentially start filming in a few short months. What would you like to see from this group moving forward?
This group moving forward, I think it’s really important that we go back to the mothership, the glue that holds us all together, and that’s Republic. That is why we’ve become such close friends. And I really love the fact that we can all show up and we’re genuine people. We hang out once a week, like, we’re in Charleston. Even if I don’t want to hang out with them, I’ll run into them on King Street. So it’s just a really cool thing. I just hope we can keep that energy moving forward and we can be authentic and tell our stories and just have fun doing it. I think that’s the recipe. Like, that’s my favorite thing about Summer House is they have fun.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You can stream Southern Hospitality Season 3 on Peacock.
