‘Southern Charm’ Prematurely Parting Ways With Olivia Flowers Robs Viewers Of A Reality Star Who Had Just Come Into Her Own

Something not so charming happened with Southern Charm ahead of its upcoming tenth season.

Olivia Flowers Says Kathryn Dennis Struggled After ‘Southern Charm’ Exit: “She Was Like, ‘That Did Something To My Mental’”

The Charleston-set Bravo show is coming off of a fantastic Season 9, which centered on the fallout of Austen Kroll and Taylor Ann Green ’s scandalous secret hookup. Taylor was coming out of a tough breakup with co-star Shep Rose , while Austen had been seeing Olivia Flowers , though the status of their relationship had seemingly been unclear. Oh, and Taylor and Olivia were best friends. So, yeah, it was messy.

‘Southern Charm’ Breakout Star Olivia Flowers Confirms She Was Fired After Tense Season: “It Wasn’t My Choice”

All of this resulted in the show’s best, most compelling season in years, which delivered juicy details on the tangled web of love connections, plenty of confrontations between those involved, as well as commentary from their other co-stars that added to the mix. The cast clocked in, and they followed up an explosive season finale with a revealing multi-part reunion . When a reality show returns to form in such an undeniable way, the prevailing wisdom tends to be that most of the cast — at the very least, all of the key players from that season’s drama — should return for the subsequent season to see how that drama continues to play out. Would Olivia and Taylor be able to rebuild their friendship? How would Austen react to Olivia getting a new boyfriend?

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Turns out, we won’t get the answers to either of those questions during season 10 of Southern Charm , because in a shocking twist, Olivia was not asked back to the show . Those who were paying attention already knew that she was absent from the group as cameras picked up for the upcoming season, but the now-former Southern Charm star confirmed as much during an episode of Vanderpump Rules star Scheana Shay’s podcast, “Scheananigans,” that aired recently.

During the interview, Olivia revealed that it wasn’t her decision not to return to the show, saying, “I’m not on this new season. So, I have a lot more free time. I was super bummed. I have this new relationship and I’m choosing another path. But I got the call a few weeks before filming from the production company. It was just, kind of, asking the questions like, ‘You don’t really seem to be in Charleston that much.’ I’m really glad that I did go off and do that. He was the best part that came out of that year. But had I known it was working against me or making people think that I wasn’t there choosing a different path? Maybe I wish there had been a little bit more communication there with it.”

Olivia noted that her parents, who she had been living with in Charleston during her two seasons on the show, officially moved to Texas, which is also where her new boyfriend lives, so she was spending a lot more time there. But that being the main reason to not ask her back to the show doesn’t really add up. There are plenty of other Bravo stars who split their time between the cities that their shows film in and other places: Real Housewives of Miami star Larsa Pippen has a home in L.A. that she spends a lot of time at, Meredith Marks from Salt Lake City seems to always be in New York City or Los Angeles, and Jessel Taank essentially admitted that she moved to New York City to be on the RHONY reboot in the first place. Which is all totally fine! But why punish Olivia for doing the same? She said on Scheana’s podcast that she had recently gotten a place with a friend in downtown Charleston, so it’s not as if she had completely moved out of the city.

Her firing not only robs viewers of the continuation of the drama between her, Austen and Taylor, but it also follows a season in which Olivia had come into her own as a reality star more generally. While she showed some promise during her first season on the show, it wasn’t until her sophomore season that she proved herself more than capable of confrontation, sharing her emotions and treating her life like an open book in front of the cameras. In addition to the turmoil in her love life and one of her closest friendships, she also lost her brother in the middle of filming for Season 9 . And, instead of taking a break from production or refusing to talk about such a heartbreaking occurrence, which anyone would’ve understood, Olivia leaned into telling that part of her family’s story. She let her cast members — and, at the same time, viewers — in during one of the most vulnerable moments in her life as she processed her brother’s death, and it resulted in some of the most emotional, raw reality TV one can watch.

It’s not that the rest of the Southern Charm cast doesn’t have it in them to deliver a stellar season without Olivia there. This is a group of people with deep ties who have shown over the years that they’re more than capable of producing entertaining reality TV. It just feels like Olivia’s journey on the show was unfairly and confusingly cut short just as it was building steam.

All that being said, it’s no secret that Bravo loves to bring former cast members back to its shows, so here’s hoping that Olivia returns to Southern Charm sometime in the near future. In the meantime, we’ll be on our couches seeing how Season 10 shakes out.

Gibson Johns is an award-nominated entertainment journalist, host, podcaster , and reality TV commentator known for his Bravo hot takes, celebrity interviews and prolific tweeting. His work has appeared in Esquire, Men’s Health, Betches, Yahoo! and more. He’s conducted hundreds of interviews with top celebrities like Khloe Kardashian, Matt Damon, Chrissy Teigen, Kate Hudson and Gabrielle Union, as well as interviews with over 80 “Real Housewives.” He’s appeared as a moderator at multiple BravoCons, hosted premiere panels for Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Potomac and Dancing Queens , and been a guest on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy.

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