Credit: Bravo
Craig Conover and Austen Kroll went head-to-head amid Austen’s birthday dinner on the latest episode of Southern Charm. And, after the show, they looked back on their spat with their castmates, including Shep Rose and Rodrigo Reyes.
As Craig, 36, accused Austen, 38, of using him as a punching bag and taking out what he was going through in other areas of his life on him, Austen fired back by suggesting Craig had gaslighted him, and Shep, 45, admitted to being left “speechless” by their fight, which he noted was a long time coming.
“I was totally speechless because it was happening. It was finally happening. Let’s let the horses out of the barn. Let’s go. Not that I took any pleasure in it, but I was like, ‘Finally, let’s say what we really think here for once,’ and it was happening right there,” Shep recalled on the January 28 episode of the Southern Charm: After Show. ”[Austen] was feeling himself, and it was time. It was time for him. Craig was ready, too, by the way, it’s not just one-sided.”
According to Craig, he felt “confused” by his diner drama with Austen.
“I do feel like the punching bag a lot, where like, if things are upsetting him, he takes it out on me,” he admitted.
After Austen mentioned Craig’s drinking, alleging that he had used his alcohol concerns to derail a previous conversation in which Austen was confronting him about his behavior, Craig felt his candidness had been used against him.
“We’re talking about my drinking because I was vulnerable about it,” he noted.
In their ongoing tension, Craig signaled Austen’s “animosity” by suggesting they should stop trying to force their friendship.
“He’s got a lot of animosity towards me and whatever is going on in his life. I mean, he was screaming that he hated me. Like, I genuinely think he does, and there’s nothing I can do to make him not hate me,” he reasoned. “No one needs to force this anymore, and that’s kind of where I’m at … If you hate me, you don’t have to be my friend.”
In his own After Show segment, Austen said Craig set him off by bringing up his then-girlfriend, Audrey Pratt.
“[He was] trying to tell me to my face that I’m unhappy and living a lie, and I’m like, ‘Dude, you don’t even know me anymore. Don’t tell me that I’m unhappy because I had a conversation eight months ago,'” he shared. “Everyone’s unhappy if they have something bad to say about Craig.”
To Austen, Craig has made a habit of gaslighting his feelings.
“I get gaslight by Craig. All of these things I wanted to say to him were minimized by him coming to the table with this really big thing that he wanted to admit to me, and I stopped in my tracks and decided I would rather be here for him as a friend than be like, ‘Cool, thanks for telling me about that. But here’s what I have wrong with you,’” he explained of their previous discussion about Craig’s alcohol concerns. “So that’s where I’m coming from when I tell Craig, ‘I feel like you manipulated me into not going in on you about the things that I want to clear.’”
After Austen voiced his concerns to Craig, Craig suggested that he sounded “crazy.”
“I don’t [think Austen sounded crazy],” Rodrigo, 41, noted.
“I think that [Craig was] the only one [there] who [found] it crazy,” Austen agreed.
According to Shep, he felt that Craig knew “exactly what to say to Austen to mess with him.” However, he also admitted to thinking Austen was in the wrong.
“[He] had every opportunity, still [does], to say what [he] wanted to say to Craig and to hold him to task. In that one moment, did Craig kind of slip and slide out of a tough conversation? Maybe so. But you can still have that conversation,” he noted.
As for whether he felt it was the end for Craig and Austen, Shep said he did not.
“[There’s] too much history. A lot of scar tissue, but too much history. Too much love .. if you want to erase that, I think you’re a foolish person,” he concluded.
Southern Charm season 11 airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.