Shep Rose Talks Taking a Step Back From Austen and Craig

Shep Rose is putting his Southern Charm friendships on pause.

After admitting at the season nine reunion that his drinking habits had gotten a bit out of control, and vowing to make a change, Shep, 44, appeared on Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright‘s podcast, where he admitted he’s taking some time away from Austen Kroll, 36, and Craig Conover, 34, and named the celebrity he attempted to take as his date to Jax, 44, and Brittany’s June 2019 wedding.

On the February 8 episode of When Reality Hits With Jax and Brittany, Shep first shared where he stands with Austen, who infamously admitted to kissing his ex-girlfriend, Taylor Ann Green, 29, amid season nine.

“I’ve been getting a lot from my season. I was very nice and understanding and gracious towards him for the most part… I just feel like walking around angry isn’t who I am, but watching it back, I watched it and wanted to know what other people were saying when I wasn’t there… I got more and more angry,” he noted. “I felt like he treated the thing with Taylor very cavalierly and callously… He was laughing about it and snickering. I was not happy. That’s so uncool. I just felt like maybe hurt by a lot of it after the fact.”

Shep was then further impacted by the cast’s reaction to the love triangle at the reunion.

“And then after the whole thing that went down where I talked about it at the reunion, I just felt a little abandoned by some people that I thought were my friends,” he explained. “It’s okay. That’s their right. That’s their right.”

Following the conclusion of season nine, Shep felt that his best course of action was to take a break.

“I just thought I’m gonna take a certain step back from certain relationships and give it air,” he revealed. “I don’t want to kill them. I’m just not gonna water the plants for a little bit. I only water plants that produce beauty on my end… Beauty or love.”

As for what that means, Shep explained that when it comes to day-to-day banter, he and his Southern Charm castmates aren’t where they once were.

“[But] maybe someday, it will be,” he stated.

Moving on to Craig, Shep said that while their relationship is “fine,” they are “so different.”

“We couldn’t be two more different human beings on every scale… but having said that, we laugh about this from time to time, it’s made for really good TV over nine seasons. Just us butting heads and us seeing the world in a different way so we have a mutual respect in that regard,” Shep explained. “I’m happy to see him doing well, and I know that he desires a friendship and I do too. But I just took a step back from some of my show friends over the past two months, maybe more. And that’s okay.”

Looking ahead to season 10, Shep said that if and when Southern Charm returns, fans will get to see him and Craig “build our new normal.”

Shep then admitted to asking actress Charlize Theron, 47, to be his date for Jax and Brittany’s wedding in Kentucky.

“I saw somewhere on like [Watch What Happens Live] that Charlize Theron, who is an awesome actress and is beautiful, was like, ‘Yeah I like Bravo and I like [Vanderpump Rules] and Southern Charm.’ And I shot my shot on a tweet, I was like, do you want to be my wedding plus one to Jax and Brittany’s wedding?” Shep revealed.

“Did she respond?” asked Jax.

“Hell no,” Shep confirmed. “Her team was like don’t touch that with a 10-foot pole.”

Also on the podcast, Shep shared the worst part of being on a reality show.

“The worst thing is I guess if you’re having a bad day and you’re at the airport in a rush, and you have to be like ‘I can’t make everybody happy here.’… And then it’s the relationship. It’s just really hard to have one on camera because everyone is talking about you, and everyone’s pulling threads to try to unravel the ball of yarn,” he explained. “That, in many ways, contributed to Taylor and I’s demise.”

“And then the social media, I’m really good about not reading the bullsh*t, you can’t help it, the keyboard warriors. It’s just unfortunate. What I’ve found… is those people are more damaged than you can ever think of. They deserve grace and I hope they find help,” he added.

Southern Charm is currently on hiatus.