Austen Kroll’s behavior on Season 9 of Southern Charm has made fans feel for Shep Rose. And that’s quite the standard. At least Shep is transparent and owns who he is. On the other hand, Austen resorts to vague statements and blurred lines in relationships to justify his every move. Just because you could have doesn’t mean you should have.
So is the situation now. The cast is trying to figure out precisely what happened between Taylor Ann Green and Austen at a time when the latter said he was on a break with Olivia Flowers. However, Olivia revealed on the latest episode that they were still in contact.
With the season’s storyline set to circle around this unfortunate and ill-advised business, Austen revealed that he was hoping to stay out of the spotlight for his romantic encounters this time around.
Austen wanted to make this season “different”
Of course, the Southern Charm star likes to deflect and shift responsibility. On October 4, Austen told Decider that fan chatter got him thinking some kind of way about Taylor.
He said, “You know, the idea that fans on the internet were ablaze after seeing the thing last year with Taylor and I, and I’m talking to her about Shep, and people were really, really keen on that idea,” he shared. “It is interesting, how, you know, confusion, and a little bit of a shoulder to shrug in … it’s a tough thing to ignore, you know?”
“I’m not saying I’m completely influenced by the internet, but I saw it, you know, and so did she, and we were like, ‘What in the world?’” Austen added.
An evolution in the making
The Southern Charm bad boy explained that he really wanted to evolve on Season 9.
“Going into the season, I had high hopes that it was just going to be like a different season for Austen,” he stated. “Being in therapy, and trying out to figure out some things, inward, so that it could help me progress in my life in the long run. You know, exploring why relationships hadn’t worked out and what I can do differently.”
But Austen has no control over editing. And his own questionable decisions it seems. So Southern Charm fans can expect another season of Austen-style chaos.
He concluded, “But of course it ends up happening anyways, whether I liked it or not. As much as I try to move on, people won’t let me and I get sucked into things that I just want to move on from. It was just an interesting one.”
Catch Southern Charm on Thursdays at 9/8c on Bravo.
TELL US – WHAT DO YOU THINK OF AUSTEN’S COMMENTS? DO YOU WANT TO SEE AUSTEN FOCUS ON SELF-IMPROVEMENT OR DATING?