Southern Charm season 8 reunion part 1: Taylor goes in on ex-boyfriend Shep

It’s been a season filled with feuding exes, jaw-dropping hookups and challenging friendships, but episode 16 marked part 1 of the reunion for Southern Charm season 8. Hosted by Andy Cohen, the crew was all in one room to discuss major moments from the show.

Fun fact about the reunion group: Nearly all of them have a past romantic relationship of some sort with one another. That certainly makes for great television, but messy interactions. 

While no longer on the show (and they’re no longer together), Kathryn shares two children with Thomas Ravenel. Andy asked the group if there were any former lovers that were under wraps. “I think Thomas and Olivia [Flowers], right?” Madison LeCroy said. Keep in mind that Madison’s ex-boyfriend is Austen Kroll, who dated Olivia this season. “Me? Me having sex with Thomas?” Olivia asked, confirming that she never dated him and he’s a family friend. “Sorry, where did that come from?” Olivia challenged Madison. “Did you just pull that out of your fake ass or what?” “No, the ass is actually real,” Madison replied. Olivia accused Madison of trying to stay relevant and the topic was dropped.

Andy asked Craig Conover and Madison about their long-distance relationships, but it was Taylor Ann Green who chimed in when Craig brought up how there can be temptation anywhere. “You’ll go fly somewhere and find it. Texas, anywhere,” Taylor said. It turned out that Shep Rose, Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, and Austen were recently in Texas having a good time after Shep had become single.

“That’s fine that you’re single, Shep. It’s the fact that we spent two and a half years together. You’ve allegedly slept with over 300 women. And we broke up and you told me that you were not capable of being in a committed relationship, you don’t want to be in a committed relationship, you need to figure your **** out, figure out what the next step in your life is. So you’re telling me A, B, C and all of your actions were X, Y, Z. So you went out, you partied, doing God knows what, hooking up with women in Texas. Do you even know her name? So now you’ve wrapped me into this slew of whores that you have ****ed, and now I’m just a number, and that is what ****ed me up in the head,” Taylor said. 

Shep said that she wasn’t just a number. “I was just the whore that lasted the longest,” she said, noting that at 43 years old, Shep is using women to masturbate and hurting them.

The group revisited the first episode, which featured Kathryn Dennis’ The Great Gatsby-themed 30th birthday party. At that point, she was already in a rocky place with Naomie Olindo, who had posted an Instagram Story in defense of former cast member, Cameran Eubanks. It got worse when the two came face to face. Kathryn had overheard Naomie make a comment about getting the conversation over with and didn’t receive it well. Kathryn explained that she didn’t like how Naomie accused her of trying to ruin Cameran’s family, yet she and Cameran had talked about her over the years. “You have always had this condescending, like, mean girl thing with me. You know, and you make me feel like all those girls growing up did that made me just feel like less than,” Kathryn said. Leva Bonaparte jumped in, saying that that’s her own triggers. Kathryn came right back telling her to let her voice what she feels.

At the very beginning of the season, the trio that was Craig, Shep and Austen was on the rocks. When asked why, Austen summed it up by saying he and Shep thought Craig was doing things wrong while he thought the same of them. “Did Craig get a little full of himself?” Andy asked. “You literally said to me, ‘do you want to go to war with me? I’m the most popular person on Bravo,’” Leva said, noting he said it while his girlfriend, Paige DeSorbo, of Bravo’s Summer House and Winter House, was there, too. The accusation went on the back burner for now.

The focus turned to Olivia and her first season on the show. It had been a joke that Austen clearly had a type, because she looks similar to Madison. Andy brought up mean comments Madison had made about Olivia in the press. Madison gave what seemed like a half-hearted apology for the “shade tour,” as Olivia put it, that she went on about her.

The conversation shifted to Austen. After the infamous dog wedding between Shep’s Little Craig and Patricia Altschul’s Peaches, Austen had met up with Ciara Miller, his fling from Bravo’s Summer House and Winter House. Jealousy had gotten the best of him when he told Olivia that he wanted to take things slow and didn’t expect her not to go on other dates — but then she actually did by bringing a date to the wedding. Austen tried to justify meeting up with Ciara, but it didn’t go over well. Madison jumped in to ask if Austen and Olivia are even in a relationship, because it’s moving at a snail’s speed. Olivia confirmed that they were not, noting that after filming, they continued seeing each other and she was ready for a relationship, but he wasn’t. Madison claimed that Austen was on a redemption tour and needed someone on the other side of the reunion couch to stick up for him. “When you’re three years in, sis, you can talk about it,” Madison said to Olivia. 

Moving on, Austen asked Madison and Venita Aspen if the two were currently friends. They appeared close at the beginning of the season, but had a bit of tension during their joint birthday party. Madison answered Austen’s question by saying that they weren’t friends and Venita confirmed it wasn’t by her choosing. Leva brought up an incident that was talked about at girls’ night. After the dog wedding reception, Leva texted Venita and called Madison dumb. According to Venita, Madison was using her phone to pick out music and saw the text. So now at the reunion, Leva asked Venita if Madison snatched her phone out of her hand or if Venita had handed it to her. Venita said that Madison took her phone. Madison, on the other hand, claimed that Venita showed her the text from Leva.

Madison continued by explaining how she felt Venita threw her under the bus at girls’ night. “You said, ‘Madison is like this, this is what she does.’ And you know what? You acted like a ****ing brat for your birthday party,” Madison said. “It’s my birthday, I have the right,” Venita replied. That opened up another can of worms, because Madison went on about how she threw their joint party, yet Venita never said thank you or helped clean up. Venita claimed she sent people to help clean up, but Madison said that wasn’t true. 

The cast took a break, during which Olivia broke down crying. She didn’t like explaining her and Austen’s relationship (or lack thereof) while Austen and Madison have this interesting dynamic. Olivia felt that she was patient with Austen for the months he needed to figure things out and the one time she needed his patience (when she had said no to being all in with him), he just blew it off. Also, a piece of it was that Austen talked poorly about Madison, yet they still laugh at each other’s jokes and it’s confusing. “This is three years long, you’re five seconds in,” Madison jumped in. “What does that have to do with anything?” Olivia asked. “A lot, actually,” Madison said. “Do you want him?” Olivia asked. “No, I don’t,” Madison replied. “You could’ve had me ****ing fooled!” Olivia said.

Part 2 of the Southern Charm season 8 reunion airs next Thursday at 8 pm ET on Bravo.