“Southern Charm” star Chleb Ravenell says his relationship with co-star Kathryn Dennis went downhill after moving in together and that her custody battle played a significant role.
“We gave it a chance. We worked at first — we were a really loving couple — and then when we moved in together, we were kind of breaking apart from each other,” he told E! News on Friday, one day after the pair’s breakup aired on Bravo.
According to the 33-year-old, things worsened once filming began, but he doesn’t necessarily blame the cameras for the split — which occurred during filming in November 2021.
“We just discovered things faster,” he told the outlet.
By the sounds of it, the exes seemingly agree that the stress of Dennis’ ongoing custody battle with her ex-boyfriend, Thomas Ravenel — with whom she shares daughter Kensie, 8, and son Saint, 6 — impacted their relationship.
“Just to see her go through that was painful,” Ravenell told E! News, claiming that his attempts to “make her happy” fell short.
“With her dealing with all this, she kind of didn’t realize what I was actually trying to do,” he said. “She had too much going on in her mind.”
Although Ravenell said he and Dennis, 30, “don’t have a relationship now,” the two will come face to face for the end-of-season reunion.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” he said. “That’s gonna be pretty crazy.”
Despite being called “emotionally unavailable” and getting dumped on national television, Ravenell still hopes Dennis “does well with the custody battle, Thomas [and] all her friends.”
During Thursday’s episode, Ravenell explained that before dating Dennis, he “didn’t know what [he] was getting into,” referring to her kids with 59-year-old Ravenel. (Ravenell and Ravenel are not related, though their Bravo co-star, Craig Conover, previously alleged that Ravenel’s family once owned Ravenell’s as slaves, thus the name similarity.)
“Like three months into our relationship, you threw the kids straight on me. That’s what scares me as well,” he told her, adding that seeing her feud with her children’s father also made him “pull back.”
Dennis and Ravenell were first linked in the summer of 2020 and went Instagram-official in October that year.