‘RHOD’ Star LeeAnne Locken Blames Big Amygdala for Explosive Behavior

Real Housewives of Dallas star LeeAnne Locken is taking responsibility for her anger — or at least her amygdala is.

In Wednesday’s Season 3 premiere of the Bravo reality show, Locken sought to contain her anger and retrain her brain through meditation after last season left her with next to no friends in the RHOD cast.

Dragging along D’Andra Simmons to meet with a meditation guide named David Sunshine, Locken explained how her brain and her traumatic childhood have combined to create the death-threat-happy woman who stands before us today.

“I’ve learned recently that there’s a place in your mind called the amygdala,” Locken told Sunshine. “And if you are abused or tortured as a child, it grows exponentially. So my amygdala takes any, any threat and just won’t tolerate it.”

She told the audience, “When it comes to Cary [Deuber] and Stephanie [Hollman] and Brandi [Redmond], it’s easy to focus on me as the evil LeeAnne, but as long as I am in control of me, I am going to let them see a different side of me.”

But Simmons wasn’t buying her co-star pawning off her temper on her brain structure. “LeeAnne, you need to take responsibility for your actions and leave your amygdala out of this,” she told the audience. “It’s not your amygdala honey, it’s you!”

But Locken did appear to be trying to make nice, even reaching out to Deuber about Simmons’ upcoming party. And although Deuber said she wasn’t at the place she was quite ready to be friends, the two did awkwardly stumble through Locken’s desperate apology before Deuber said rehashing previous seasons made her feel “sick.”

“We’ve done this round and round for three years and it’s just not who I want to be,” Locken told her. “I’m really genuinely sorry. I’m genuinely sorry. I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to move on.”

Based on what Hollman told PopCulture.com in an exclusive interview prior to the premiere, it may be working.

“Looking back on the last two seasons, I think that both of us could agree that we’ve never really given each other a chance,” she said of her relationship with Locken this season. “I wanted to go into this year with a more open heart and mind. When I did, I found that LeeAnne and I have much more in common than I originally thought. Just like any relationship, it is a building process. I really enjoyed the time that we have spent together and appreciate her willingness to open up to me.”

She continued, “I saw a much softer side to LeeAnne this year and because of that, I let my guard down,” she said. “We both left our baggage at the door and opened up to each other in a way that I never thought we would. I can only speak from my personal experience, but I saw a change this year. The change definitely opened the door for a relationship.”

Real Housewives of Dallas airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.

Photo credit: Bravo