Southern Hospitality stars Joe Bradley and Maddi Reese gave Us a complete breakdown of their relationship timeline — before their shotgun wedding in Las Vegas.
“I guess around February we started hanging out,” Joe exclusively told Us Weekly on December 18, while promoting season 3 of Southern Hospitality, which premieres on Thursday, January 2. “I have not been with anyone or kissed anyone since last winter around February.”
The reality star revealed that he and Maddi “started being boyfriend and girlfriend in the middle of April,” which was “a little bit before the cameras came around.”
Joe gushed, “We’re very happy right now.” He added that Bravo fans will see the couple’s “love story kind of unfold” on the upcoming season, since it was “pretty fresh” when the cameras were rolling.
“We just started dating weeks before we started filming, so I feel like we’re figuring it all out,” Maddi added. She confessed, “I am still uneasy about getting into another relationship or dating or even putting myself out there, so I just feel like it’s going to be really interesting watching that play out and everything.”
That uneasiness, however, didn’t appear to put a damper on Maddi and Joe’s surprise plan to get married in Las Vegas. In fact, their shotgun wedding, which fans saw in the trailer that dropped last month, will be a big part of this season’s story line.
“I feel like you’re going to have to tune in to find out [if it’s real],” Maddi teased during a joint interview with Joe. “I feel like you watch our whole journey from [when] we just started dating to talking about getting serious and taking that kind of big next step. You’ll see that play out and I’m excited because we’re in Vegas when it happens, and that trip is awesome.”
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Joe called the nuptials — which were officiated by an Elvis impersonator — an “epic moment” on the show. He played coy about whether fans should start referring to them as husband and wife, but said Maddi is “100 percent” his long-term partner.
“I think Elvis knew that too in the white cowboy hat and I think everyone around us finally feels that and knows that,” he explained. “This summer you’ll kind of see who actually believes that [from] the start.”
Joe insisted that for him, the Vegas ceremony was “serious” because he “wanted to show my love for her and prove all the haters wrong.”
Although Joe and Maddi are happy in their relationship, they confessed that getting hitched in Sin City was a spur of the moment decision. “I think everything in our life is spur of the moment, so it’s pretty on brand for us,” Joe told Us. “We’re spontaneous crazy people in the best way possible, but it felt right.”
He teased, “I definitely had a lot of a– kissing to do over Thanksgiving at her house” after they spontaneously said “I do” without either family in attendance.
Despite raising some eyebrows for their choices, Joe and Maddi both admitted their romance was a long time coming.
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“I really have had feelings for her for years, but we were also best friends,” Joe recalled. “One day I would wake up and be like, ‘I have a chance with a girl in my dreams’ and the next day I’ll be like, ‘This will never happen.’ And most of our friends told me it would never happen.”
His mom, however, was always in his “corner” reminding him, “‘That’s the one. Don’t be an idiot. That’s your long term. That’s a long game, Joe.’ And I just, it sounds cheesy, but I didn’t give up on it,” he said.
Maddi noted that for her, “Timing was everything.” She had recently split from boyfriend Trevor Stokes, which fans saw unfold during season 2 of Southern Hospitality, so she had to “sit with that for a little bit” before jumping into another relationship.
“I always had feelings for Joe, but I just didn’t know if it was past a friendship or not,” she told Us, explaining that it was “very scary” for her to take that leap of faith. “It was definitely worth taking that risk.”
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When asked if Maddi ended up making the “first move” this time around, she teased, “I feel like Joe made a lot of [moves].”
Joe chimed in, “I made the first 300 moves and then it was to the point where I had to give her time and space to make that safe decision, that leap of faith on our own. But I was ready for it.”
Maddi did take her time but ultimately realized that Joe was more than her best friend. “I think kind of more so [with the] timing we were both out of a relationship and it was like, ‘Why not?’” she recalled. “That’s kind of how it played out for me.”
Season 3 of Southern Hospitality premieres on Thursday, January 2, at 9 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
