The Untold Truth Of Thomas And Ashley On Southern Charm

Throughout her tenure on Southern Charm, Ashley Jacobs has struggled to fit in with the rest of the cast, which has noticeably put a strain on her budding romance with Ravenel. Perhaps it's because she starts fights every chance she gets, or maybe it's because she's very different from the rest of the pack. For the most part, the other Southern Charm-ers are all old friends, all from the South, all seasoned reality TV veterans, and are used to living off trust funds. 

Jacobs is pretty much the diametrical opposite of Kathryn Dennis or Patricia Altschul. She's from Southern California, and she didn't meet Ravenel at a hoity-toity Charleston social function. They met at a bar. Jacobs called Ravenel over, and he came a runnin'. As far as her livelihood is concerned, Jacobs doesn't seem to pay the bills with family money. She's a nurse, or at least before the reality TV bug bit her, she was a nurse.

Ravenel could charitably be described as a playboy, a man who on Southern Charm has demonstrated a great love of drinking, partying, and romancing women decades younger than him. Such ladies include the mother of his children, Kathryn Dennis, and his subsequent girlfriend, Ashley Jacobs. His lascivious behavior may have veered into the criminal and wicked, which just may cast a dark cloud on Ravenel and Jacobs' relationship.

In May 2018, a woman named Ashley Perkins told Fox News that Ravenel was accused of sexually assaulting her mother in 2015. According to Perkins, he swiped right on Debbie Holloway Perkins when her photo came up on Tinder in October 2015, and on Christmas of that year, the pair went on a date. It was during that night out that Ashley claims Ravenel "grabbed [Debbie] by the wrist and held her down," before exposing his genitals and digitally violating her." He allegedly stopped only after Debbie called him "a rapist." Ashley Perkins gave Fox News photos of her mother's bruised wrists. 

Ashley Perkins said her mother sued Ravenel and, with the help of famed attorney Gloria Allred, negotiated a settlement in June 2016 to the tune of $200,000. Debbie reportedly signed an non-disclosure agreement preventing her from talking about the case, but her daughter clearly did not.

In May 2017, Patricia Altschul introduced Thomas Ravenel to Luzanne Otte, finding them to be a proper match. In addition to — or in spite of — being childhood friends with Kim Kardashian, Otte is a Harvard grad who attended Notre Dame law and serves as general counsel for the Catholic Church's Los Angeles archdiocese. 

Ravenel was already dating Ashley Jacobs, but broke it of to pursue Otte, or as Otte told the Daily Mail, he said he "dumped Ashley like garbage." Otte supposedly started to look for an exit when Ravenel started trashing his substance abuse-troubled ex, Kathryn Dennis, quipping at a cocktail party that he'd "be better off if she overdosed." Later that night, Ravenel supposedly discussed rumors that he'd had consensual relations with "Nanny Dawn." Otte claims Ravenel implied that Dawn wasn't attractive enough for his tastes (this was long before those rumors became a rape investigation). After a paranoid rant in which Otte says Ravenel accused her of being unfaithful, she broke it off ... and he went back to Jacobs.

Thomas Ravenel and Kathryn Dennis are still involved in each other's lives to some extent — after all, they have two kids: Saint and Kenzie. They've also waged a custody fight that has been messy and contentious, owing to Dennis's substance abuse issues (Ravenel made her submit to frequent alcohol consumption tests) and Ravenel's criminal record (in addition to the aforementioned assault allegations, Ravenel was previously busted on a federal cocaine charge.) Ravenel won full custody of the kids.

Tensions between the former flames had eased considerably by May 2018, when in an interview with Extra, Dennis said she and Ravenel were "in a really good place." She added that "he asks me for advice on things. It makes me feel like finally he respects me in that sense." They also managed to celebrate Kensie's fourth birthday as one big happy family. 

However, just a few weeks after that Extra sit-down, Dennis was reportedly back in court to ask a judge for full custody of the kids following the sexual assault allegations against Ravenel. Dennis also wants child support, reversing the court-ordered $100 that she has had to pay him, despite his demonstrated wealth.

Is the addition of Ashley Jacobs to Southern Charm just a little too perfect? She's embodied the classic reality show villain archetype so perfectly from day one that some viewers wonder if she's a ringer, introduced by producers to create ratings-boosting drama on a show that, up to now, didn't feature a whole lot of Real Housewives-style lady-fights.

Maybe Ravenel and Jacobs didn't really have a meet-cute in a bar. According to Heather McDonald on her gossip podcast Juicy Scoop (via Good Tea), Southern Charm co-star Landon Clements introduced Ravenel and Jacobs — whom she apparently knew when they both worked as call girls — and that's when Ravenel allegedly decided to hire Jacobs to pose as his lady. According to Tamara Tattles, that was an item on Jacobs' bucket list — insider scuttlebutt claims Jacobs auditioned for the show in the past but lost out to Chelsea Meissner. Who knows if any of this is true, but it's definitely some interesting dirt.

In May 2018, Jacobs posted a picture in a floral jumper to Instagram with a caption addressed to all the haters out there. "One of the biggest things I have been judged on, as of recently, is my weight. I'm not sharing this post for any kind of sympathy ... If there's one thing I've learned, and can share with all of you — Learn to love yourself and screw what anyone else has to say about you!" Had trolls been criticizing Jacobs for putting on weight? Nothing of the sort — she'd apparently been told she's too thin. (Fun fact: You can't win in our looks-obsessed society.)

Nevertheless, on that very post, the comments continued about Jacobs' weight loss over the course of the fifth season of Southern Charm. Jacobs explained that she has a medical condition called hyperlipidemia, a dangerously high concentration of fat in the blood. She said the condition led to "massive heart attacks at a young age" for her father and grandfather, so she likes to keep her weight down to help make sure she lives "a long, healthy life." 

While the split of Thomas Ravenel and Ashley Jacobs appears to be inevitable, that doesn't necessarily mean Jacobs won't be around for future seasons of Southern Charm. In fact, she may fit right into the show's incestuous, round-robin-style romantic entanglements. It seems like everybody on that show has dated everybody else on that show, and if things don't work out with Ravenel, Jacobs apparently has other guys in mind: specifically, cast member Craig Conover and cast member/show creator Whitney Sudler-Smith.

According to a Southern Charm "aftershow" video, both Conover and Sudler-Smith claimed Jacobs said she'd date them if not for Ravenel. She allegedly told Conover that she'd be into him if he were "a few years older," even though they're roughly the same age. She supposedly said Sutler-Smith was her second-choice, after her beloved Ravenel. Conover doesn't appear to be all that interested, and Sutler-Smith said Jacobs holds zero romantic appeal for him, so we'll have to wait and see.