As Bravo fans learned last year, Salt Lake City, Utah is defined by a lot more than Mormonism. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City's freshman season showed off a cast of entrepreneurs, leaders, and huge personalities struggling to get along while simultaneously defying religious stereotypes. The upcoming new season is reportedly just as intense and will have a little help from new castmate Jennie Nguyen. The newcomer recently shared what it was like working with Jen Shah and all of the other ladies on Season 2.
Jennie Nguyen, 46, is a former businesswoman, wife, and mother of three kids. She's the first Vietnamese housewife in the Bravo franchise and the third Asian-American star after Crystal Kung Minkoff and Jen Shah. She comes into the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City as a Catholic friend of co-star Lisa Barlow but, apparently, her expectations of the other women had to be tossed out over the course of Season 2. She told TheWrap:
I did not have a relationship with them. So every single one of them really surprised me in different ways. Like Jen [Shah], you think maybe she’s a certain way. … But no, that’s actually really her. There’s no filter. This is Jen. That’s what surprised me because I was prejudging [them]. And now when I’m on the show, it’s like, no, this is us. This is us in real life. There’s no acting here. This is true emotion. This is true drama.
The new Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star entered the fray at a highly-anticipated juncture concerning Jen Shah’s legal troubles. After the first season's reunion ended, the cast began filming Season 2 with no delay and managed to capture Shah's controversial arrest for fraud and money laundering charges. Supposedly, co-star Meredith Marks even had something to do with the feds’ timely appearance, which Marks has remained cagey about. So Jennie Nguyen can either remain an impartial outsider to the Shah drama that unfolds or, conversely, participate in it, as most Real Housewives are quick to do.
It is uncertain as of yet what role Jennie Nguyen will take up in the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City’s second season. In the show’s trailer, Nguyen mainly gets into a heated argument with her husband over having more kids in the future. Jen Shah seems to like her just fine and calls her a “firecracker.” With Nguyen busy forging her place amongst the group, though, Lisa Barlow starts up a feud with Mary Cosby over her alleged “cult” church.
Without a doubt, a lot of dynamics are in play for Season 2 and I, for one, am itching to find out how it goes. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City premieres this Sunday, September 12, at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
