Credit: Casey Mathewson/Bravo
Whitner Slagsvol has been estranged from Craig Conover since filming the Southern Charm reunion last month.
Ahead of part one of the special, which aired on Wednesday night, Whitner, 36, confirmed that Craig, 36, ghosted him after the taping and his shady Watch What Happens Live appearance, while also admitting to intentionally stirring the pot, explaining how Craig may have been impacted by his split from Paige DeSorbo, 33, and sharing the advice he got from Shep Rose, 45, and Austen Kroll, 38.
“He is mad at me from the reunion, and he’s also mad about the personal injury comment from Watch What Happens. My first job in the legal world was for Craig at a personal injury firm. Some of my best friends are personal injury attorneys,” Whitner told Parade on March 11.
As fans may have seen, Whitner appeared on WWHL on February 4, where he said Craig would’ve done best as a personal injury attorney.
“I say it with a good heart, but yeah, there were some other things discussed at the reunion that I was sort of the driving commentary on. Stuff that I talked about in some green screens, so you might be able to guess what…but he’s upset with me,” Whitner continued.
As he explained, Craig was in the hot seat a lot at the reunion. However, in his opinion, Craig held himself accountable for the choices he made during season 11.
“He really took his licks, and he really held himself accountable and admitted that he needed to, like, really consider some behavior. So I think he’s trying, he’s got a good heart,” Whitner noted. “I stirred some sh*t very deliberately, which, I was sort of intending to do, and I was there to hold poor behavior accountable.”
“But I may have like enjoyed stirring the sh*t a little bit too much,” he added.
Moving on to Craig’s breakup with Paige, Whitner said he had empathy for his castmate due to his own past heartbreak.
“I am very protective of him in that I am sympathetic to him on that one,” he explained. “Had someone had cameras on me during that time, it would have been probably good TV … but had anyone had any commentary about my breakup, I would have had their head on a spike … I would have reacted equally as angry in those circumstances. So I’m very defensive of him in that regard, like the man has been healing.”
Looking back, Whitner pointed out that Craig was in an early phase of processing his split when the season was filmed.
“I’m sure he thought he was better off than he was, and even still, I’m sure there’s still some level of healing that always goes on. You carry those injuries with you,” he suspected. “You just can’t yell at people, and maybe he hasn’t been told that you can’t yell at people sometimes.”
After reaching out to Craig and being told that he needs “some time,” Whitner enlisted the help of Shep and Austen, who advised patience.
“So I apologize, Craig, I’m sorry,” Whit said. “I’m sure he’s still upset, and I’m sure we’ll get over it.”
The Southern Charm season 11 reunion concludes on Wednesday, March 25, with part two at 8/7c on Bravo.