Craig Conover and Shep Rose have been the Southern Charm bachelors since season 1, and fans are excited to see them return for season 8. Craig and Shep have had a complicated relationship for years that teetered from brotherly love to wanting to knock each other’s lights out. With almost ten years on Craig, Shep often teased the younger Southern Charm castmate relentlessly, which Craig found annoying and sometimes hurtful.
In an attempt to show Craig how much he meant to him, Shep became a father to a French bulldog puppy that he named Little Craig. Southern Charm fans weren’t sure if the name was a dig at “Big Craig,” but everyone fell in love with the furry canine, including Craig. Southern Charm season 8 opens up with Craig and Shep on the outs since the summer, but the premiere shows the two attempt to talk it out and mend fences.
Viewers will see Craig and Shep not only navigate their relationship with each other in season 8 but with their Southern Charm castmate Austen Kroll as well. Fans will see their highs and lows as the three try to mend the rift in their friendships, with one argument ending with a tussle between Craig and Austen. In an interview with Screen Rant, Craig and Shep open up about how they repaired their friendship over season 8 while also navigating being in serious relationships with their respective girlfriends.
Craig, the premiere opens up with you at your Sewing Down South store. How does it feel to go from hand-making your own pillows in your living room as a hobby to now being a huge retailer?
Craig: It’s an incredible feeling, and I’m so proud of it. There’s so much happiness and positivity around it. It’s really fun to share with everyone but yeah, to see it on our show, it’s even crazier. Seeing my store … it’s always the same cool feeling but to see it on Southern Charm, I was like, man, that’s really neat that we’ve gotten here.
Shep: To add to that, I’m so proud of Craig not only for what he’s done but he’s really surrounded himself in a business world with really confident, smart, and motivated people, and that’s what you’re supposed to do. If you’re the smartest one in the room, they say, then you’re not doing it right. And that’s not a knock on you (Craig).
Craig: I mean without the team, I wouldn’t be anywhere. I’d still be in my dining room sewing pillows. Now we have like fifteen employees. It’s just been fun and awesome.
That’s great because we saw you in your living room as you said, and now you have a brick-and-mortar place, which is awesome to see. Southern Charm fans probably line up to get in.
Craig: You know, it’s fun to share with everyone that rooted for me. A lot of the people in the room looked like the craziest person to be like, “Craig’s going to figure it out.” So, fortunately, I hope that I encourage people to realize that spending time on your side hustle isn’t selfish, isn’t stupid, and if you want to pursue your passion go for it. Sometimes it works.
One of the biggest talks of Southern Charm season 8 was having Naomie (Olindo) back on the show. How did you hear about it and what was your reaction to hearing the news?
Craig: So Naomie actually called me and I was the first call that she made and asked if I would be okay with her coming back. She was like, “I know this is your show but I would love to come back.” I was like, “As long as you make right with everyone, I think fans would love that and the viewers.”
Shep: People liked Naomie and were curious about her life. She obviously missed a season and left, and thought her life was going to go one way and it did not. So right there if I’m a viewer, I’m like, “Okay, let’s see…” It was a smart move by everybody honestly, we think.
Craig: And like Shep said, we’re in a society now where we have to be perfect or we’ll cut your head off. She messed up and we were like, “ Come on back. Just apologize to people you need to.”
Shep: What we’re talking about is, she made some negative comments about the show and the people on the show and she said no thank you on season 7. She fully copped to it and we were willing to forgive her and that’s important in these days and times.
Shep, what did you think about Naomie’s breakup with Metul?
Shep: I was shocked! She was very public about it, which I wouldn’t recommend to anybody necessarily, but I was following along on Instagram and seeing her cry and wrapped in a Sewing Down South pillow. (Shep laughs) It was not a Sewing Down South pillow. I was just like, wow okay that sucks and I felt for her. But I knew she would land on her feet. She’s back in Charleston where your life can’t be too bad if you have a roof over your head in Charleston. So that’s the great thing about being able to come home even if you’ve experienced something very painful. You got a nice beautiful environment with good people who care.
Craig, when you, Shep, and Austen had the talk outside Kathryn’s party, you looked surprised when Shep brought up the hookup between you and Naomie. Did you know that Shep knew about it and that everyone was talking about you and Naomie meeting up in Vegas?
Craig: I just knew that it happened a couple of months ago so I guess I was aware that it would be talked about, but maybe it looked like I was surprised but I wasn’t. It wasn’t a secret. The only person I didn’t tell was Austin because he didn’t deserve to know at the time. We weren’t close at the moment.
Shep, how did you feel when you outed Craig’s omission of telling Austen about Naomie?
Shep: I think that’s pretty silly. And I’ve said it to Craig. I totally understand getting back together with an ex from years past. When you’re both single, you just obviously sort of see if the flame is still there. You’re obviously comfortable with one another and it’s not risky or whatever, and you’re not gonna get hurt because you’re just kind of seeing where you’re both still at. And I understand how sometimes it could be cathartic and I think it was for Craig in this instant.
Craig: It was closure I didn’t realize I needed, which you know, I was over Naomie and stuff but maybe there was always…maybe there was a “what if,” maybe there wasn’t. After Vegas, we were like, we are not right for each other. She kind of had a fun rebound and it was just kind of comfortable.
Shep, tell me about your ongoing brotherly rivalry with Craig. How do you think it started?
Shep: It started in season 1, and 2, and then 3…He’s changed a lot. I’ve changed a lot. I can be guilty of treating everybody I know the same, which is with a lot of sarcasm and maybe not so polite jabs. Craig fueled that fire pretty big because of his outrageous ways in his first few seasons. Some of the interactions we had, and looking back we can laugh and that’s good, but I kind of learned that I have to curate each different relationship a little differently if you want to maintain them. Craig has learned that lesson too. I think with the two of us, it’s been like a roller coaster. We’re going to try to keep it on the high from now on.
Craig, you spoke about avoiding Shep because you didn’t want negativity in your life. You obviously had to come together for season 8. Does being thrown together help your relationship or does it make you guys argue more?
Craig: I mean it definitely does because it forces us to work through whatever’s going on. I’m kind of a runner so, it’s easier obviously to avoid s***than to deal with it. So we all come back together in Charleston and it’s going to happen one way or another but filming helped accelerate that. But I was gone last summer. I was in New York last summer so you know in the fall, I had to go back for Sewing Down South and you know there were my friends there and I needed to rectify that situation.
Shep: Because we obviously do have each other’s best interests at heart. We want to be in each other’s lives forever. So let’s keep our eye on the ball.
It genuinely seemed like you were upset that Craig distanced himself and you could see that in the premiere.
Shep: Yeah I know. And I think that he had some behaviors in Charleston that he had to curtail. What he didn’t realize is that everybody feels that way. And let’s do it together, let’s be friends and really talk about it and try to do things normally and not just 100 miles per hour like we typically do. That comes with maturity and all that stuff. Anyway, it’s good that we got tossed together. And I say in one of the episodes, we clean out the basement. In the sense, that’s something you have to do in a friendship.
Craig, you spoke to John Pringle about how you and Austen’s friendship deteriorated when he tried to out your hookup with Natalie (Hegnauer) in front of Paige (DeSorbo). What was the reason you think he did that?
Shep: Austen loves gossip. He’s like a sewing circle. Don’t tell anybody.
Craig: If he’s in a bad place, Austen doesn’t handle seeing other people happy too well. He’s doing a lot better but when he did that, he was angry. He was coming out of his thing with Ciara (Miller) and he said it to hurt me. He doesn’t remember doing it, he was totally blacked out. You’ll see us eventually talk about this. But anyone that’s capable of doing something like that, you know, makes you really take a step back. It was a malicious thing to do. So you’ll see when Austen and I have to eventually work everything out I tell him the full truth finally. Friends shouldn’t do that and you’ll see on his face later on that he really regrets it and he was embarrassed to hear that he did that.
Shep: And that might have been residue from his relationship with Madison (LeCroy). I felt like they were really bad for each other because they would both get together and share gossip and use it in a harmful way.
Craig: I think that Madison taught him, even though he’s a grown man, that’s how you fight.
Shep: Yeah, you don’t weaponize information from a friend. That’s really not cool.
Is that when you and Austen get into that little tussle?
Craig: No, I’m excited to find out what that’s about.
So you don’t remember that?
Craig: I remember wrestling but I don’t remember what we were fighting about.
Shep: Brought to you by Maker’s Mark.
Shep, what did Austen mean when he said about Craig, “It’s his way or the highway these days.”
Shep: Well, Craig and Austen have their unique relationship. They have their podcast together. It’s almost like good, bad, or ugly they must spend time together. So I think Craig takes the ball and does a good job, especially on the podcast. And I think he thinks it’s his baby more than it’s Austen’s baby. But Austen might tell you completely different things but I can understand where that comes from. Craig had set up a studio and it was really impressive.
Craig: Yeah, I take the ball a lot of times and I definitely think I know when it’s right but sometimes you have to ask Austen. There is some anger and resentment in Austen directed toward me and it comes out every once in a while. I don’t know where it comes from.
Shep: I could say the same thing about Craig and me too though. There’s just something that you can’t put your finger on but it’s from years and years of exposure.
Shep, Taylor (Ann Green) is the first serious girlfriend you’ve had on Southern Charm. What makes her different from all the other girls you’ve dated?
Shep: I think about that often. One of them is just a real kindness and a good warm heart and patience, which with me is a very important thing. That’s what I think I’ve been looking for. I don’t want to sound Oedipal but I see a lot of good qualities in my mom and it’s something I guess I didn’t know I was looking for. I’ve had flings and dated and I’ve never been this interested in furthering the relationship continually. I’ve always searched for the exit and that was okay. I was just one foot out the door sometimes and I’m both feet in and it feels good.
Shep, there’s the scene in the premiere where you and Austen meet up at the bar. You’re both wearing baseball hats and button-down shirts. Do you feel like Austen is slowly turning into a mini-you?
Shep: That’s funny because that’s what they had said when he came on the show. Like, Shep finally has a mini-me except he’s taller than me. But he’s so different. We are so different. So yes we share some of the same inclinations towards music and formerly women and style but we are very different.
Do you have any plans of getting another dog and naming it Austen?
Shep: Oh my God! Taylor won’t shut up about that. She wants a friend for little Craig. My only problem with that is with the amount of time we travel it’s hard enough to ask friends to look after one dog but when you dump two into their laps it’s like cruel and unusual punishment.
Shep, any plans on having Taylor move in and decorating your house with Sewing Down South decor?
Shep: Yeah, honestly I’m currently looking to upgrade and build and Taylor would be a big part of that. She owns an apartment and has a roommate. At the moment I don’t have enough space in my house, even though I love my little house, it’s not really proper for two people to live in.
Craig, besides pillows, Sewing Down South now has aprons, sweatshirts, baseball gloves, and cups. What is your next idea for a product you think fans will flock to buy?
Craig: We’re about to go into bedding. So complete bedroom sets with pillows for sleeping. We’re really excited about that. We’ve got toddler pillows right now but that’ll be a big jump. So we’re currently testing pillows out and it’ll be cool to move into the bedroom arena because eventually I’ll have an entire house line and this is just the next step.
