Bronwyn Newport is No One-Season Housewife

Not everyone can pull off a De la Renta dress with an orange Bottega bag and matching Prada sunglasses at 10:30 a.m. at Shake Shack. But Bronwyn Newport can.

In fact, asking to meet over hot dogs and milkshakes in haute couture is a rather apt analogy for Newport herself. A former kid “who didn’t quite fit in” and who now feels as comfortable at a fast food restaurant as she does at fashion week, the 39-year-old influencer turned reality star has created a career for herself leaning into her quirks—and ignoring her haters.

“Everyone has called me all kinds of names,” she tells me. “I’ve been called a whore, I’ve been called weird. Everybody hates my fashion. I’ve been called all kinds of things. When [my husband] Todd and I got together, the ‘gold digger’ commentary started. Finally, I was like, there’s nothing else anybody can say that’s mean about me. So I might as well just be a hundred percent myself.”

For the past several years, Newport has made a name by doing just that: being herself. On her Instagram account, formerly @PretaNewPorter and now just her name, Newport has collected 200,000 followers by sharing everything about her life. She talks about her love for high fashion; her rather fabulous life with her, yes, wealthy and much older (26 years) husband Todd; her Mormon upbringing and her experience being kicked out of BYU for getting pregnant at 19; raising her daughter, Gwen, as a single mother; her six (!) dogs; her charity work; her passion for social justice; and her adventures.

So when the opportunity came to go on reality television, specifically to become the newest addition to the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City for the show’s fifth season, she thought, Why not? As she quipped to both producers and to me, it could help her achieve one of her life’s goals.

“They said to me, what do you want out of this?” she says with a laugh. “I said, ‘I really want to be a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race.’ I’m trying to get on RuPaul’s radar. I have hired all of his girls to perform events and parties of mine. I follow him on Twitter. I talk about every episode. Notice me, RuPaul! That’s all I’m asking for at this point.”

Newport, I’ll note, is totally serious. But Housewives also came up for her at an interesting chapter of her life. Production had asked her to interview for the show before, but it wasn’t the right time—her husband was battling cancer, and her daughter had been dealing with mental health issues that eventually led to inpatient treatment. Now, after making it through that tough period, Newport felt she had nothing to lose.

“I think the last little bit of me trying to hold onto this perfect facade of anything in my life was totally over,” she says. “I don’t know if I could have done Housewives before that last barrier dropped.”