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If you watch Southern Charm, you’re well aware that, in this show specifically, it’s a man’s world, where Peter Pan syndrome runs rampant and misogynistic comments are often a part of the vernacular. We often ignore those fatal flaws for the pure entertainment of opulent lifestyles, grown-men meltdowns, and women like Madison LeCroy who have no problem holding their feet to the fire. However, Austen Kroll, a key player since he joined Southern Charm in Season 4, made it hard for us to turn a blind eye in the first part of the Season 11 reunion when he, very hypocritically, cast judgment on Salley Carson‘s body count.
Kroll and Carson have had this sort of “will-they-won’t-they” love tryst since filming Season 11 last summer. Despite Kroll starting the season in a relationship with Audrey Pratt, Carson made it very clear that she was interested in the Trop Hop Beers founder. So, when he and Pratt finally broke up, Carson was giddy and ready to pounce.
The two shared their first (and second and maybe even third) kiss on the cast trip to Mexico, where Carson made it outwardly clear that she wanted a piece of Kroll (and his dad bod). At the end of the Season 11 finale, we learned that they have been “hanging out” and “making out” ever since filming wrapped, though Kroll did claim during a recent appearance on Watch What Happens Live that they were not as “actively hot and heavy” as Carson made it seem on her press tour.
Full disclosure, we weren’t exactly sure why Kroll was so quick to shut down his romantic connection to Carson on WWHL. She’s pretty, she’s smart, she has a full-time job outside of Bravo, and she actually likes him for who he is. But that question gets answered in the first part of the Southern Charm Season 11 reunion when Kroll shares exactly why he’s been hesitant to lock her down as his girlfriend.
According to LeCroy, Kroll said he would be more inclined to make things official with Carson if she were “a little more tamed down” and “didn’t run the streets” as much. Carson, as we know, has quite the reputation both in Charleston and the Bravo universe. Before Kroll, she hooked up with Shep Rose, dated Taylor Ann Green’s current boyfriend Gaston Rojas, and had flings with Southern Hospitality star Joe Bradley, Summer House star West Wilson, and McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys star Steven McBee. While Kroll claims he isn’t bothered by Carson acting single, he does seem to judge her “bar rat” ways.
Photo: Getty Images“Go out, do your thing, sleep with whomever. I don’t care. But there is a body count of a lot of people…” he says, drawing shocked reactions from the room. Carson insists that she hasn’t been sleeping around, while Andy Cohen chimes in to defend her from the hypocritical accusations. “Well, I mean, excuse me,” Cohen tells Kroll. “I can start with the body count on you. Your Bravo body count is not small.” Just from the Bravo universe, Kroll has dated and/or had flings with LeCroy, Chelsea Meissner, Olivia Flowers, Taylor Ann Green, Ciara Miller, and Lindsay Hubbard, so, as Cohen rightfully pointed out, he isn’t one to talk.
It’s no secret that Kroll is known to be a bit of an F-boy, and that it’s hard to get him to fully commit to one woman. Even when he was dating Miller, arguably one of the prettiest, most level-headed and loyal person on Bravo, he was fooling around with Hubbard behind her back. But to see him fueling the slut-shaming Carson has endured over the past few months from viewers was a new low for him, especially given his reputation. It’s one thing to prefer someone who lives a more low-key life, but another to blast the person you’ve been hooking up with on national television for doing close to the exact same thing you’ve been doing for years.
Austen, your cast isn’t going to “bully” you into dating Carson. But perhaps they can bully you into having more respect for the women you hook up with.
Southern Charm airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.
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