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Southern Charm New Orleans’ Tamica Lee Talks ‘Typical’ Voodoo Rituals, Taking on Mardi Gras

Tamica Lee and Reagan Charleston in ‘Southern Charm New Orleans‘
Tamica Lee and Reagan Charleston in ‘Southern Charm New Orleans‘Erika Goldring/Bravo

For Tamica Lee, voodoo is a completely normal tradition. While Southern Charm New Orleans is very different than the original show, Tamica spoke exclusively with Us Weekly about the traditions in NOLA that they find “typical!”

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“I know that New Orleans may be depicted nationally completely different than how it is and how we live it. That’s interesting, because we live it every day. We had bought the house when we started to film, so we had to get our house blessed. That’s something that we do in the south,” she told Us Weekly. “Somebody comes in and blesses your house. People don’t understand. They’re like, ‘What do you mean bless your house?’ It’s like a whole ritual. You have the voodoo priestess. That’s typical. It’s interesting, I don’t know what’s not normal. I think it’s normal to have a voodoo priestess to go visit them. Our super dome is built pretty much on an Indian burial ground. That’s just how it works in our city. It’s really mysterious and magical and a beautiful culture of a city.”

Barry Smith and Tamica Lee in ‘Southern Charm New Orleans‘
Barry Smith and Tamica Lee in ‘Southern Charm New Orleans‘ Erika Goldring/Bravo

Another thing that’s typical in NOLA? Mardi Gras, of course. Even though Tamica lives in the city with her husband, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t celebrate the holiday on Bourbon Street with the rest of the world. However, don’t ask her how she got her beads.

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“I can’t tell you that! No one tells how they got the beads,” she said. “People are crazy especially on Bourbon Street, which is so typical and quintessential when people think of New Orleans. New Orleans is so different and so much more than Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street kind of is like the hurricane, the eye of the storm. Bourbon Street is the eye, and the rest of the storm is the surrounding areas. I’ve seen some stuff for beads. I’ve seen some stuff for beads at an age where I should not have seen some stuff for beads. It’s not unlikely for my 9-year-old to see some crazy things!”

Her son may also see a bit of drama! Tamica considers herself “unapologetic,” so she definitely brings a certain energy to Southern Charm New Orleans.

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“There’s a fight every other episode,” she told Us. “We are so diverse – we have a 20 something, a 40 something, men, women, black, white … That’s New Orleans, that’s kind of what it is. Everybody’s different. That’s what we are down here. It’s like a mixing melting pot of gumbo.”

Southern Charm New Orleans airs on Bravo Sundays at 9p.m. ET.

With reporting by Travis Cronin

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