EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: LeeAnne Locken Dishes on RHOD Season 2, Her Recent Health Scare, What She REALL

Tea Drinkers gather round, because Good Tea is sharing some shady goodness in our first ever EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with The Real Housewives of Dallas star LeeAnne Locken. After a rough first season filled with fights and outbursts, the Mouth of the South is back to redeem herself the second time around. I cannot thank LeeAnne enough for giving me this opportunity and she could not of been nicer in our interview. LeeAnne was also not afraid to spill some Texas sized tea. She dished about her recent health scare and longtime partner Rich. LeeAnne also talked about who is in her dream All Stars Real Housewives cast, not feeling challenged by her cast mates and so much more. Sit back and relax because Good Tea's inaugural interview is everything you need!

Was it a hard decision to become one of The Real Housewives of Dallas?

This isn't my first experience into reality TV so for me, what you see is really honestly what you get and my life doesn't change just because cameras are there. I'm still gonna say what I think, I'm still gonna do what I wanna do, I'm still gonna be me. So for me, doing this show, somebody is just giving me a check and some weird strangers are following me around with cameras.

After a dramatic first season was it hard to return for a second season?

I looked at season 1 when it ended, you know, I was disappointed in myself, I didn't like how I was portrayed and I didn't like how I looked on camera. So when we got the go for season 2 my thought was, you can't make me look any worse. I've already done the worst. So let's do it again and at least give me a chance at redemption. So in this season I think I was much more aware of the amount of alcohol I drank, the verbiage [I used]. I was just a lot more alert and aware.

Marie Reyes (yawn) and Tiffany Hendra aren't back for season 2. Are you and Tiffany still best friends?

Tiffany and I will always be best friends. Our friendship spans almost 30 years, this week was her birthday on Monday. We will always be sisters and that won't ever change. There's a bond in the heart that just transcends any petty crap that the world can throw at you.

Last year we all saw how Tiffany was defending you to the other girls. Was it hard to come back alone without her?

No, because when we began filming Brandi and I were uber close so I think Brandi sort of leaned on me because she was very nervous about how people would feel about the Brandi/Stephanie split. She wanted someone to stand with her and I volunteered. I want whats right for the show. I want this to be a great series, I want RHOD to survive for many years. I care about what we produce, I care about what we put out in the universe. So I wasn't concerned [about Tiffany's exit] because, as much as Tiffany put herself in the middle, putting herself in the middle is probably why she's not back. I don't want, I don't need anyone in the middle.

In season 1 you and Brandi didn't get along, but this season you and Brandi are friends. Do you prefer to be on good terms with Brandi?

The thing with Brandi is, she's very young. She's not age wise very young, she's just emotionally very young. So when I became friends with Brandi my whole thought was: I want to show Brandi what a mature friendship is really like. Tiffany and I have a very mature friendship, that doesn't mean we can't go giggle like little girls coz we do but in a sense that we aren't emotional reactors. If Tiffany says or does something, I don't cut her off, I go 'Really bitch, really?' and she's like oh my god I didn't mean it like that and then we are over it. So I wanted to show Brandi what an authentic, mature friendship looked like. I spent the entire season telling her 'I'm not going to get in your way, but I'm right behind you. So if you fall or need something, just turn around and I'll be here.'

Last week we saw Stephanie send a message to Brandi saying you were up to your old ways. Why do you think she sent the message?

To be completely honest, I think that when someone accuses of being something like Stephanie, out of the blue, accused me of being manipulative at the dog park, it's typically because of something they are and I truly believe that it was a manipulative, calculated move on Stephanie's part to try and prove her loyalty, even though her actions had disproved it all summer long. Stephanie, literally cannot stand being in the same room as me. She thinks that I'm evil and even though she won't come out and say it to my face, when the cameras go down it's all she talks about. That's where I have my issue with Stephanie. Her whole goal is while we're filming, not to say anything to my face because then she looks sweet and innocent and then she puts it all out on social media, in her blogs and in her confessionals. If she talked to me, to my face, the way she talked in confessionals, maybe this show would have a few more viewers and we would be a little further along. It takes courage to be authentic on camera. Maybe her life coach can help. SHADE! Yes LeeAnne!

There are two new girls this season, one of them is your friend D'Andra. Tell us about your relationship with her.

I don't know know if you watched the reunion where Cary said 'well I was at the wedding' and I was like 'well no, you werent.' She wasn't and I've seen Stephanie's assistant tweet for her and say 'what does it matter?' and it does matter in the city of Dallas. Very few people were invited to her authentic, actual wedding in the church and I was standing next to her. That matters. You don't end up in one of Dallas' most high society family weddings without being a good friend. So I've known D'Andra for 6, 7 years. I would protect her with my heart. D'Andra and I are almost as close as Tiffany and I are, in very different ways. D'Andra and I are just peas and peas. You know how the there are peas and carrots? D'Andra and I are peas and peas. We're so similar in our emotional capacity and how we take things and our work ethic. This woman grew up with a silver spoon in her mouth and yet she works as hard as I do, who, I'm a survivor. I have to work. So I have a lot of respect for D'Andra. I know this is weird but I do deal with a tremendous amount of insecurities and so does D'Andra. We don't like to show that side which is why I think people think we are tough bitches but when we are together we get to be ourselves. I talk her off the ledge when she's loosing it and she's talks me off the ledge when I'm loosing it. That's what real friends do.

The other new girl is Kameron Westcott. Did you know her before she joined the show?

I did not know Kameron before the season started, I knew who she was but I had never met her. The difference to me, if you take the two blondes on our show, Stephanie did not really know me before we started season 1, Kameron did not really know me before we started season 2. They were both overloaded with incredibly horrible stuff about me. Mostly from Marie, but then Kameron got it also from Cary and Stephanie to the point where Kameron was calling executives saying 'I don't know if I want to do this, this girl is just going to attack me for no reason people are saying' and then Kameron started asking some more of our mutual friends. We have a best friend who lives across the street, I'm really good friends with her and so is Kameron. She heard some other stuff so she signed on. What's so funny, is to this day if you asked, I talk to Kameron more than I talk to, well I never talk to Stephanie, unless theres a manipulative text coming out. Kameron adores me. Even though Cary brought her on the show, she will tell you: I'm friends with D'Andra, I've known Cary, and I love hanging out with LeeAnne. LeeAnne's just fun. She's funny. So for me I think: here's the difference of a mature person who got overloaded with a bunch of stuff but then said I'm old enough and wise enough to be able to make my own assessment."

On the premiere Cary and Stephanie were talking about an old police report of yours. Do you think they brought it on the show to make you look bad?

I think that Cary and Stephanie's whole mission in life, and I will continue to say this in interview after interview, is to try and destroy my reputation because if they do they think I will cower and quit the show. The problem is that I don't have skeletons next to my birkin, I live my life very open and trust me, Stephanie's got those skeletons right next to her luboutions as well, and I'm very familiar with all of their skeletons and you know, the thing is: I don't see them going into the wild and messing with a wild bear so I don't know why their messing with me.

Are you and Rich still together? Are you any closer to being married?

100%. He's actually in the other room watching Hurricane Harvey stuff. I think that we are very happy whether we are married or not, but I think you are going to see a tremendous amount of Rich in the upcoming episodes and I think that I'm very happy with where the season takes Rich and I.

In the trailer we see you throw a glass or plate at Cary. How is your relationship with Cary at the moment?

It was a champagne glass with water in it. I don't trust Cary and I think that during the season, it's going to be made very clear to you why Cary and I will probably never have a chance to be friendly, ever. I think that this season your gonna get to see, why I have problems with Cary. I will say this Sam, I went into this season and I was the one who specifically sat down and said 'I feel like I didn't give Cary an opportunity to get to know me or for me to know her in season 1." I wanted to make amends for that and I was the one who asked her to meet me at the dog park, I was the one who said 'let's try to spend some time away from the group so we can give each other a genuine chance' and the second that I did that, a text came out.

In the trailer we also saw you have a serious health scare. Are you doing okay now?

My internal organs are still recovering, I'm still going to have to require one more reconstructive surgery but yes the flesh eating bacteria has been the hardest thing I've ever gone through in my life. I've dropped 30 pounds. At one point I weighed 115 pounds and my veins were collapsing, it's not a nice disease. It was leaving holes in my body. I took pictures the whole way. It just was the hardest physical thing I've ever gone through and it has a lot of reason why I did, what I did, when you saw the champagne glass being smashed. When your sick and your at your end, people poke you, and your just physically not capable of maintaining elegance. It's fight or flight and I don't flight.

So that was the hardest thing you've ever been through, because you've been through a lot in your life.

Oh my god. It took me three months to kill it. This literally threatened my life. I saw my doctor 3 times a week. The routine to cure it required topical treatments and oral antibiotics, it was physically the hardest thing I've ever gone through. Yes your right, as a child I was sexually molested for years so even though that mentally has left PTSD and damage in my life. This almost killed me. This literally threatened my life.

If you could go to any other Housewives city, which cast would you join?

I love this question because as a cast we get asked this all the time and the entirely of my cast would choose Beverly Hills because its posh and gorgeous and beautiful and thats what they all want their lives to be. I would choose Atlanta and I'll tell you why. I like a challenge. I wanna see if I can go toe-toe with NeNe and Sheree and I've got some spice in me so I think I would be good in Atlanta. I think I could handle my own and I would love the challenge. To me I'm not very challenged by my cast and that means that I don't get to give my best performance. I would like to be challenged. You never know what your capable of or how funny you can be until your with someone who is willing to agree and up, agree and up.

Kenya Moore and you have had very similar lives. You both had challenged upbringings, you were both beauty queens, both worked in Hollywood and you are the explosive ones on your shows. I feel like you guys would be so good in a fight.

I would love it. Sweetie we don't twirl because that's second grade!

If you could bring a housewife from another city into Dallas who would you bring?

Oh that's a good one, I've never been asked that. I would love to see Bethenny come to Dallas because I would just love to see her sit down and just be like: 'Stephanie grow the fuck up or get off the show.' Like boom. There's no bullshit, no tolerance. 'Be a woman. You say you wanna be a woman? Be it, stop pussing around with it. Either be it or go.' Then with Cary I think she would be like: 'tell the truth bitch, just own it.' I feel like Bethenny and I are very similar in the way that, we just are us on camera. I've met Bethenny she's very authentic and just blunt and I appreciate people like that. Another one? I mean I'd love Erika Jayne to come to town because I've loved partying with her, she's just so fun. That would be completely selfish though.

Who is your ideal All Star Real Housewives?

I would take all the OG's you know, I like Andy's choses that he's made. I think your the OG because you work the hardest. You contribute the most. So I love when people wanna photo shop other cast members head onto the centre spot so that they can be the Queen. When Lisa says "The crown is heavy darling, leave it where it belongs" there's a genuine methodology behind that, and it is heavy, you have to contribute. Your storyline has to be the biggest. The thing is, nobody makes up a storyline for me. This is my life. If the camera's were not on me I would still be going 100 miles per hour non stop. Having fun. Being around a lot of drama and living my life. That is what I do. This is my life it's not created for a show.

What can fans expect to see this season?

Your gonna see a lot more anger management which I'm very happy about. For me the therapy is really important because when I sat down the first time to film with my therapist I said to her: I want to be able to have a have an epiphany every time I'm with you because then every time I have an epiphany we're helping all the viewers that are going to be watching. To get the tweets from people saying: 'this is so brave of you', 'I'm learning so much', 'your making me want to go and do therapy'. [For] all the crappy torture that the little kids want to give me, fine bring it. Because you know what: I'm helping people. I don't know what your doing with your life. But I'm helping people and that always has been and always will be my mission. [You will see] A lot more of Rich and I together doing stuff and your going to see a CRAZY trip to Mexico where everybody drank tequila but me and Kameron.

Will you be back for season 3?

With some considerations, yes. I probably would yes. Because my mission isn't done. I still want to continue to help people. Your about to see a journey of me becoming a public speaker and that's something that I love to do. I want more of my life to be shown in the part that I love to do, not just the drama. It's easy to wrap me up in the drama because I seem to be the only human willing to say what I mean with the other girls in my presence. Whereas most of them just say what they mean in confessionals. I think you need me to do that part, but at the same time I have this other part of my life that is really the majority of my life that I would rather show. With considerations, sure.

The Real Housewives of Dallas airs Mondays at 10/9c on Bravo! Stay tuned at Good Tea's for our shady recaps and exclusive tea on the lonestar ladies!