Shep Rose defends Austen Kroll for bringing up Salley Carson’s “body count” during the ‘Southern Charm’ reunion: “You guys want us to say what’s on our mind”

Austen Kroll caught a lot of heat for referring to Salley Carson as a “bar rat” and bringing up her “body count” during the Southern Charm Season 11 reunion. While it certainly made for an awkward moment, any hard feelings were left on the reunion stage, according to Shep Rose.

During the reunion, host Andy Cohen grilled Kroll and Carson about their relationship, which hasn’t gone further than the occasional hookup. While Carson would proudly make Kroll her boyfriend without thinking twice, he had hesitations about taking things to the next level, partially because of Carson’s party-girl ways. Kroll stunned viewers when he called Carson a “bar rat,” and put her “body count” on blast.

“I know that he probably wishes that he had that moment back,” Rose said while chatting with DECIDER about his involvement as a Pulse Partner with INTENNSE, a professional tennis league. “But here’s the thing with the media and viewers. You guys want us to say what’s on our mind, and then when we do, we get in trouble.”

Per Rose, viewers got a front-row seat to an average hangout with the Southern Charm cast.

“We talk that way to each other,” he said. “I was just with Salley and Rodrigo [Reyes] and Tyler [Dugas] over lunch last weekend, and, of course, we were razzing each other and saying things like that. We don’t take it personally. We know each other’s faults and foibles, and sometimes we like to squeeze them a little bit.”

Rose added, “I’m quite certain Salley’s doing just fine, and I think her relationship with Austen is very good at the moment.”

In fact, Rose, who has been a staple on Southern Charm since it premiered in 2014, agreed with Madison LeCroy‘s claim that this is the first time the entire cast is genuinely friends outside of filming the show. “Yes, there’s a text chain that gets ignited intermittently, and everyone is laughing and self-deprecating,” he said. “I’ve never really had that before in all these years. There is a lot of affection there, and it’s kind of nice to see.”

Now that Rose is getting a bit of a break in between seasons of Southern Charm, he has signed on to be a Pulse Partner for the INTENNSE professional tennis league. The reality star said his lifelong love of tennis started with his mom, who encouraged him to try out for a tennis league when he was growing up. “I thought the goal was to hit it over the fence, just like in baseball,” Rose admitted. Having since learned the proper way to play tennis, Rose was excited to talk about his time working with the Outriders team.

“It’s just really nice. I met all these new people, and they’re very passionate about this new venture,” he said. “You meet the players who are going to get a chance to get paid to do something they’ve been training their whole life for. Not that they weren’t getting paid before, but this is just like a new wrinkle to their career. To me, that is so cool to even be near that, because again, they’ve devoted their entire lives to something, and here they are still working away.”

Southern Charm is currently streaming on Peacock.