Here's What Austen Has Been Up to Since Last Season of 'Southern Charm'
Updated Feb. 2 2021, 4:34 p.m. ET
Tonight's the night, you guys! After a whole year of waiting, we finally get the chance to go back to Charleston to catch up with our favorite wealthy Southern singles in the Season 6 premiere of Southern Charm.
One single in particular, Austen Kroll, is on everyone's mind ahead of tonight. Because fans are dying to know whether he's still dating Victoria like he was at the end of the season, given their big blowout at the end of the finale.
So, are Austen and Victoria still together?
All right, let's dip our toes back in Season 5 for a bit of a refresher. Southern Charm fans will remember that Austen used to date Chelsea, and that when they broke up, he started dating Chelsea's friend, Victoria. Chelsea took this super well and kept her friendship with each of them.
But Austen, early on in his relationship with Victoria, broke things off with her momentarily to try and give things with Chelsea another chance. "You're gonna hurt me once and only once, so get your act together," says a disinterested Chelsea, causing Austen to run back to Victoria and beg her forgiveness. Austen was all, "I apologize for my indecision" and Victoria was like, OK — apology accepted!
What went down in the Season 5 finale?
But then: Flash to last year's finale and the whole group (minus Victoria) went on a trip to Chelsea's hometown of Hilton Head. They went out crabbing one afternoon and on the boat ride back, Chelsea and Austen were sitting super close to each other, supposedly because it was windy and rainy and they wanted to keep warm.
Well, Naomie decided to take a picture of the two canoodling and posted it to Instagram, which caused a ton of drama. Because Victoria saw the picture and absolutely lost it. She called Austen in Hilton Head and accused Chelsea of kissing him on the shoulder in the Instagram pic.
Then Austen got upset when Victoria called him and Chelsea "disrespectful," and said Victoria was the one being insecure and jealous. "This can't happen," he told her over the phone. "I think you are overreacting 100 percent. You've always had this jealousy. I'm not going to talk you off the ledge every single time that you have an insecure thought."
"Do you want this to end like this? Because you're jealous of her holding my arm because we're cold?" he asked. The episode ended with Austen back home, but he and Victoria were still fighting and it wasn't clear whether they'd end up together.
Austen's got a new girlfriend, Madison, now.
From the looks of Austen's Instagram page, his relationship with Victoria may very well have ended with that one fight. These days, it looks like he's dating Madison LeCroy, a hair stylist, makeup artist, and obviously, Southern Belle.
They met about a year ago and have been going out since last April, per Instagram. But there's more drama!
Last July, Austen cheated on Madison and then tried to gaslight her for thinking he had. There was even a video where she confronted the girl he cheated with. "Did you f--k him last night?" "So why are your panties lying by the bed?!" she asks, when the other woman tries to deny it.
Anyway, Madison and Austen are still together these days. "Like every relationship — we have went [sic] through a few bumps in the road to get where we are now," Madison explained to a fan via Instagram comment. "A video taken several months ago, while we weren't in a relationship is showing one side of a story, this will not tear us apart."
"We chose to forgive, forget and move forward with a fresh start," she told her haters.
We can't wait to meet this gorgeous blonde on tonight's premiere of Southern Belles, which airs at 8 p.m. on Bravo.