At the time of our conversation near the end of the first month of 2025, as it’s been a week into a second term for Donald Trump and close to three weeks since wildfires started raging through Los Angeles, Garcelle Beauvais wants to call a time-out.
“Can I just go back to 2024?” she asks. “We’re only in January, and it feels like it’s already been four years. It’s been a lot already.”
Amid that frenzy, the actress, producer, mother of three, and grandmother is dealing with whiplash from watching all of the back-and-forth squabbling between the ladies on the latest season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. When told that it’s at least been calm season for her so far, Beauvais remarks, “Is it ever really calm, Victoria?” Touché.
Such is the nature of holding your own on reality TV, and in Beauvais’s case, all while working and raising twin teenage boys, one who has just started a modeling career, trying to find time for self-care and love, too. We caught up with the Saint-Marc, Haiti native who has made Beverly Hills her home (and built a dream beach house in Oxnard) to catch up about being a Black woman on RHOBH, motherhood, haters, generational wealth, and looking for her soulmate (not online thank you very much).
ESSENCE: How are you doing in LA? Some people are okay, and some people aren’t. Some people evacuated, some didn’t have to.
Garcelle Beauvais: Luckily, we are okay. Thank God. But it was scary. Everybody now, I think in LA has this Watch Duty app, so whenever it goes off, everybody’s on high alert. Everybody’s scared. You don’t know, because the fires were popping up everywhere. But luckily, we’re good. I’ve been volunteering and helping when I can help raise funds. I mean, it’s devastating. It’s really crazy. But before I left, it was starting to rain, which is also amazing because we need rain.
So the beach house is good too! It’s a very, very beautiful home that you shared on the show. What does it mean to you to have built it and have it for your family?
Oh, everything to me. Yeah. I mean, it’s generational wealth that I, obviously, didn’t grow up thinking about generational wealth. We were getting by because that’s all we could do. But to be able to be in a position now where I can leave something for my children and my grandchildren is something I didn’t even dream that big for, but I’m so happy that it happened. I mean, I feel like I’m living the American dream of how it used to be in terms of an immigrant who comes to the United States and gets the opportunities but also works hard. I think we’re missing that narrative now with how hard it is when immigrants come to this country; they work not only to help themselves but to help their families that are left behind. So I hope that doesn’t get lost on people.
For sure. And how are you feeling about Season 14 so far?
What I really I’m enjoying about this season, watching it back, is that although there’s drama, and although there’s some heavy topics that we talk about, we’ve also been able to have fun. We’ve also been able to let our hair down. I think when you have too much of one thing, it becomes too much. So the fact that we have [Bozoma Saint John], we have Jennifer Tilly, we have some fresh blood, but also we’ve been managing to have fun in between the drama, I think is good.
How do you deal with the folks who might pop up in your comments? I see them sometimes girl, and they’re calling you a Dorit [Kemsley] hater…
I don’t read comments. But I can’t say that it doesn’t filter into my world. That’s the part I get angst about. Because first of all, part of the show is bringing up things that may be uncomfortable. And also, I’m honest. I say how I feel. I wish the audience would just enjoy the show, yell at the show, throw a pillow at your TV. But when they make it so personal and attack us, that’s hard. That’s the hard part of it, honestly.
Why is it important for you to be that truth-teller? Because I think people feel like, well, “Garcelle is always talking about this. She plays ‘the race card.’ She does that.” Why is it important for you to say, no, let’s keep it real? Let’s call a thing a thing.
Listen, it’s called reality. My reality is I deal with things sometimes that have to do with race. If I didn’t address it, it’s not like, and thank God, I’m not the type that anything you say to me, I take it the wrong way, but it’s called reality. This is my reality. You now have a Black woman on the show. So, of course, that’s going to come up because that’s my reality.
I was even saying the other day that when me and my Black girlfriends are together, we say things like, “Oh no, we don’t do that. We’re Black.” We can say that. But if I said that on the show to two White women, it seems off. But that’s how I would talk with my girls. That’s how we talk with each other. So I get it. It’s a show about entertainment, but I also feel like this is reality, and this is my reality. If I didn’t have to deal with it in real life, it wouldn’t come up. But I don’t bring it up for every single thing because that’s not who I am, either.
I know Will Smith’s ex-wife, Sheree Zampino, was previously on the show, and now we have Boz. When you are able to have those opportunities to have people who look like you who get to be on the cast, is it like a sigh of relief?
Yes! I don’t want to be the only one. And I feel like Boz has been a good addition. It’s nice that we can look over at each other, and we know what we know we’re talking about. It’s tricky, though. It’s also tricky when you have another Black woman because if I don’t bring up anything to her, then it’s like, oh, I’m just letting her skate on through. If I bring up something to her, then people might think of it as, oh, Black against Black. It’s a really tough balance.
For sure. People want to see how you guys are going to interact. Are you going to clash? Are you playing favorites? It’s unfortunate pressure.
Right. And that’s what I mean. And Boz and I are cool. There were things that I do bring up in later episodes, but we were able to work through them because we’re grownups, and we’re not trying to take each other down.
Totally understand. And watching this season, something that we also loved watching as viewers is you speaking on your journey with your son, Oliver. You have spoken about it a little bit in the past, but why was it so important for you to go into detail about his past addiction?
Sometimes, I think it depends on how much the show shows. We don’t know how the edits will come, and I’d rather it come from me than somebody else who has a hold of that narrative. So, for me, it was important. I mean, listen, maybe people on the outside think my life has been perfect, but it has not been perfect on so many levels. And with Oliver, that was a big deal, and we didn’t have social media back then, thank God. Because now everything is scrutinized. Everybody knows everything. So I wanted to show that I’ve been through some hardships definitely, but I also give people hope that if they have somebody in their family who’s going through things, they can get to the other side. And let me tell you, there were times when I thought I would never get to the other side. So, to be able to share the narrative but know where we are now is just giving people hope.
Yeah, for sure. I even saw people in your comments saying, I’m going through this right now with my own child.
Oh, really? See, I don’t read my comments. I’m really honest about that. Good or bad. Wow. Well, see then, that’s why that’s important because I’m telling you, I cried. I was afraid to pick up the phone. I was afraid to watch the news because I didn’t know what could happen. Every time the phone rang, I freaked out. And even when he got to the other side, he would text me and say, “Mom, call me.” I would go, “Please don’t do that. Give me a full sentence. Just don’t say, ‘call me.’” Because then it took me back there.
Speaking of motherhood, how are you balancing it all? Even though Oliver’s grown, you still have two teenage sons, and as you shared on the show, you’re booked and busy, you’re producing projects, you’re acting. It’s a lot happening, and you’re filming Housewives. So, how do you get it all done?
I don’t know, honestly. Sometimes, I hit the wall, and I have to shut everything down. And I say to my boys, unless you’re on fire, leave me alone. It’s a juggling act, but I’m so grateful. For so many years, you get a job and then there’s a lull. You don’t get a job for a while, and then maybe you get another job. So, the momentum right now is what I am thriving on, and I am taking every opportunity I can until it shifts. So it’s about trying to make it to basketball games or volleyball games. And the boys get it now, and thank God they’re older. But it’s interesting because Jaid is now starting his modeling career, and he has shoots. And so now I’m driving him to the shoot. He doesn’t drive yet. And it was weird. I’m sitting in the trailer watching him get hair and makeup, and I’m like, I’m usually the one getting touched up in the trailer. What’s going on? It’s totally shifted.
And I was going to ask you about that, because listen, you have him in W Magazine, he’s on the runway. What is going on?!
Yeah, he just did a Nike campaign. I mean, it’s unbelievable. He just said, “Mom, how do you think I can make extra money?” And I was like, well, why don’t you try modeling? That’s really how it came about. And he’s like, well, how do I do that? And I was like, well, I know people, and let’s see if they’ll take you on. So we booked an appointment with LA Models, and we went there, and he didn’t even have pictures, really. And so they were like, let’s take some pictures and let’s see how it goes. And then they talked about it through the agency and decided to sign him. So now we’re trying to get him a New York agent.
With all of the busyness, how are you practicing self-care when you have some time to do so?
I try to do little things. I can’t say I take days off to go to the spa or retreats or anything like that. But day-to-day stuff, it’s making time for me where I’m listening to music; sometimes it’s just going for a drive and walking on the beach. Sitting on the beach for me is really therapy. I don’t bring my phone. I leave it in the car. Just quiet time, having my feet in the sand. Or if I’m in my backyard, having my feet in the grass, just reconnecting with me. Sometimes, I put lavender oil drops in my hand, and if I’m driving during a busy day, I just take a few sniffs just to reset.
Nice, nice. And I have to ask you, with balancing everything, how are you making time, if you’re doing so, for dating?
Girl, that’s the hardest part. I dated somebody recently, and I know too much now at my age. I can see those red flags now so fast, which is good because I’m wasting less time. But at the same time, I feel like, okay, obviously, no one’s going to be perfect. I’m not perfect. And it’s just finding the balance. Do I want somebody who wants to be on a reality show? Then I have to question, why do you want to be on a reality show? But that’s my life. So it’s a little tricky, but I’m definitely more open now, I think, than I’ve ever been.
I do wonder how it is as a famous person dating in LA because for everyday Black women that I know, just living in LA, when they talk to me about dating, they’re like, oh, girl, it’s terrible.
It’s terrible. They’re not lying.
But you just dated somebody. Are you on the apps?
No, I’m not on the apps. I actually met him at an event, and that’s how I would like to do it. I prefer meeting someone out. I can’t do the apps. I mean, I did the apps before, and people thought I was catfishing them. They were like, “Send me your real pictures. What do you really look like?” I’m like, this is how I look.
So what’s your outlook on love right now?
Listen, I have to believe God has blessed me so much thus far that when this guy comes, I’m going to be like, I see why I waited so long. But I don’t want it to be too much longer. Next week would be great. Tonight would be even better.
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo and next day on Peacock.