The ‘Southern Charm’ Cast Reacts To That STD Bomb: “I Felt So Sick And Disgusted”

By Lea Palmieri @littleleap
Published Aug. 1, 2019, 2:50 p.m. ET

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This week’s episode of Southern Charm was a real game-changer. When Madison LeCroy made the shocking accusation that Shep Rose gave Danni Baird chlamydia, a “fact” she claimed she heard from her boyfriend Austen Kroll, dynamics in this friend group were changed forever. While both Shep and Danni insist it’s not true (and not that it matters), the statement had repercussions all throughout the group.

Earlier today, Decider exclusively asked Southern Charm cast members about the moment and their feelings surrounding the incident.

“I listened and heard what she said but it didn’t really register,” Danni told us. “Once I realized it was me that she was talking about, I was like, there are a lot of things going on in my head. Shep and I dated eight years ago, we didn’t even know her, and this is the first I have ever heard an accusation like this in my life. So I was more in shock and thought it was a joke. I literally was speechless.” Danni’s since collected her thoughts and shared many of them with BravoTV.com’s The Daily Dish.

“And then as soon as Austen walked out of the bedroom, I knew that she said Austen was the one that told her that, I felt so sick and disgusted and betrayed and grossed out that anybody would say that in the first place,” Danni recalled. “That’s when I got upset. I saw the two of them and I just felt like it was something that they had discussed previously, just talking shit, whether it was a rumor, whether it wasn’t. I think he told her that knowing how reactive she is because you can see she pulls it out of nowhere. I had that epiphany like, oh my god, they really meant that. And I started getting really upset once I realized this is gonna be on TV. This word is now gonna be forever tied to me and I haven’t even had it. It was a lot of emotions. I did not know how to deal with it. I was really upset for about a week or so.”

Naomie Olindo confirmed that, saying, “When Danni came home from that trip she wasn’t picking up phone calls. I physically went to her house and knocked on the door and said, ‘Hey, I’m just here to check on you, are okay?’ Because I was worried.”

“That would be so stressful,” she continued. “If that happened to me and I knew that a rumor like that was going to come out on national television because somebody went crazy? [For] my family and my friends and whatever potential boyfriend she had at the time, that’s just horrible. Dani was really sad and I was really sad for her. That sucks.”

“I think it’s abominable,” Naomie said of the claim. “I think it’s disgusting. And I think [Madison] was ashamed of saying that because she should be.”

“I was MIA,” Danni said of her coping process. “I would not answer phone calls. I couldn’t process it.”

Even at the moment in Colorado, with her head swirling, Danni took a moment to educate herself on what she was even being accused of having. “I did Google it because the word itself sounds like it could kill you. And I couldn’t spell it. It took me quite a while. It said it was treatable but I was like, but still! It’s still not fair!” For those with more questions about the disease, OBGYN and Married to Medicine cast member Dr. Jackie has got the answers.

Danni went on to say, “It’s pretty common evidently, I hear a lot of people have it. I’m thankful I haven’t had it but it really doesn’t matter if I’ve had it or not. Somebody had the animosity to truly want to embarrass me. That was the only reason why it was said. To embarrass me. And I think it was because I had embarrassed Austen and Madison’s relationship in the beginning. I didn’t mean to, but y’all didn’t have the best relationship. Sorry! You got in touch with my MY boyfriend, it’s not like I was meddling in your relationship, trust me.”

But even to this day, it’s clear that Danni is still feeling a bit of disbelief about the whole situation. “I was in shock,” she reiterated. “I literally was just sitting there, I was not even involved in the conversation. Madison and Austen had been fine to my face. I didn’t know that there was any animosity but there was, evidently.” It took her a moment to even wrap her mind around what was happening, and who would hear about it because “When something’s not true you almost register it as not coming to light like it would.”

Danni was faced with the harsh truth that this would be out in the world and started to send off a few texts just before the episode aired this week, letting people in her life know what they were about to witness. “I had a few good friends that I told a while ago. My mom, my good friends know, but there were some other people that I asked them specifically to tell today because it’s a crazy story. It doesn’t make sense. They know me and they’re gonna be shocked when they see it and they’re gonna have people ask them about it.”

Because it’s one thing for someone to hurl an insult, but it’s quite another when you realize that ripple effect and consider the people who are involved tangentially. When asked if Danni felt the need to reach out to ex-boyfriends, she said, “I didn’t reach out to them because they know I never had it, but unfortunately this does affect other people and they are gonna get those questions. Somebody recently in Charleston went up to [her ex-boyfriend] Gentry and said, ‘I hear this was a topic on the show, you probably need to get checked out.’ It was a random hairdresser. And he immediately called me and was like, ‘Danni, why are people saying that?’ He knows I don’t have it and never did. You just cannot be that reactionary because words stick with people now forever and it cannot be undone.”

Instead of staying in to watch the episode and reliving it again, Shep found himself at one of New York City’s finest restaurants on Wednesday night and avoiding all social media. “I had a great meal at Carbone,” he told us. “It was so good. So good. A real dining experience I will not soon forget,” he said, recommending the signature dish of pasta vodka.

But he ultimately found last night’s big events on TV to be quite the opposite of that pasta. “It’s really unfortunate. In my opinion, it’s the nadir of our show, it’s the lowest [point], the gutter ball of our show. In second place was the dinner where Thomas lost his temper and shouted at Cameran aggressively. But that was more intense than it was anything else. This was just like, oh no.”

“Our show was originally intended, and I take a certain amount of pride in the fact, that it’s an answer to the stereotype of the south being neanderthalic, and Honey Boo Boo and classless rednecky. And we just went right there. [Not] we, someone,” he corrected himself. “I just thought, this is exactly what we were setting out to disprove. I’m in the middle of it so I feel more strongly. Of course, it’s all bullshit. I just feel bad for Danni. I can handle myself. It’s just sad. It makes me sad. Because through it all, there’s a certain amount of decorum that we all have. [But] boy, not then. Who does that? I just want to know that. Who on Earth does that?”

Southern Charm airs Wednesday at 9pm ET/PT on Bravo.

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