Salley Carson Is Owning The Chaos

It’s a few days after filming the Season 11 Southern Charm reunion and a day before her Watch What Happens Live appearance airs, and Salley Carson just wants a cheese board. In between New York Fashion Week shows and Bravo press events, I sit down with the 31-year-old to unpack how she’s managed to become the focal point of nearly every storyline in only her second season — from shifting friendships to messy boy drama. We’re at Dante in the West Village, where Carson looks glamorous in a slicked-back bun, monochromatic maroon outfit, and a chic floor-length coat complete with feather trim. Once we get settled, she promptly orders that cheese board after spotting it on the menu and then contemplates a drink. “I’ve been good,” she jokes. “It’s been almost 24 hours.”

While Carson is praised for being unapologetically herself (and castmate Austen Kroll even called her MVP of the season), she finds it “scary” to be the season’s main character. Her co-stars have called her everything from male-centered and boy crazy to an agent of chaos, but nothing has sparked more of an internet debate than whether she’s truly “a girl’s girl.” And though she admits she is chaotic (“in a fun way”), she’s absolutely not having the “not a girl’s girl” moniker.

The accusation first popped up when Carson started hanging out with Craig Conover, despite warnings from her BFF Venita Aspen. Tension had been brewing between Aspen and Conover following his split from Paige DeSorbo, and Aspen worried he might end up hurting Carson.

But Carson points out that in that situation — which ultimately resulted in Conover going after her friend Charley Manley, and the two of them started going on dates — everyone had it all wrong. “Charley wasn't the girl's girl in that situation,” Carson says. “She wasn't.”

I take a lot of pride in who I am as a friend to my girlfriends. It’s hard to hear people saying I'm not a girl's girl.

Fans were also quick to re-up the anti-girl’s girl title after Carson said she’d immediately hook up with Kroll if he and his girlfriend Audrey Pratt broke up in a November 2025 episode — and then again for hitting on Kroll after they did split in recent episodes. (Though Carson has asserted neither would’ve made a move on each other while Kroll was in a relationship.)

“I take a lot of pride in who I am as a friend to my girlfriends,” she says. “It’s hard to hear people saying I'm not a girl's girl. [But] it is what it is. I know my truth.” That truth plays out on screen during the season as Carson makes an effort to repair rifts with Aspen and castmate Molly O'Connell.

Although Carson doesn’t have a lot of regrets when it comes to her appearance on this season, the Conover situation — where she feels “he did lead me on a little bit” — still stings. She’s quick to distinguish between infatuation and situational feelings. “I don't love how obsessed I looked with Craig because it was never like that. We were very much going down a path of friendship,” she says. “I'm so sorry, but I'm never going to be obsessed with the guy I've never kissed before, and I never even felt sexual chemistry between him and me. I never looked at him and was like, ‘I want to jump into bed with him.’”

We're in the hot tub, we're drinking, we're getting wasted, I'm sorry, I'm just a girl.

She simplifies it even further: “He was single and hot. I'm a single girl, he's a single guy. We were out together every night. We're in the hot tub, we're drinking, we're getting wasted, I'm sorry, I'm just a girl. I'm hanging out with a guy like this — feelings are bound to be involved. [But] I think it's portrayed as a way bigger feeling than I ever had.”

Although Southern Charm viewers were first introduced to Carson in Season 10, it’s not her first rodeo on reality TV. Carson was a contestant on Clayton Echard’s 2022 season of The Bachelor (“It was a toxic environment.”). She later appeared in Bachelor in Paradise and even had a brief stint on Bravo’s Southern Hospitality, the Southern Charm spinoff show that focuses on Charleston 20-somethings working at a nightclub. It was ultimately Southern Charm veteran Madison LeCroy who brought Carson onto the show full time, and encouraged her to be herself.

But before you assume Carson is another reality star obsessed with the spotlight, she has a career in the medical field that she has no plans of abandoning. Amid filming, she manages a full-time job, training doctors and hospital staff on how to use a robot that assists in spinal surgery. “I need that job,” Carson says. “It keeps me grounded. … Who gets to say every day that they're enhancing children's lives by straightening their spines and helping them walk again? It's weird because I'll film a scene of Southern Charm, and I'll leave feeling stressed a little bit. But when I leave the operating room, I feel like a bad b*tch.”

When Carson first came on Southern Charm, fans learned she was engaged in her early 20s to an older man who cheated on her, and when she found out, she called off the wedding. She admits the situation still impacts her — even when it comes down to how others perceive her this season. “I am chaotic, and I am sometimes male-centered because of what happened to me in the past,” she says. “I'm still f*cked up from it. I'm trying really hard not to be, but unfortunately, what happened in that relationship has affected all of my relationships since. And I have trust issues.”

I do believe if me and Austen were to get together, it could be end game.

She offers advice to anyone who’s going through the same thing. “You're absolutely going to be OK,” she says. “It's for the better, but don't let it break you and don't let it change you because once it changes you, it’s really hard to go back.”

I point out that from a viewer’s perspective, she seems fearless when she goes after guys on the show, something many women must admire. “Yeah, but I go for the wrong guys because I already know that they're going to hurt me,” she says. “It's like you can predict the outcome: I'm going to go for this guy because I already know he's a f*ck-boy and he's going to hurt me."

But the season’s not over yet, and there’s so much left of Carson’s story the viewer has yet to see. While recent episodes have shown Carson diving headfirst into her crush on Kroll, previews for upcoming episodes show Carson and Kroll kissing during the cast’s trip to Mexico. When I mention Kroll, Carson lights up.

“Austen knows everything I do,” she says. “Me and him are very alike... We're not together, so we tell each other everything. I don't want to hide anything from him.” When I ask if she and Austen have hit Madison LeCroy’s and Austen’s level of besties status, Carson is quick to correct me. “I think we're very attracted to each other,” she says. “I think we're just treading lightly, because I do believe if me and Austen were to get together, it could be end game.”

I'm not dating to play anymore. I want to date to marry.

After everything she’s been through, Carson feels hopeful about love. “I'm not dating to play anymore. I want to date to marry,” she says. I start picturing the next season of Southern Charm where Carson is settled down with a fiancé, no longer going to bars, and planning the next stage of her life. But Carson quickly interjects: “I'll tell you when I do that, actually,” she laughs. “That's how I feel — not what I’ve actually been doing.”

Over the next five years, she sees herself still on Bravo, still at her job, and building a family — even if a partner isn’t in the picture at that point. “I’ll be 36,” she says. “So I will seriously be contemplating [having kids] on my own.”

As we head out of the restaurant, a table of women stops Carson in her tracks and immediately asks for a picture. They say they’re headed to a Watch What Happens Live taping later that day and beg for details about the Southern Charm reunion. Carson lights up while talking to them, and if I were just passing through the restaurant, I might even mistake her as one of the besties in the group.

I wait for Carson to say her goodbyes and then realize she’s not ready to leave them just yet. She turns to me, laughs, and says, “I think I’m going to have a drink with them,” and hugs me goodbye. As I head out alone, I can’t help but think: that’s exactly what a girl’s girl would do.