Southern Charm fans, we need to talk about Ashley Jacobs.
After being introduced this season as Thomas Ravenel's new girlfriend, who moved to Charleston from L.A. in the hopes of getting engaged and starting a life with the Bravo reality star (who is currently being investigated after allegations of sexual assault), Ashley has quickly become cast enemy No. 1. And after watching her go off on Kathryn Dennis, the mother of Thomas' two children, in Thursday night's episode, it's easy to understand why they are all hoping for her to make a very swift exit out of their city.
"I just felt sick to my stomach," Danni Baird, who was at the table for the shocking blow-up, said on BravoTV.com's after show, with Naomie Olindo adding, "What she said was disgusting."
In case you downed too many tequila shots (like Ashley did, apparently), some of what Ashley said included accusing Kathryn of not visiting her son Saint, 2, when he was in the hospital, attacking her parenting skills and claiming she spends more time with the kids. (Dennis lost custody in 2016 after failing a drug test.) Chrissy Teigen even called her tirade, "the meanest shit I've ever heard said on reality television."
Surprisingly, Kathryn, 24, was able to stay calm as Ashley went off on her, with the other cast members praising how she handled the situation.
"I like blacked the f—k out, disassociated, and was in like, shock, panic," she said. "Old Kathryn would have flipped the f—k out and gone ape-shit on her…but everyone saw that she was just trying to entertain. She was on display, she was enjoying it. And when I saw that, I was like hm, you don't deserve a response."
Whitney Sudler-Smith, who is also a producer on the show, said, "Kathryn's making real attempts to better herself and I thought she was wrongly accused."
And it's clear everyone thought Ashley crossed a major line with her attack on Kathryn, with Craig Conover joking, "That would be the understatement of the century."
Ashley also appeared in the after show, attempting to explain that the reason she went off on Kathryn was because of her reaction to a photo Thomas posted on Halloween of himself, Ashley and the two children, Kensie, 4, and Saint.
"She didn't like that there was a picture of us. I said, 'You could've been in that f—king picture.' That could've been you, I could've taken it,'" Ashley said. "She said, 'No, you didn't invite me to Halloween.' And that's when I lost it. From that moment on, it seems like a blur, it really does, because I think everyone else was like whoa, that just came out of left field."
But it wasn't just that one night, as the cast was even more surprised by Ashley's behavior the next morning: she chose to act like nothing had happened.
"I think that's when we realized she's really over the edge crazy," Naomi said, with Kathryn adding, "OK, you have zero empathy or regret or anything over that…so clearly, you're confirming that you really are crazy. But certifiable, not just hypothetical."
Addressing her decision to not apologize to Kathryn the next day, Ashley explained, "I thought, let's just put on our smiling faces and enjoy this trip and we'll just try and let the dust settle and try to readdress it at another time. I'm sorry for the way I did and where I did it...but what I said was the truth."
Finally, we think this tweet from Southern Charm matriarch Patricia Altschul, a one-time supporter of Thomas and Ashley's relationship, says it all:
Ashley and Thomas, who began dating in May 2017, are still together. Bravo is currently looking into the sexual assault allegations against Thomas, which he has denied.
"Haymaker, the production company for Southern Charm, and Bravo take allegations like these very seriously," the network said in a statement provided to E! News. "Haymaker is conducting an investigation, and once all the information is gathered and carefully reviewed, appropriate action will be taken."
Southern Charm airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)