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Podcast host Kiki Monique shares her no holds barred pop culture opinions on Kimye, Bravo and more

Tune into We Should Talk every Thursday, where In The Know’s Gibson Johns interviews your favorite celebrities and influencers. Subscribe to We Should Talk here.

Kiki Monique is turning her passion for pop culture into a full-fledged career, and her future is looking bright.

The former radio host, who later worked in accounting, cultivated a following on TikTok — and later Instagram — for her hot takes and thoughtful critiques on pop culture, celebrity and reality TV. Last year, the visibility that stemmed directly from that success landed her the gig of co-hosting Lemonada Media’s podcast I’m Sorry, in which she dissects the latest in messy online drama alongside Hoja Lopez and Mohanad Elshieky.

For the latest episode of In The Know’s pop culture interview series We Should Talk, Monique opened up about the path she’s taken, navigating online notoriety, the latest Bravo hot topics and more.

Listen to Kiki Monique’s full episode of We Should Talk below, and keep reading for highlights from the interview:

On how she discovered that Bravo was editing old episodes of Southern Charm: When I went into the Southern Charm story, that was kind of an accident. We were going through summer 2020, and I started relating everything back to shows I used to watch, and I just remembered this one episode of Southern Charm and [thinking], “I remember feeling really weird about that at the time.” I went to go find it, and it was gone.

It led me into this deep dive of, “Where did that episode go? Wait, there are a few more episodes missing!” Before I knew it, Variety had picked it up, and people were like, “Why is this missing?” and Bravo had to answer for it. […]

Originally, I was looking for the episode where Thomas and his father went out to lunch. Thomas was going to pay the bill, and his father was like, “I’ll leave the tip, because I would like to get rid of these Lincolns.” It was like, “Why do you want to get rid of things with Lincoln on it?” And it was, “OK, I get where you’re going.” So I was like, “Let me find that episode,” and I couldn’t find it.

I found it on YouTube, so I was like, “Let me download that.” I started looking at other episodes. … Kathryn was walking through a slave cemetery in her yard. I knew that at the time I was watching it I felt uncomfortable about certain things, but then just rewatching it in that moment felt so weird. Then they were removed, but I found them on YouTube, and Bravo did say, “We removed three or four episodes to review.” They put all the episodes back, except the one where Kathryn was walking through the graveyard. They put it back, but they edited out that scene.

On where she hopes her current social media success takes her: Every time someone comes around, I look to that person and I’m like, “I want to be them.” I remember for the longest time I wanted to be Wendy Williams, and before that, I wanted to be Howard Stern.

Now, I want to get past the “I want to be them,” and figure out who’s Kiki Monique, and how to do I get people who want to be like me? I want to create whatever space that is, and I think just talking about the things I want to talk about — because I think I say things that are on people’s mind sometimes — so I can be me and be authentic, in whatever way that presents itself.

On recent efforts to diversify Bravo shows: I love any attempt at trying to diversify, but I just think that the part that’s missing is the behind the scenes. Throwing a Black friend with a white friend with an Asian friend with a Mexican friend…

OK, it looks good on paper, but are the people behind the scenes who are filming when they’re interacting in certain ways understanding these nuances? [Do they think] “Should this air? Would this trigger people?” That element is missing.

Also, the reason we love Bravo shows is because of the actual, true friendships. Just throwing people together that aren’t friends is never going to be successful, and they’re missing that part, as well.

On feeling empathy for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West amid their messy divorce: There are so many things that are happening where I’m like, “We should not be witnessing this.” My nosy side is: “I want to know every little detail,” but my empathetic side is: “This is not our business.”

I feel empathy for anyone involved in the whole situation, right? I feel empathy for Kanye. I don’t like some of the things he was doing to Kim, but I understand that he’s in pain. We’ve all been dumped, and this is a whole other level, because he was married and has kids. So, I get it. Obviously, I feel empathy for Kim, because she comes from a successful co-parenting situation — she knows how it works! She just wants to make that happen for her own family.

Watch In The Know’s full interview with Kiki Monique below, and check out her podcast I’m Sorry from Lemonada Media here:

If you enjoyed this interview, check out In The Know’s recent chat with the fashion influencer Caroline Vazzana!

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