For Lake Rucker, returning to Southern Hospitality for Season 4 on Bravo comes with a different level of comfort, and a deeper awareness of how much both she and the show have evolved since her freshman season. Between navigating shifting friendships, ongoing tensions within the group, and a growing spotlight around the cast, this season captures a more little bit different version of the Season 3 newbie as she continues to find her place within the group.
As the new season gets underway, that spotlight has already extended beyond Charleston. Around the time of the premiere, the cast was honored with a GLAAD Media Award—an experience Rucker describes as both affirming and surreal.
A surreal GLAAD Awards moment
“Honestly, as a group, it makes us all feel very honored and recognized and loved by the public that we got the opportunity to even attend the GLAAD Awards, let alone winning the GLAAD Award,” she told Blavity’s Shadow and Act in a recent interview. “And I think it was just a moment of, oh my gosh, our story really impacts people’s lives and it’s beautiful. And I’m so happy to be a part of that. We’re this family and we did this together.”
She continued, reflecting on the magnitude of the moment. “And personally, I’m just kind of starstruck by watching all the people. When Quinta Brunson—when I saw those people, I was like, oh my God. And then Don Lemon started speaking, I wanted to cry. Moments like those to be a part of that experience and then go on stage and accept the award makes me feel like, oh my, this is an unreal surreal moment where I have to just take it all in and be appreciative to be a part of the NBC/Bravo/Haymaker family.”
Rucker said the win itself caught her off guard. “I’m just really grateful and taken aback almost. It was a big surprise. We were surprised to be nominated, but this was a huge surprise to win. And I don’t know, I was just smiling. Leva was talking and I was like, ‘Go, Mother!’”
Settling into her second season
Back in Charleston, Rucker said her second season brought a noticeable shift in how she approached filming and opening up on camera.
“So obviously your first year, just like any new thing, you go into it with a lot of nerves and unexpected challenges,” she explained. “And so this year I feel like I was a lot more comfortable in my own self-identity, sexuality, and other things that last year were more of a struggle for me to talk about.”
She said watching herself last season helped reframe her mindset. “I think that watching last season made me feel like, ‘Okay, this isn’t that bad. This can be okay. Let me just open up a little bit more this season.’ But yeah, I feel a lot more comfortable.”
That comfort, she added, also comes from stronger relationships within the group. “And the relationships and friendships also, all friendships develop over years and years and years of hanging out and loving each other. And so those friendships have developed too, and that is shown on camera and off camera.”
Even so, she acknowledged the nerves haven’t fully gone away. “So yeah, obviously I feel very comfortable. My nerves are still there. My nerves and my anxiety is still there, but it’s a little knocked down a little bit. It’s like, okay, now I can walk into this room and feel belonged and feel welcomed,” she said.
Where things stand with Molly
One of the more complicated dynamics this season is Rucker’s relationship with Molly Moore, particularly after changes at Republic shifted how often they saw each other.
“So as you know, me and Molly and Michols [Peña], we started this TV journey together. We went into season three all together, all working at Republic,” she said. “And Republic is kind of a very close-knit family, and we see each other constantly. I’m even looking at my calendar right now—it’s Republic, Republic, Republic.”
She explained how that changed. “And so going from seeing each other every single day to that slowly being scattered once she got fired, it was hard to hone in on that relationship. I really tried. I really tried with that friendship after she got fired,” she said. “I was one of the first people that she called after she got fired and she called me crying and I wanted to be there to help and comfort her.”
But she said things began to feel different over time. “But as you see in the first episode, there was times where she would come by Republic and just walk… So I work in the front. There’s the front host stand and I’m in the front, I’m doing my thing, ‘Welcome to Republic,’ getting tables ready. And she would just walk straight by,” she explained. “And that happened multiple times, where she wouldn’t even acknowledge my existence or she would acknowledge Justin, who was new. And I’m like, ‘We’re friends.’ And it was just weird energy. And so it got to be addressed in the first episode.”
As for where things stand now, she kept things open-ended. “As what I can say about our relationship now, you’ll have to wait, watch and see. I mean, I think that a lot of things unfold. We have a lot of ups and downs, but ultimately we’re both grown and we both were allowed to lose our friendships,” she said.
On her bond with Michols
In contrast, Rucker described her relationship with Michols as one of her strongest.
“So me and Michols, we do have this brother-sister relationship, and I think we relate on so many different levels from us both being people of color, from us both being queer, from us both coming from very kind of religious families,” she said. “And so we had a very similar upbringing when it comes to that sense of love and community.”
She emphasized how much she values that connection. “And so I love Michols. I love him to death. I love him to death. And so our friendship relationship and our brother-sister relationship is beautiful. I am obsessed with him. He is perfect. Michols can do no wrong in my eyes,” she said.
That dynamic also plays out at work. “Our work relationship is exactly what is portrayed in episode one,” she explained. “I will go to him and say something. He’s like, ‘Why aren’t you in front?’ And he’ll be like, ‘Where are your earrings? Why don’t you have earrings on?’ ‘You don’t have makeup on today? Where’s your makeup?’”
She said the banter is consistent on and off camera. “And so it’s kind of a silly, goofy banter that we have, but it really is perfectly described in the first episode. The amount of times, even some people that work at Republic, they were laughing because, word-for-word, he says, ‘Why aren’t you in the front?’ multiple times. I know I’ll hear it tonight too when I go into work.”
Breaking down the group dynamics
Elsewhere in the group, tensions surrounding Maddi Reese, Bradley Carter and TJ Dinch continue to unfold.
“So I just want to say that with Maddi, I completely understand her hesitance to that friendship because you have these years-long friendships and you want to trust your friends,” she said. “And even if I’m in a relationship, I’m going to choose my friends and I’m going to choose their opinions and stuff. And so she trusted them.”
She said that broken trust is difficult to repair. “And for that trust to be openly broken, it’s kind of like I understand why she is hesitant to trusting them again and building that friendship.”
Rucker added that the situation is layered. “And I think that there is years-long back and forth between her and Brad and TJ, but ultimately it is all out of love because I feel like people wouldn’t take it as deep if it wasn’t out of love in the first place,” she said. “But yeah, I understand why she feels that way because I do think that group chat was very manipulative in a way and it was plotting and we pride ourselves on authenticity, but when you make up something like a fake cheating rumor, not once, but twice, it’s kind of like, okay, how am I supposed to trust these people ever again?”
She also broke down how she sees responsibility within the group. “I think that there’s tiers. There’s Brad, TJ who were the culprits of that rumor, and then there is Mia,” she said. “I would even say that Emmy [Sharrett] and Will [Kulp] were egging on the rumor in a way.”
On navigating difficult conversations
Rucker also addressed the conversation around Emmy saying she felt “unsafe” around Brad.
“I would not be friends with Emmy if I believed that she was a racist, and I don’t think Brad thinks that she’s a racist either,” she said. “I think that certain terminology is understood by some people and it’s not understood by others.”
She said word choice played a role in how the situation was perceived. “Using words like unsafe or aggressive is perceived as a microaggression, but I wish she would’ve used words like violated or betrayed, or privacy violated, because I really and truly don’t think that she… I think she went into panic mode, and I don’t think she knew what she was saying when she said those words. And I think that if you look at the context of the situation, not to dive deeper into it, but he was outside of her hotel room recording a personal conversation with her mom, and so that is a privacy violation, but I don’t think it was a ‘I’m scared.’ And I’ve talked to her about that, but ultimately, you can’t go back on a word that’s harmful. All you can do is take accountability for what you said.”
What to expect this season
As the season continues, Rucker said viewers can expect a mix of everything that defines Southern Hospitality.
“I think you can expect a lot of ups and downs, a lot of friend group fights, love, dating, fun,” she said.
When it comes to her own personal life, she hinted that more could be revealed. “Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Just maybe,” she said when asked about showing her dating life. “But I think that there’s a lot going on this season to look forward to. I think that this one’s going to be up there.”