Olivia Flowers Describes ‘Emotional Blackout’ Filming Show After Brother’s Death

Heavy/NBCUniversal Olivia Flowers

Olivia Flowers joined Scheana Shay on the “Vanderpump Rules” star’s podcast on April 14 and got candid about her brother Conner Flowers’ death, which occurred as she was filming season 9 of “Southern Charm.”

Flowers’ brother died at his home in Charleston, South Carolina, on January 30, 2023, when the 9th season of “Southern Charm” was in the middle of filming, and the cast member said she was in an “emotional blackout” for the second half of the season. She told Shay she had trouble even thinking about putting makeup on and said, “I just wasn’t there” emotionally for around the second half of filming.

The season 8 newbie said it was a really difficult situation but the upside of filming was that “It was therapeutic in a way to be able to go to a job where not only am I okay to talk about my feelings and talk about him but encouraged to.” She said production was really respectful of what she was going through.

The downside of the situation, she shared, was that she was “on emotional cruise control” throughout the season and said she didn’t feel like it was a “safe space” to be discussing her brother’s death. “I just didn’t want to talk about him in a space that got to be so toxic,” she shared, and said it was really hard to be talking to her co-stars about “bulls*** stuff” that “didn’t matter.”

“That was really, really difficult to have to pretend to give a s*** about anything,” she said, and gave the example of the rumors surrounding a hookup between her best friend Taylor Ann Green and her ex-boyfriend Austen Kroll. “I don’t even know what it’s gonna look like watching back honestly,” she shared. “I would have conversations and wouldn’t even remember what was said.”

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Olivia Flowers Discussed Navigating Her New Friendship With Austen Kroll After Dating Last Season

During Flowers’ appearance on “Sheananigans With Scheana Shay,” which was her first podcast appearance ever, the “Southern Charm” star said it was really difficult to navigate her friendship with Kroll and its boundaries after their relationship the season prior, especially as she was dealing with her brother’s death.

She recalled having a conversation with him at the season finale of the show and said he told her she was an “inconsistent friend.” Shay told her it was understandable given the “traumatic” situation she was going through and Flowers agreed, but said, “I didn’t have the words to say that. I was in the drama with him.”

She said it wasn’t until afterward that she thought, “Why didn’t I just say ‘You don’t f****** matter… Taylor doesn’t matter. The fact that you think you’ve got any kind of real estate in my brain right now is so selfish.’” She said it was a really horrible realization, that her friends and co-stars that she thought were going to support her were just “talking about the bulls***” and she was going along with it.

Flowers concluded that the hardest part about the season was having to just discuss the cast’s drama when she was still struggling to process what had happened to her family.

Olivia Flowers Spilled on Her Friendship With Taylor Ann Green & Blocking Her on Social Media

Several sources told Page Six that Green hooked up with Kroll at the start of filming season 9, and it will likely be one of the main storylines of the season.

Fans were quick to notice that Flowers unfollowed Green, her close friend during season 8, and Shay asked her podcast guest about it. The “Southern Charm” star said she couldn’t really discuss it because viewers will see everything unfold on the show, but shared that the rumors of a hookup did play a part in the season.

She added that she unfollowed Green because she just wanted a break from seeing her on Instagram but had forgotten that everything she does on social media is being watched by fans.

There is no premiere date for “Southern Charm” season 9 yet but Flowers said she thought it would likely air in the fall of 2023.

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