Between her cooking skills and extensive coupon collection, Monica Vaswani instantly became a fan-favorite on Bravo’s “Family Karma.” The reality TV show follows the lives of the tight-knit group of friends and their families, including the Vaswan household, as they navigate the complexities of their Indian heritage and American upbringing in Miami. “I feel very blessed to have been part of a show that highlighted our culture and did it justice. I felt they really gave an authentic view to not only our stories but our community, at least in South Florida,” she says.
Viewers adore her relationship with her dad, Raj Vaswani, crowning him the ultimate girl dad. She was often portrayed as the “good Indian girl,” yet many relate to her ups and downs of being a twenty-something figuring out life. On the “good Indian girl” stereotype, Vaswani says, “Most people when you get told that, they’d probably be really happy. I took an extra effort to maybe express my flaws. Even on social media, I don’t wanna show the ‘reel,’ I wanna show like the real – the actual reality of things.”
Vaswani was especially vulnerable when she opened up about her relationship with now-fiancé Rish Karam on the show’s second and third seasons: “This journey has not been super smooth, and that’s just the reality of it. But being able to share that with the audience and being able to be real about it, I think is probably the one thing that I’m most proud of.”
Vaswani explains that not everyone is able to be as comfortable in front of the cameras, but she and Karam are goofballs behind the scenes. “If there’s something that I want to do, he’s just my number one cheerleader. Even if he doesn’t wanna do something, he’ll do it for me, so that’s really special.”
Although we did not get to see her proposal happen on screen, Vaswani shared a few of the details with us: “We did it in a really special place in Palm Beach, which has always been a very soft spot in my heart. That’s where we always do our staycations, and it’s our little go-to getaway that we spend our time at, so having it be there was really, really perfect,” she says.
While we wait for Bravo to make season four happen, Vaswani is prepping for wedding planning and growing as a content creator. She often loves to share her favorite products with her audience, so we had to ask her about her current must-haves. From her go-to nude lipstick to her heated blanket, check out Vaswani’s favorite products ahead.
