In the October 12 episode of Southern Charm, Austen Kroll finally admitted to Shep Rose that he’d kissed Shep’s ex-girlfriend Taylor Ann Green. But Shep suspected there could be more to the story.
“Kissing turns into … we know what kissing is, come on,” Shep told his BFF. “Where’s the boundary? That’s my question.” Shep couldn’t believe that Austen and Taylor had stopped at kissing.
“You know how much I love women,” Shep added. “It gets me in trouble all the time. I want f*cking this one, that one. But I know where a line is, man. How does a kiss just end in a kiss? I just don’t see it.”
Is there more to the story?
While Austen and Shep were talking in the living room of Patricia Altschul’s house, Craig Conover, Madison LeCroy and Whitney Sudler-Smith were in the kitchen. “No one stops at kissing,” Craig commented. “No one stops before physical, like, contact.”
Austen admitted that kissing his buddy’s ex was wrong. “I know that it’s not good in any sort of way,” he told Shep.
Shep then asked if Austen and his ex Olivia Flowers had still been dating at the time he kissed Taylor. “Olivia and I weren’t speaking,” Austen responded. “It was never like a, ‘Let’s go home together.'”
Austen said that his and Taylor’s kiss happened “in the moment … of just like so much confusion for both of us.” I also think that on some level, Taylor was trying to get back at Shep for all the hurt he’d caused her. A very human reaction, but that doesn’t make it right.
Austen admitted he’d used “poor judgment” and apologized for being “weak.”
Rather than being angry, Shep had a surprisingly compassionate response. “I was broken up with her,” he said. “You were a shoulder to cry on. I don’t want to lose you as a friend, man.”
Olivia doesn’t take Taylor’s news so well
Though Austen didn’t hesitate to offer Shep his mea culpa, Taylor didn’t feel that she owed him any kind of apology at all. “We’re two single people that were in a very vulnerable position,” she told her ex at the pheasant dinner he hosted for the group.
“It’s just hard for me to wrap my mind around, in this day and age,” Shep said, “that people even just kiss. I mean, I feel like everybody [just] tears their clothes off.”
“Well, you ‘just kissed’ the girls you cheated on [me] with,” Taylor fired back. Ouch. She’s still hurt and angry at the way Shep treated her.
When Olivia arrived, Taylor finally came clean that she’d kissed Austen, even though she’d previously sworn, “On my life, nothing happened.”
“The full truth is we did kiss,” Taylor confessed.
Stunned and shocked that Taylor had lied to her, she wished Olivia had been truthful with her sooner.
“I know that I had months,” Taylor explained, “but I’m listening to [Austen], too.”
Saying she didn’t “give a f*ck” about Austen, Olivia added, “He’s literally the scum of the earth to me.”
Taylor’s excuse was that she’d been “trying to protect” Austen by covering up the kiss. But Olivia wasn’t having it. “Why aren’t you protecting me and my feelings?” she asked her friend.
Southern Charm airs Thursdays at 9/8c on Bravo.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK TAYLOR SHOULD HAVE TOLD OLIVIA SOONER THAT SHE’D KISSED AUSTEN? WHO SHOULD SHE HAVE BEEN MORE LOYAL TO: AUSTEN OR OLIVIA?
