UPDATE: Ashley Jacobs’ Life After ‘Southern Charm’

Instagram Ashley Jacobs now lives in California and works as a nurse

Ashley Jacobs appeared on seasons 5 and 6 of Bravo’s reality show Southern Charm as Thomas Ravenel’s girlfriend. Jacobs and Ravenel’s relationship played out onscreen and the two ended up calling it quits in August 2018 after dating for over a year. Ravenel didn’t return to season 6 of the show following allegations of sexual assault.

Even though Jacobs and Ravenel sparked relationship rumors during season 6, Jacobs put those rumors to rest. Jacobs made her new relationship Instagram official in December 2019. Jacobs posted a photo with her new man, Mike Appel, and wrote, “Found someone close to my own age!!” with a winky face emoji. “Thanks for making me smile!!”

Shortly after her relationship announcement, she told Us Weekly, “I’m so happy.” The 35-year-old nurse added that Appel helped her heal from her relationship with Ravenel. “I did have some issues and I was a bit broken and I realized that sometimes you know, you find people that are worse off than you, almost just to make yourself feel better about it,” she told Us Weekly. “I realized that I just wasn’t in a good place…But I’m not broken anymore.”

Ashley Jacobs Left Charleston

Jacobs didn’t stay in Charleston for long after her breakup with Ravenel. In February 2019, Jacobs left the Southern Charm base for her native state of California. “Thanks for the life lessons South Carolina but I’m goin’ back to my roots! #CaliforniaGirl,” she wrote in an Instagram caption from May 2019.

Since her move back to California, Jacobs returned to her nursing career. She now works as a nurse in a skilled nursing facility in California, she shared via Instagram. Jacobs has been active on Instagram as she has dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic firsthand. “We’ve all seen photos on the news of people knocking on nursing home windows, trying to see their elderly family members through the glass barrier,” she wrote on Instagram. “As a fellow nurse working in a skilled nursing facility, what a blessed experience it has been to witness those moments firsthand.

Jacobs explained that a major reason she left for California was because she didn’t, “see the light at the end of the tunnel,” before she left Ravenel, Charleston, and Southern Charm, she told Us Weekly.

She added, “I didn’t know how I was going to get out of it and be honest with you, it just kept stacking up higher and higher to where I just felt like it’s almost impossible. You know, like, ‘I’m never going to get out of this,’” she told Us, citing her weight loss as a sign of how stressed she was. “I remember feeling at times just hopeless, you know, and just disappointed and ashamed of things I did and the way that it was portrayed to millions, really. It’s one thing if it’s on you, your family and your friends, but like, for everyone else to see it.”

Ashley Jacobs Slammed Three ‘Southern Charm’ Ladies

Even though Jacobs left the Bravo show and the city itself, she didn’t totally back out of the drama. Jacobs slammed Southern Charm castmembers Cameran Eubanks, Naomie Olindo and Chelsea Meissner on social media earlier this year in May. Kathryn Dennis – mother to Thomas Ravenel’s kids – spread rumors that Eubanks’ husband, Jason Wimberly, had been having a two-year affair behind her back with a local makeup artist named Rebecca Wash.

After the Eubanks, Olindo, and Missner all accused Dennis for the drama, Jacobs shot back and defended her once sworn enemy. “The whole cast was aware of this behavior the WHOLE time,” Jacobs wrote on her Instagram story in May, as reported by People. “The only reason you defended her while cameras were filming (not off camera, keep in mind) was because you lacked the integrity to be honest and real in front of the cameras for fear of unpopular opinion.”

“You created your ‘Kween’ — this reality TV fictional character by condoning that behavior,” Jacobs added of Dennis. “And now you’re all upset about it?”

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