“I Had Blinders on Then”: Kathryn Dennis Regrets Falling for Thomas Ravenel on Southern Charm Season 1 and Finally Opens Up About Why She Stayed Silent Amid Firing Rumors

Kathryn Dennis looked back on her Southern Charm regrets while appearing on Olivia Flowers‘ YouTube series last week.

As she admitted to having her “blinders” on when it came to her ex-boyfriend, Thomas Ravenel, 62, explained why she stayed silent about her exit from the show, and looked back on how she was portrayed, Kathryn, 33, shared her thoughts on reality television, addressed her social media fears, and told Olivia, 32, what advice she’d give her younger self if she could travel back in time.

“I would go back to season one and tell that girl to not move to the Hamptons with that older man and just stay where she was, figure out what she loves, what she wants, [and] not take on what seems stable in someone else as my own sense of security,” Kathryn shared on the November 21 episode of OFF-SEASON with Olivia Flowers. “I think that’s what I did with him. I was this little country girl from Moncks Corner so I was around all these Charleston people and they always seemed like uppity to me so to be accepted somewhat in that moment, I felt like ‘Wow, I can believe he likes me, who am I?’ And I just kind of had blinders on.”

“I was just having fun and then all a sudden I’m with an old man,” she added, with a laugh.

After sharing her life with the cameras on the first eight seasons of Southern Charm, Kathryn left the show in early 2023, ahead of its ninth season. However, when it came to the swirling rumors about what led to her departure, she opted against clarifying a thing.

“I didn’t want to say anything because every person I’d seen leaving a show on Bravo had gotten dragged through the media, whether they spoke out on it and said, ‘I chose to leave,’ or they said, ‘I was fired and I got screwed over,’” she recalled. “The narrative is never in your hands when it’s something that goes on behind closed doors.”

While there were claims of Kathryn mistreating staff, Kathryn said she trusted fans would know the truth.

“I trusted everyone to know me and the person I am and to know that there would be no truth to me having left the show for some reason like me treating the production badly,” she shared. “That was my family that got me through those times. They were the people that were with me in the moments that were really crazy and traumatic and scary and I really appreciated them. To this day, I still talk to a lot of them.”

Nearly two years after leaving the show, Kathryn said she’s finally “coming up for air.”

“I’m making sense of it all and figuring out what my path is forward because I think it all happened for a reason,” she noted. “There was a reason I was on this show with a bunch of older people, had two children with a much older man, and went through what I went through — everyone knows what that is — and I’m here and I’m still here and I’m still meant to show people you can make it through.”

That said, it wasn’t easy transitioning to life off-camera.

“Whenever I left the show, I felt like they just dropped me back on the planet off where they picked me up 10 years ago and were just like ‘Bye, see you later. Pick up where you left off,’” she admitted. “It was a total mind-screwup, it was weird.”

Looking back at her time on the show, Kathyrn confessed to feeling boxed in by her role.

“Once they found the role I fit, that’s kind of the only one they showed me in. And I think I didn’t realize that until I left, or until I wasn’t filming,” she explained. “And then you go on social media and everyone’s kind of expecting you to still be that character of yourself.”

According to Kathryn, reality television has changed a lot since she began her role on Southern Charm in 2014.

“When the show first started, I remember thinking, how do I navigate these scenes? And Thomas had a book on his side table and it was called ‘Reality TV’ and I remember I looked briefly over it and it was more so how to produce it and so I got on Google … And I was like, ‘Reality TV, what to know,’ and there was no information … and now it’s everywhere,” she said.

While Kathryn applauded herself and Olivia for keeping it real on the show, she said others are ruining the concept completely.

“The people that are cool with people thinking whatever they want about them, those are the people that are ruining reality TV,” she explained. “It’s people like us who really care and give you the real drama because there’s genuine feeling behind it.”

“It’s probably in a way a blessing in disguise for both of us that we left because I know you and I, there’s something about the both of us where we have a real quality to us and it drives us nuts when you’re around people who aren’t like that,” she continued.

Kathryn believes she’s a funny person, but due to potential claims of drug use, she keeps that side of her off social media.

“Anytime I did it in the past, people were like, ‘Oh look, she’s off the wagon again,” she explained. “It made me so insecure.”

Also speaking to Olivia, Kathryn said she never fell into the pressure of being “perfect.”

“Remember Heidi Montag? Love her but back when she was on The Hills and then she left and got like 20 surgeries at once or something, that’s like a complex you can totally get. People be getting fake dentures at our age!” she laughed.