
Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo, Cindy Ord/NBCUniversal
In a scathing post, Below Deck’s Rachel Hargrove pointed a finger at Austen Kroll, calling him the biggest narcissist on Bravo. Later on, she claimed Austen ghosted her and called her mean and unfunny.
Bravo’s response to Rachel’s post (they reportedly scolded her, asking her to take it down) seemingly led to Rachel’s departure from the network. Thus far, the Southern Charm star offered no public reaction to Rachel’s claims.
However, on a recent episode of his “Pillows and Beer” podcast – with costar Craig Conover – Austen addressed being attacked on social media. Though he didn’t name names, the host seemed to reference his drama with Rachel.
The 35-year-old said it’s best not to respond to an attack. “Like if someone tries to come out and come at us on social media or something …” he hinted, via Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
Craig added, “Well, what’s the answer? I was talking about it with this production company I was with last week, and I was just like, there isn’t a right answer [laughs]. Because you either give them power by responding. But then I told you last week, I was like, there is a world when things are so grossly misrepresented that you should be able to be like, ‘Look, this is what actually happened.’”
Austen then revealed why he didn’t respond. “We’re not going to dive in it,” he said. “I didn’t respond because I’ve had quite a lot of experience with trying my hardest to not give people oxygen. I deal with that a lot on our show. So it was one of those things where it’s like, just let this thing die. Like, I don’t really care that much. It’s not anything that 100 other people haven’t said that don’t really know me. So I just let it go.”
While calling Austen an “idiot” on Another Below Deck Podcast, Rachel had given her side of the story:
“We started texting [after he ghosted me], and I was just like, ‘I’m in the middle of doing something I can’t text.’ So we talked on the phone, and apparently, it was Sunday fun day for him,” she claimed. “He was absolutely incoherent, and he just said some nasty s*** to me. Which was ‘You’re not funny. You’re just mean.’ And then kept going on and on and on.”
Southern Charm season eight airs Thursdays at 9/8c on Bravo.