‘Southern Charm’ Star Ashley Jacobs Calls Life With Ex Thomas Ravenel ‘Dark’

Southern Charm‘s Ashley Jacobs is opening up in detail about her relationship with Thomas Ravenel for the first time, calling their relationship in a new interview with Entertainment Tonight “the worst year of [her] life.”

“I picked up my life and I uprooted myself,” she told the outlet of moving to Charleston to be with Ravenel. “I’ve never lived anywhere other than California, [in] my hometown. Everything was safe to me. I no longer felt safe. I wasn’t in a good place, I’d say, myself, and then you add, you know, a tough relationship and you add his drama with the mother of his children. And I mean, that’s a hard situation … just in general with anyone.”

Part of her attraction to the former State Treasurer was the fact that he was on reality TV, Jacobs admitted.

“I’d [be lying] if I didn’t say that there was some element of it that was fascinating,” she confesses. “I was intrigued, it was different. It’s different than the last person I dated, you know? He has a different life, and I was interested, and I was curious, you know? Makes good stories. Not a lot of people can say that they’ve done that in their life.”

But as she got drawn further and further into Ravenel’s drama with ex Kathryn Dennis, Jacobs admits she lost herself in a “dark” place.

“It was dark, and it was really lonely and, yeah, I was really lonely,” the registered nurse recalled. “I lost a lot of weight. I wasn’t taking care of myself mentally … I suffered from depression, situational depression.”

“I didn’t have the support of my family,” she added. “They were very disappointed in my decision, and so the only person I had was Thomas. He was my support system, we were really in the trenches together. We really were … I stayed by his side because I needed his support, because I wasn’t getting support from anyone else, not even my family.”

Jacobs and Ravenel had their ups and downs together until calling things off for good in February 2019, nearly six months after the former politician had stepped away from Southern Charm amid a number of sexual assault allegations against him, all of which he has denied.

“I mean, if you’re dating someone and there’s allegations [against them], you can imagine just that in itself [takes a toll],” she explained. “It concerned everyone that was close to me.”

As for their relationship now, things are a little complicated between the two.

“[Thomas] was my best friend and my support, [but] I realized that I needed to find some new friends,” Jacobs said. “We both agreed that the best thing for me to do was to go back home. He was the first one to say it. We still talk of course, yeah. But I mean romantically, I don’t know…”

“I don’t ever wanna go back to that place,” she continued. “Like I said, it was the worst year of my life. I don’t think I could make it any better. I tried. It didn’t work.”

Southern Charm airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.

Photo credit: Instagram/Ashley Jacobs