Southern Charm star Craig Conover finally told BFF Austen Kroll he'd been privately battling alcohol addiction in an effort to save their friendship on the Bravo series' March 6 episode.
Craig Conover is getting brutally honest about his problems with alcohol.
The Southern Charm star admitted to struggling with over-drinking for the first time during a heart-to-heart with longtime BFF Austen Kroll on the Bravo series' March 6 episode.
The intense conversation stemmed from Austen's past claims that Craig had cleaned up his act so much while dating then-girlfriend Paige DeSorbo that it caused a rift in their good times together.
"Austen, listen, you're one of my best friends," the Sewing Down South founder told his costar. "I was never trying to do stuff to better myself to get away from other people. I didn't ever know that it would change the level of our friendship. I want to get back to a place of love."
However, Austen reiterated that he didn't recognize the strait-laced person Craig had become.
"If I'm being honest, I feel like where all the disconnect has come is you've created this wonderful image of yourself and you're terrified of disappointing someone or something," he told Craig. "Now, in order to maintain this, you're saying, 'I need to sit at my house and not see me with a beer in my hand,' or something."
questioned if he was projecting an “image that isn't me," Austen replied, "I do."
"It's like Craig doesn't want to hang or do this because he's got the image to protect," Austen explained. "You've just gotten drunk on nice guy Craig. I just want you to loosen the reigns a little bit."
That's when Craig finally told Austen he'd quietly been struggling behind closed doors.
"I can't because I don't have any leash on myself," he admitted. "That's any addict. I was like, 'F--k, me trying not to be an alcoholic is now affecting my friendship with Austen.' And that's where I was coming from. Like, I have tears in my eyes because it's real."
"I was in the trenches by myself trying to better my life and then you were like, 'Oh, you're never with me anymore,'" the 35-year-old continued. "I'm like, 'Dude, I can't. I gotta stay home on my couch, because if I leave my couch, I'm gonna drink a bottle of Jäger and do dumb s--t.'"
The bombshell admission left Austen a bit stunned. As he told Craig, "The word 'addict' you've never used with me.”
And for Craig, he admitted that he never “said it out loud” until seeing costar Shep Rose get blackout drunk during the cast trip to the Bahamas after being rejected by his then-love interest Sienna.
“I was like, 'This is why I don't do it anymore,'” Craig explained of his drinking. "I'm really lucky, dude. I'm lucky I got out of it. That's why I can comment on Shep, he's not out of it."
Austen then apologized for not fully understanding what he was going through in his relationship with Paige, who Craig credited for helping him through his darkest days of recovery before their November breakup.
"She was right with me this entire time," Craig shared of the Summer House star. "There's a reason me and Paige are so close. I could just not imagine being closer to someone. I am so lucky that she chose me. I see someone there. She helped me beat this demon. It's been a struggle and it's been a fight. I guess I shouldn't have internalized it, but that's what's been going on.
The honest conversation proved to be a breakthrough for the besties after their falling out, and Austen was cautiously optimistic about the future of their friendship.
"Craig's addiction doesn't excuse him from being an a--hole, Craig's addiction doesn't excuse him from being an angry f--king person," he said in a confessional, "but it is the starting point and it definitely is not what I expected him to say. And I have to give him grace for being, finally, as open and vulnerable with me as he is right now."
And Craig felt the same way.
"Man, is it freeing to just be transparent," he shared in his own confessional. "If we would have just had this conversation sooner, it would have saved us a lot of heartache and grief and frustration."
