'Southern Hospitality' airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo
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Maddi Reese and Joe Bradley are preparing for the next chapter of their lives.
The couple, who began dating in 2024 after years of friendship, recently sat down with PEOPLE to tease season 4 of Southern Hospitality. Explaining that viewers will see them navigate new challenges as their relationship becomes more serious, Joe, 29, notes that they’ve never been the type to hold back
“This year, people will see that when it comes to me and Maddi, we don't hide things from the camera. We are going to show our full relationship on-camera,” he explains. “We love really hard, but we're also really passionate, and when we disagree and we don't see eye-to-eye, I think we're not afraid to look each other in the eye and have adversity and overcome that. Everyone fights, everyone argues, everyone disagrees.”
Maddi, 28, adds: “We were in the honeymoon phase, and I feel like this year, it's more of those issues that are like, ‘Are we going to push through these things?’ I feel like we get to the other side of stuff like that.”
Credit: Bryan Steffy/Bravo
While Joe acknowledges that it isn’t uncommon for couples to split after putting their “very personal” lives on reality TV, that isn’t a concern for him.
“We've seen a lot of couples that we thought were amazing on Bravo, and it didn't really work out great,” he says. “We don't care about that. We are looking to the future. We're going to stay true to who we are. We're best friends, we're together every day and we've just got to take it head-on and stick together.”
That history of friendship was initially what Maddi says kept her from pursuing a romantic connection with Joe. Looking back, she thinks it was the best thing for their relationship.
“I've never been in a relationship where I was friends with the person first, and I feel like I always, in a relationship, was like, ‘Who am I actually dating?’ " she shares. “I feel like Joe and I knew each other, obviously, on those types of levels. We've seen each other in other relationships, and I feel like, because we were good friends, we also worked together, we were both managers at a time at Republic, so we learned how to communicate with each other.”
Joe, who also never dated a friend before, agrees, adding, “Looking around at other couples, I think the most beautiful, most stable relationships were friends first, because you know each other's weaknesses.”
This year, they say they’re starting to think about the bigger picture of their future together. Revealing they recently got a dog, Maddi teases that other big changes will be a topic of conversation as the season plays out.
“You're going to see a lot of that conversation come up as well, of what our timeline is,” she says. “I feel like [Joe] goes through a lot of paths of, ‘I'm turning 30, what is my career? What is my life? What am I doing with my life?’ And I feel like we also go through what's next for us. I definitely think that buying a home and living together is our next step, and you'll see that go down this season.”
“I think our biggest problem, or mine personally, has been always comparing myself to other people and other couples,” Joe admits. “The timeline — what comes first, the chicken or the egg, the ring, the house, marriage, a kid, puppy. So we've never really planned anything with our lives. I think we're just also just rolling with the punches and figuring it out, feeling it out. We're not the type of couple that's ever going to make a five-year plan, but we are getting to that point where we're like, all right, what do we do next?”
Credit: Elizaveta Braginskaya/Bravo
As for how they approached returning to the group after an explosive season 3 reunion — during which friendships crumbled and new rumors came to light — Maddi, a DJ, confesses she wasn’t excited to be back with everyone.
“This season, I come back from a massive tour. I did over 40 shows between last season and filming this season. I almost got burnt out, and I wanted to be back and deal with some things,” she shares. “I start opening up, I get diagnosed with anxiety, PTSD, and I feel like this summer, I'm growing a lot and I'm in a healing phase in my life. I don't know where a lot of my relationships lie, even in the group. I don't think I was really interested in having a relationship with anyone in the group, to be honest with you, after the reunion last year.”
“I think there was no way to move on in my head,” she continues. “So I feel like you see me work through that, and I do think that time heals a lot of wounds and talking things out, and especially when you have a resentment, to talk it out with a lot of people in the group. This year is a very transitional year for me.”
Joe also calls season 4 “different than the others,” as he hopes to get back in good standing with his boss Leva Bonaparte and mend fences with his castmates.
“I want to focus on my career and my relationship and my family as much as I can,” he says. “So it's really hard to balance that when you're in this industry where you're always in the center of the party. That's something I'm just trying to balance right now. But I love this industry, and I feel like if I want to stay in it, I’ve got to figure it out.”
“I feel like I got away with a lot in my 20s, and now, the reality's hitting me pretty hard,” he adds.
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Southern Hospitality airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo. Episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.
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