Queue And A

‘Southern Charm’: Shep Rose Reveals What Girlfriend Taylor Ann Green Did (And Didn’t Do) To Lock Him Down

By Lea Palmieri @littleleap
Published Nov. 5, 2020, 8:45 a.m. ET

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“I might just crawl into a hole,” was Shep Rose’s tentative plan for processing the election results — and that was at the beginning of this week. While he accurately predicted, “It’s gonna be so effed up,” we can only hope that his guess that it won’t be “over until December” is less accurate.

Political chat was inevitable, the day before our country would cast its last votes for our leader, but also because Shep has never shied away from voicing his fair perspectives on social media. He was an outspoken proponent of South Carolina’s Jaime Harrison this year and got a lot of attention for recently responding to one of Thomas Ravenel’s political tweets. “I’ve written out lots of responses to some of his tweets, and then deleted them, being like, ‘Don’t get in this mess. Do not get in this mess,'” Shep admitted. “That one particularly bothered me,” he said, pointing to “the hypocrisy of it all,” and adding, “It’s just a delusion. His reasoning is all faulty, in my opinion.”

But as many of us watch Bravo as an escape from the drama of our own lives, and of the world, we’ll instead use the interview to focus on the drama of Southern Charm this season — though that will also cover the unavoidable coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement as it unfolded in Charleston. Here, Shep opens up about his new outlook on life and new girlfriend, all while proving he’s the same old Shep we know and love.

DECIDER: First things first: when are we getting the Peaches and Little Craig spin-off that we need to heal the country.

SHEP ROSE: [Laughs] What about Chauncey and Little Craig? Obviously, Peaches is an adorable dog, but I think Craig might eat him or something.

Whoever wants to be in that cast, I’m all here for it. Anyone’s welcome.

He’ll eat anything. [Laughs]

We have much to discuss about your journey this season. Let’s talk a little bit about therapy, because I think this is really important. All of the coolest dudes are opening up about mental health and how important it is to take care of. Tell me a little bit about your therapy journey and what that’s been like.

I owe a debt to a few people — two of them famous. That is Conan O’Brien and Howard Stern. I’m a huge Howard Stern fan. I think Howard wrote in his book, Howard Stern Comes Again, and he said his favorite guest was Conan O’Brien. I was surprised. I had heard their interview, I thought it was really good. But one of the reasons was because Conan opened up about therapy. And then Conan had Howard on [his podcast] Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, which is really funny and I really recommend that too. They really delved into therapy. Both of them are just big proponents of it. I went through some troubles last year, and my head was in a weird space. Irish people say, “Hey mate, why do you need a therapist? You can just go down to the pub.” Yeah, that’s true, I did that for a long time. But it turns out the guys at the pub aren’t the best at helping you navigate life. Furthermore, you know their foibles, they know yours. It’s not really third party dispassionate advice that you’re receiving.

I went and I really enjoyed it. By the way, it’s a woman. I didn’t know what the answer to that question was either: which one do I go with? She’s fantastic, and she helped me. One of the many things was, I can be hard on myself. She asked me what I was up to, and I told her I created a TV show — it hasn’t gone anywhere, I haven’t even pitched it yet. But I went out to LA and I worked with some writers out there, some friends of friends. We came up with a whole pilot. Talk is so cheap in that world, and I don’t even want to get too excited about it. But hopefully I talk about it more seriously with you in the future. I was being hard on myself in the session, but then I got to that part and she was like, “Don’t be so hard on yourself. These are great things. Yes, you’ve had some struggles, and yes, you’ve made some bad decisions. It can be infuriating.”

A lot of my angst, not gonna lie, was show-based. Because when you make a mistake — either on TV or on social media — your average person, no big deal. But it’s amplified and then some. It sort of can snowball on you. You can listen to voices that probably don’t have your best interest at heart — in fact, definitely don’t. She told me all of these things, and it’s just good reinforcement. She told me, “You should be proud of yourself. You’re doing well.” That was kind of cool, to hear someone say that. Especially it not being a buddy over a shot and a beer. Some other stuff, a lot of “Be present” sort of advice, which is always good. I’ve tried to implement these things. Obviously, COVID interrupted the whole thing. We’ve done a few Skypes. But yeah, it’s been really constructive. The funny thing is, I told my brother and some of my good friends, and they were like, “We want to do that.” Because everybody has problems! Everybody second guesses themselves. Everybody is trying to walk a good path.

Well, I’m very proud of you. I’m glad you’re doing it. Let’s talk about something else I’m very excited to see: I need to know everything about your girlfriend Taylor. First things first, what does “I kind of know about shark sex” mean?

The early days of Shark Week were huge in our family. God, when did Shark Week begin? All I know is: Shark Week needs to bow out. We know everything. At this point, they’re bothering sharks. It’s borderline annoying. But boy, in those first five or six years — that and James Bond week, that was the big thing in our family. We loved it. I know about shark mating. Everyone loves great whites; I do too. But they’re like, “Where do they mate?” No one’s ever seen it. I’m just like, “Leave them alone! They’ve got a room!” So, yeah: I know a little bit about sharks. I’m not a marine biologist.

What was her reaction to you being on the show, her being on the show? Was it easy for her to transition in as well?

The day I met her, I left the next day for Mexico for three weeks. I was like, “Nice to meet you, see you later.” We just sort of texted a little bit, or DMed. Not too much. I was like, “Well, I look forward to seeing you.” I got back, and we started seeing each other. She approached it, I wouldn’t say carefully, but she just didn’t expect a lot. Because I don’t think she was a fan of the show. She didn’t hate it — she just maybe heard of it, but didn’t know anything about it, and didn’t know any of the people. I’m sure people told her. That’s just unavoidable. We got back, and we just started seeing each other very casually. No promises. Nothing like that, which is the exact way to win my affections, which is not intense. Just do as you please. Not other people, necessarily, but no pressure at all. “Let’s see where this goes.”

I know she’s 26, but she’s mature beyond her years. Otherwise I wouldn’t be in the relationship, because I couldn’t stand squealing. I don’t know what these millennials are up to, but she’s not really that stereotype or whatever. And then as we poked along, I was just like, gosh. I told friends, she refuses to give me a reason to feel bad about our situation. Which just meant that she was kind, everyone loved her. It was like: wow. Okay. She’s good.

We met maybe three months before we started filming, and I was like, I was like, “Look, I’m going to start filming. You need to let me know if that’s okay. If you don’t want to do it, then unfortunately we probably can’t see each other. I can’t hide. I’m not trying to hide anything.” I had to talk to her, and she had some trepidation. The producers were all excited that I was seeing somebody — I had to keep them at bay a little bit, be like, “Guys, relax.” But they handled it nicely.

In the little bit that we’ve already seen, she seems very patient and sweet. I can’t wait to see more of her.

Yeah, she’s all those things.

Shep Rose and John Pringle on Southern Charm
Paul Cheney/Bravo

 I want to ask you about your friend John Pringle, too. How has it been bringing him into the mix?

I thought it was hilarious. He’s the definition of a bull in a china shop, the very definition of it. He’d probably say the same about me, though. But we know each other too well. He was just a livewire in college, just like me. There’s this famous story where he fought a whole fraternity and beat everyone else, like Bam-Bam from Flintstones. He was sort of a legend, not to be toiled with. Not that he’s a violent person. But I wouldn’t want to be on his bad side.

There was a comment made that was like, “I’d be worried to leave him around my girlfriend.” Do you feel that way about him?

Yeah, I do. And I’m sorry, John. He definitely has hit on Taylor. Not in a nefarious way, but you know. It’s usually after a few drinks, and Taylor laughs, loves him. They love each other. Like, “I don’t know if Shep knows how lucky he is.” Stuff like that. You’re like, “Pringle, stop. Just shut up.” He’s just a big flirt. I doubt many people would want to leave me around their girlfriends when I was single either, but I would like to think that I wouldn’t reach that barrier.

I’m guessing you’re not too surprised that there seems to be a little bit of flirtation between him and Madison then.

No. No, I mean, Madison probably wants to have as many people wrapped around her finger as possible. She’s pretty good at it, I think, typically.

There’s a shot in the trailer where you’re talking to Danni through the window. Obviously, everyone had to be separated. What was that like, filming during quarantine?

I’ve been tested 13 times now. I’ve somehow skirted COVID. It’s kind of like good news/bad news, though. I kind of want to get it over with — or I did, at the time. At this point, it’s a point of pride. I don’t have it. It’s going to be funny and interesting, watching the COVID angle of the season, for sure.

Obviously one of the other angles is not having Cameran around. When were the times that you missed her the most? 

Cam struggled with doing the show literally every year. I’ve been in that thing. But every year, it was like the eleventh hour, her deciding to do it. And then she’d get into it, and really enjoy it. Her trying to keep the privacy with her child and her husband was paramount to her. I think maybe sometimes too, she draws lines in the sand: this side and the other. She’s very stubborn.

When it was going on, I was just happy for her, on a certain level, that she didn’t have to deal with some of the stresses of being on a TV show. I missed her personally, but not in the context of the show. The show must go on. I know everybody was, rightfully so, nervous about her not being on the show. Not taking anything away from her — she’s like America’s sweetheart, men want to be with her, women want to be her kind of thing. You can’t just manufacture that. That’s innate. Whatever she has — let’s put it this way: she could monetize her personality way more than she has, or maybe ever will do.

However, I think what we discovered, is that no one person is bigger than the show. That’s an interesting thing. To be perfectly honest, you sit around and say, “If I left, would the show survive?” Not that I’m trying to sink any ships or anything, but you wonder. I’m sure Craig has wondered that. I’m sure everybody has; at least the people who have been there since the beginning. The show is big. It’s a big organism. People like it. It’s kind of interesting to discover that. Because, as we were filming, we were like, “Wow, we might have a good show here.” And of course, Cameran is very integral in years past. But maybe we can pull this off without her. And obviously, Thomas was a huge hole when he left. People still watched. When he walked down those stairs [in the first episode], I gotta admit, I was like, wow. Selfishly, I loved watching Thomas. Loved watching him on TV, and interacting with him. The most interesting parts were the scenes that he did when I wasn’t there. As someone who watches the show, I was like, “Get outta here!” He was larger than life, but not larger than the show.

Is there anything else that you’re excited for people to see this season? 

There’s a conversation between Madison and Craig, a real honest conversation, that I’ve heard accounts of. But I really want to see it. And I want to see their facial expressions and comments. It’s really, I think, eye-opening. I seek the truth.

There are not enough hours for the show to show everything. But as long as it’s — in my mind, or in my castmates’ mind — as long as it’s pretty down-the-middle and true, then I can live with that. I really am optimistic about this season being true to form, and maybe a return to some of the earlier seasons — where friendships, and foibles as well, everybody’s redeemable. There’s nobody who’s truly bad.

At the end of the day, I want to be proud of the product that is our show. I have been proud and happy to be a part of it. And happy to give someone a distraction from some problems they might be having at home or wherever. They can just unplug and watch and laugh, or shake their fist or whatever. As long as it’s truthful and it’s real, as much as possible, I will continue to do this. I think that’s the deal.

Southern Charm airs Thursday at 9pm ET/PT on Bravo. 

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