Danni Baird and Naomie Olindo share what it’s like to navigate Kathryn’s chaotic life as a friend.
No one can say Danni Baird isn’t a good friend.
The Southern Charm star has proven her loyalty to Kathryn Dennis time and time again over the years, sticking up for the single mom when no one else would. But this season, their dynamic has changed. Danni and the group chalk that change up to the changes in Kathryn’s life; the father of her children, her ex and former Southern Charm star Thomas Ravenel, is facing legal issues that could impact his future involvement in their children’s lives, and she’s struck up a new romance with a man her friends don’t seem to trust.
"It’s very hard," Danni tells ET, admitting that Kathryn wasn’t willing to listen when she voiced her concerns. "It's hard to have conversations like that, or bring things up like that at all .... You never know the right moment to say it. So, sometimes it comes out when it shouldn't but, like, it just has to come out. Word vomit."
"She had moved mountains in progress," she continues. "I could tell she was in a vulnerable position and I didn't want her to be taken advantage of, 'cause I was just thinking, man, I can't do this again. Like, no, It's like you're seeing someone [go] 80 MPH, headed toward a tree and you're like, 'Put the brakes on, please.'"
ET spoke with Danni and Naomie ahead of the season’s launch at Naomie’s family’s restaurant, NICO, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
"Kathryn is an overthinker," Naomie shares. "So, she'll hear it one way and be OK, and you'll think you got through to her, and then she'll go home, sit on it a while and she'll just turn into this whole other thing and then, all of a sudden, she's upset, but you don't really know why."
The ladies see exactly that play out on this week’s episode of Southern Charm. In ET’s exclusive first look, Naomie and Danni meet up with new cast member Eliza Limehouse to give her some advice on how to win over Kathryn, but admit it’s not easy.
"Eliza, I think she has a general trust problem with everybody," Danni laments. "I'm even having a weird thing with her right now. She just made a comment that was hurtful. It was absolutely ridiculous … I’ve already versed how I feel. I sent her a text, 'You just spit on our friendship. I hope it felt good.' I could have just brushed it off, but I’m not gonna be anyone’s doormat. I want an apology and that’s that."
"She shuts down, but then she stems on [what you said] later," Danni explains to ET. "You never know when she's going to stem on it, and how deep she is going to stem on it, and so, like, you can't read somebody's mind, and she's not somebody that's gonna -- she doesn't want to burden anybody. She's not going to call me and say, 'Danni, you really hurt my feelings and this is why…'"
"Like, you kind of have to see it the hard way, and reverse and figure out how it got there," she adds. "But I love her anyway."
While it may not look like it on the show, Danni admits it’s become easier to navigate her friendship with Kathryn the longer they’ve known each other.
"I feel like her life has always been this way, if anything -- and I feel bad about this -- I feel like I've gotten desensitized a little bit to all the chaos that just happens," she says. "You know, you ask yourself, 'Am I being a good friend, because I'm not asking about X, Y, Z?' But then again, this is her normal. Like, it's not mine."
Danni's tough love approach seems to have worked. Kathryn shared a sweet group shot to Instagram praising her pal for being there for her, in thick and thin.
"That's when I realized what a true friend was," she wrote. "Someone who would always love you -- the imperfect you, the confused you, the wrong you -- because that is what people are supposed to do. I've learned a lot from you, [Danni], and I LOVE YOU."
Southern Charm airs Wednesdays on Bravo at a new time, 9 p.m. ET.
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