When Bozoma Saint John joins the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast, don’t expect her to let her costars walk all over her.
Saint John, 47, will join Kyle Richards, Erika Jayne, Garcelle Beauvais, Dorit Kemsley and Sutton Stracke as season 14 cast members when the Bravo staple returns on Tuesday, November 19.
Speaking to Us Weekly exclusively at an event for her new haircare and wig brand, Eve by Boz, the former Netflix executive explained how her experience in business has prepared her for reality TV.
“I don’t bow down to anybody,” she said. “I have always been in rooms where people felt like they were more powerful than me. It’s just the normal I know. It’s the unfortunate part of being a Black woman. It doesn’t matter what room you walk into, it’s like people think that they are better than you.”
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Saint John, a longtime fan of the Real Housewives franchise, previously told Us that she’s a “champion of diversifying spaces,” and hopes to do that on RHOBH. She sees it as an opportunity to add her experience and story to a show that’s “obviously highly watched, highly anticipated, highly fanned over.”
There are more similarities between business and the Real Housewives than one might think, and Saint John is approaching her new role the same way she has approached her c-suite endeavors.
“I do have power. I have my own way of being and I have something to contribute,” she added.
In addition to her time at Netflix, she’s also worked at Uber, Apple Music and PepsiCo. Saint John admitted that the drama fans have come to expect on RHOBH doesn’t even compare to what she’s encountered in business.
“They’re messier in the boardroom then they are on this damn show, OK?” she said “The kind of drag out fights, the shade, the office politics, the passive aggression and the shade, I say, is way stronger in the boardrooms. The ways in which you have to be direct about the thing that you’re doing so that people don’t mess with you. … And so I’ve had 25 years of preparation to meet these women.”
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But just because Saint John is taking her talents to Bravo, it doesn’t mean she’s done expanding her brand. In fact, her goal is to build an empire — and it starts with catering her hair and wig business to Black women and women of color.
“I’m not just talking about selling hair and hair care,” she said. “There are no companies that center Black women and women of color. Zero. Because if there were, they would pay attention to lace color, they would pay attention to curl pattern. And they would pay attention to the ingredients that are used. They would pay attention to all of that. But they don’t because it’s not centered on Black women. Yet we make up 80% of the consumer base.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 14 premieres on Bravo Tuesday, November 19 at 8 p.m ET.
With reporting by Travis Cronin.
