Southern Charm’s Austen Kroll Suggests Success Changed Craig

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Credit: Michelle Watt/Bravo

Southern Charm just returned to Bravo for its 10th season. Of course, fans are discussing the premiere after what many called a chaotic season 9. Now, Austen Kroll is opening up about where he stands with Craig Conover and how he wishes he would include him in his life a bit more than he does. Plus, he’s revealing the issues he has with Jarrett JT Thomas.

As fans know, JT decided to quit Southern Charm before the season was done filming. Other cast members have discussed this and said they were not surprised by the decision to leave the show. Still, it’s always hard to see a person leave a reality show midway through filming, even if they are on the outs with most of the cast. 

Recently, Austen was making the promotional rounds and sat down for an interview with US Weekly. While there, he discussed quite a bit, but one of the standout moments came when he discussed where he stands with Craig and the wish he has for his co-star’s life. 

According to Austen, “I wish that Craig would have more of a balance in his life. I wish that Craig would wanna go out to dinner with like me and Audrey.” 

He goes on, “Craig is like a hermit. I wish he had more balance in his life, right? I understand that his business is very important to him, but it’s almost like he thinks that hanging out means like, let’s go get drunk together, and I’m like, ‘I don’t care if you drink or don’t drink.”

Austen then reiterates by saying, “I just wish he would have a little bit more balance in his life for friends and work and I guess you’ll see that in this season. It low-key makes me look like ‘I wanna hangout with you more, man.’ It’s gonna make me look like a child, maybe but like the message is there.”

The interviewer then asks if Austen believes success has changed Craig. He responded, “Yes. He smelled some success, which I’m very happy for him about. I can already hear fans like, ‘jealously, jealousy.’”

He added, “It’s not.. Okay, sure, it is. I want people to buy my beer like that, but it’s not like a nasty jealousy, and I think that he is like, okay, fans expect me to act a certain way, so I need to act this way at all times. You’ll see that being explored on the show. 

Austen also spoke to PEOPLE about JT and the issues they have. About filming part of the season with JT, Austen says he tried to “be the bigger man — literally and metaphorically.”

He then said, “If you have to be around him, you’re old enough to know it’s just going to be awful, awful, awful. Every time that you see him, you just don’t want to punch him in the face. I am trying my hardest in the beginning to fight these [tendencies].”

Austen goes on to say that “there’s still some bad blood on my end” following the drama from the season 9 reunion episode. According to him, “You don’t just slander someone with horrible and awful things for as long as he did at the reunion and then expect it to all be cool.”

Austen also discussed JT not doing the season 10 reunion since he didn’t complete filming. He said, “In the Bravo universe, there are like three certainties: there’s death, there’s taxes, and there’s your f—ing reunion. You go to your reunion, you face the music; you hopefully face it in a good enough manner so you can clean slate it and move on. It’s very apparent to me that he doesn’t want to have to face the music for all the things that you’re about to see on this upcoming season.”

The Southern Charm star also spoke about not wanting to be in the middle of Shep Rose and Craig this season. According to him, “I always feel like I’m caught in the middle with those two. I have always said that Craig is over here on the far left and Shep is over here on the far right — not in politically speaking — and I’m in the middle somewhere. Craig finds it easier to cut people out and off than I do. It weighs on me heavy. In the moment, Craig is just super pissed at Shep for being Shep, but we all know who Shep is. We’re like, ‘Hey dude, time to usher in a new era.’”

However, he now says he’s “great” with Shep. 

Fans can watch Southern Charm on Thursday nights on Bravo.