Ashley Jacobscrashed onto the shores of Charleston like a hurricane, making waves during her first season onSouthern Charmas embattled politicianThomas Ravenel‘s girlfriend — and the instant enemy ofKathryn Dennis, the mother of his two children.
Since then, she’s moved back to Santa Barbara, California, where she works as a nurse. PEOPLE caught up with Jacobs to clear the air about everything that went down this season.
Bravo
How do you feel about your return toSouthern Charm?
I mean, it keeps my life interesting. There’s never a dull moment, so I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself now that — it’s like, once it gets quiet, I’m like, “Where else can I stir some hearts and drama. What man can I annoy the hell out of now?” Well, compared to last season, it was really easy.
Even though it wasn’t great, compared to last season, I was like, “Ooh, this is nice. I can handle this.” I feel that there was some closure on my end. And that brought me some peace.
You were going back and forth with whether to return or not. Is that why you ultimately decided to come back, to clear your name or get closure?
Yeah, because I pretty much knew that they were never going to forgive me, any of these people. I mean, I never thought Kathryn was going to forgive me. I don’t see why everyone else needed to forgive me. But I know that these are people that hang on to everything and were going to stick to a certain way. I never really saw any mercy from them, or I don’t think I was going to receive any grace. But I thought, “What if?” if that makes sense. There was a small chance, and maybe I might be able to go in there and they’re welcoming, they’re warm, they give me a chance to speak, hear me out and not attack me … I mean, yes. I wasn’t optimistic. … I wasn’t optimistic, and I thought, “It can’t hurt to try. What’s the worst that can happen? They say no? They still don’t like me? At least I tried.”
How do you feel like your conversation with Kathryn went?
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The camera caught you saying some snarky remarks about her, though.
I’m so glad you brought that up. The remarks that I made is that when I called her Pippi Longstocking, and I mean, Pippi’s great! No, but those remarks were before my conversation with her. … After those remarks, after I said those things, and then I approached her, and she was open to talking with me, yeah I felt a little bad. I was like, “Whoa, that was actually really classy of her.” So, it made me feel like an idiot. Does that makes sense?
The reason I think I was feeling that, in the beginning, when I said that I was … a little annoyed. I think everyone was annoyed. I mean, we had to wait on her for awhile. … She showed up late to the party. Everyone saw that. I think she’s always running late, so she showed up late to the event. So she wasn’t on that ride with us, and so I’m not excusing my behavior, but I’m telling you that there was some anticipation of having to confront her. … I was anxious … and then she wasn’t there. And then, when we get off this hay ride or whatever the heck it is, and then she’s there and I’m going, “Oh God, Oh God.” Like, my nerves really got the best of me, and I see her and I just … I mean, it wasn’t a nice thing. I shouldn’t have said it. It was petty. I shouldn’t have said it. … If it had happened when I just arrived there and it was without all that time to think about it and stress over it, I might not have had the opportunity to say that, but it was never intended to say to her face.
What happened with Patricia, and why do you feel so strongly that she is behind everything?
Oh, because she told [Kathryn]. It came straight from her mouth. I mean, because there was a lot of conversations that we had in private of her instigating. … There was a lot of things that led to that. Whenever I would defend Kathryn, she’d say, “Oh no. Oh no. That’s not, no, no, no, you’re wrong. Oh no.” And so, I trusted her. Everything. I looked up to her, I respected her. Whatever Pat says, goes, type of thing. I believe her over what Kathryn said.
Ashley Jacobs.Bravo
So then when you felt like she turned on you, did you feel betrayed?
I mean, I wouldn’t even say betrayed. I looked at her as, “What a phony.” That was very fake, to me. I was disappointed in her for doing that, because Kathryn’s a younger person. I heard the things that she said, so I was surprised that she could just, like I said, I said it to [my friend] Liza. I said, “It was almost like she just woke up one morning and was like, ‘I’m going to start liking Kathryn today.'” That was exactly it, and I thought, “How sad for Kathryn.” That this woman is willing to … yeah, I’m not going to say it. I did reach out to Kathryn a few times, and I wanted to tell her these things, but she never responded.
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You go to the Patricia’s party at the end of the season, and you don’t really get to say what you went there to say because you got removed. What were you going to say to Patricia, to her face?
Why is it so important to you to get that clarity from people who you don’t really have to be involved with anymore? You’ve got your own life in Santa Barbara.
I still lived there at the time. You have to understand that when I went to that party, I had no intention of moving back just yet. I moved back a few months after that. I was still in that town. I still see Patricia at the same restaurants. … It’s like what I said to Kathryn. I don’t want there to be any awkwardness, any weirdness. … It’s ridiculous. We’re grown women. Let’s put this s— aside and get over it and not dwell on it and move on.
Were you really surprised to be kicked out of the party given that you knew Patricia didn’t want you there?Eliza Limehousehad cautioned you about it not being the best idea.Were you still shocked that it ended up that way?
Ashley Jacobs (center).Brianna Stello/Bravo
We saw you call Thomas immediately after. Were you still together at that point? What was going on with him, and where do you stand now?
Paul Cheney/Bravo
How did it feel watching the show and seeing what the cast members had said about you? In a podcast recently, Craig Conover said you“need to be medicated.”
To me, they all play it safe. They’re not authentic. They’re not real. If they had said it to my face, that would have been one thing, where I say it to people’s faces. To me, and I don’t care if this might be name-calling, but they’re not people that live in their own truth. They’re fine to go say it on podcast and behind my back. Never to my face. I never did anything wrong to these people. The only thing, when I had called them losers, that was a wrong word. I just thought that they were mean. And I called them losers because I just never felt that they have ever reached out to me to check on me when I went through so much, and I didn’t have a lot of support.
I’m passionate about that, too, because I was villainized for it. And they all get to just sit back and ride my coattails while I speak everything that they know is the truth. They know it. They just don’t have the courage to actually say it. So I’m glad I’m not them. That’s all.
TheSouthern Charmreunion airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET.
source: people.com
