“Southern Charm” Stars Reflect on 10 Seasons: What They've Learned, What They Regret and What the Future Holds (Exclusive)

Cast members Craig Conover, Taylor Ann Green and Shep Rose tell PEOPLE which moments from filming they regret and what viewers can expect from them on season 10

• Southern Charm returns for its 10th season on Thursday, Dec. 5

• Season 10 will feature three newcomers — Ryan Albert, Salley Carson and Molly O’Connell — joining fan favorites like Craig Conover, Madison LeCroy and Shep Rose

• Conover tells PEOPLE that season 10 has "my favorite couple of episodes in Southern Charm history"

For 10 years, the cast of Southern Charm has given Bravo viewers a glimpse into life in Charleston, S.C., from garden parties and boat days to mountain getaways and Patricia Altschul’s annual Gentleman's Dinner.

In the upcoming 10th season, Altschul, 83, Venita Aspen, Leva Bonaparte, Craig Conover, Taylor Ann Green, Austen Kroll, Madison LeCroy, Rodrigo Reyes, Shep Rose, Whitney Sudler-Smith and Jarrett “JT” Thomas return to figure out whether the group can patch things up after Thomas — who announced last month that he has chosen to resign from the show — fought Kroll, 37, in the season 9 finale and doubled down at the reunion. Kroll and Conover, 35, also need to figure out where their relationships with Rose, 45, stand after he blacked out at BravoCon 2023.

“I'm definitely glad where we ended and where Shep's headspace was at for these opening talks together that you see in episode 1,” Kroll tells PEOPLE. “[They’re] talks I've been wanting to have for ages, but maybe have been waiting for the right moment to have because men, we so want to just swoop it under the rug and we're all good and let's keep on moving. And that's not always the best.”

Related: 'Southern Charm' Cast: Where Are They Now?

Kroll and Green both find themselves in new relationships this season, as does Rose. However, Rose’s castmates worry that his girlfriend Sienna may be in it for the wrong reasons, with Altschul calling her a “stalker” in the season 10 trailer.

Season 10 also introduces three newcomers: Ryan Albert, Salley Carson and Molly O’Connell.

“My friends on the cast had brought it up before to me and kind of floated it out there the past few years, and it just never felt right,” Albert tells PEOPLE of joining the show. “But where things were at home and with my family —  I've been married a few years now — and where things were with my friendships with the cast, it just felt right this time when they came to me.”

O’Connell, who had a previous flirtation with Conover, felt similarly. “Having been friends with everybody on the cast for so long, going to a few of the events on film before in years past, it just made sense,” the former model, 36, tells PEOPLE. “I think it also helped being single and being free to do whatever I want. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing with my life, so it was good timing and fun to be a part of what my friends been doing for so long.”

Carson, 30, comes to Southern Charm after appearing on Southern Hospitality, as well as The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise.

“I'm in a completely different place than I was when I was on The Bachelor,” Carson tells PEOPLE. “I was in a really toxic relationship with my ex-fiancé. I was scared to talk about my life because I wasn't confident at all. I was really sad and depressed. I was very insecure. And then I went to therapy and got out of that relationship and I feel like I truly am the strongest that I've ever been. I want to share my life with people because I love my life and it doesn't really matter what outsiders think at all.”

Read on to get to know the newcomers, reconnect with the veterans and celebrate 10 seasons of Southern Charm.

Ryan Albert

Albert hopes that showing his marriage to his husband of three years, Eddie Irions, on season 10 will help his parents be more tolerant of his relationship. “They have not been open to accepting our marriage and to even meeting Eddie, but I hope that there's a different end of the story,” Albert says. “Hopefully them watching us interact and watching us at home and seeing our authentic love for each other will open up their hearts and minds to having that relationship with us both and showing us respect.”

Though Albert considered himself close friends with Altschul, Aspen, 31, LeCroy, 34, and Sudler-Smith, 56, before filming, he worried a bit about getting to know Conover, Kroll and Rose. But “they ended up being the most inclusive and welcoming to me to make me feel comfortable,” Albert says, adding that the guys made him feel “like a part of the group.”

“Things are still unraveling every day and we're all still hanging out. It's still evolving even after the season.”

Venita Aspen

The fashion influencer became Southern Charm’s first Black star when she officially joined the cast in season 8 after appearing on season 7 as a friend. “I know a lot of people hate to see me coming,” Aspen says. “But I've been here for four years and I don't think I'm going anywhere.”

Aspen says she’s “gotten past” her desire to hold back part of her life from the cameras. Last season she even debuted a relationship with her boyfriend Manny, which she teases will “unfold” on camera this season. “Not the happiest about it, but life moves in funny ways and life moves the way that you don't want it to sometimes,” she says.

Season 10 also sees Aspen’s relationship with another man — Thomas — take new form.

“JT and I, when we first did Watch What Happens Live, I think that's when I could actually see that the friendship that we had was blossoming,” Aspen says. “We got close over the summer, and it's been quite the journey getting to know the real JT. It's been nice and refreshing.”

Aspen admits that Thomas “gets in his own way a lot of the time,” and his sudden Southern Charm exit “is a prime example of that.”

But one of Aspen’s relationships with one guy will always stay solid: her dog, Charles. “Charles's anal gland explodes this season,” Aspen says. “He's wearing a diaper in some of his scenes. I'll never forget that day. I am in my closet and Charles just waddles his way in the closet, and I'm like, ‘What the hell is on your tail?’ And I look and I realize that it's blood. So I'm holding the dog, I have a towel on my head, I walk out of the house and straight to the vet. I was like, ‘Help, please!’ I'm excited and anxious for the whole season.”

Leva Bonaparte

The restaurateur, 45, appeared on Southern Charm from season 1 and became a cast member in season 7, making her the show’s first person of color on the cast. Her bar and restaurant empire on King Street even inspired spinoff Southern Hospitality — but Bonaparte still gets surprised when a fan recognizes her.

“The other day I was out and somebody ran up, and I was like, why’s this person coming over here?” Bonaparte says. “Then they're like, ‘Can I take a picture?’ And I was like, ‘With who? What's happening?’ And my girlfriend started laughing. She's like, ‘You're on a show.’ I try to not let it affect the way I think and the way I speak. I forget that there's a camera there.”

Along with being the matriarch of the friend group on Southern Charm, Bonaparte shares 8-year-old son Lamar, Jr., who she calls Little, with husband Lamar. Bonaparte reveals she started homeschooling her son after he consistently came home “really unhappy, like, incessantly crying” from his previous school.

“My kid's not a crier or a complainer, so for him to be really upset every day, something about this isn't serving him,” the reality star says. “So, I pulled him out and started a curriculum at home. At first, I was doing it. Now, I have a tutor that comes a couple hours a day. It's not easy — it's definitely got challenges — but it's got other things that are great, which is I do get to see him all day.”

Viewers will continue to follow Bonaparte’s home and work life on season 10 — but they might see less of Little. “There was like two months where he was like, ‘My mom's on TV. You know, I've been on TV.’ And I was like, we're not going to lead with this,” she says. “So I had to sort of pull him completely out of that because he almost loves it innately. He was like, 'I want to be on TV. I want to have a YouTube channel. I want to be a model.' I was like, you like this way too much!”

Salley Carson

Carson calls LeCroy her “closest connection” on the show and teases “some history” with Rose before beginning filming. But “the one person I was nervous about was Taylor,” she admits. “We didn't see eye to eye all the time on things, but we also do cross paths three different times with three different guys, so it's bound to happen. I'm kind of nervous to see the dynamic between me and Taylor go down.”

The Bachelor alum says Green, 30, warned her that her boyfriend, who Carson has since broken up with, “wasn't a very respectful man.”

“I had his back, and everything she said about him ended up being true. He ended up talking to other girls during our relationship,” Carson says. “It sucks, but I have to swallow my pride. I was kind blinded by love. But I'm happier than ever now.”

And Carson learned an important lesson along the way. “Looking back at it, I'm kind of glad it happened because we weren't a good fit anyways,” she says. “I wasn't me in the relationship at all. I was very much this workout, no drinking girl. I tried to be what he wanted me to be and please him, and it's just not who I am. Now, nobody’s going to stop me from partying!”

Craig Conover

When viewers met Conover in season 1, the Delaware native wanted to become a lawyer, but he couldn’t seem to show up on time to work due to his proclivity for partying. Today, Conover finds himself celebrating the opening of a second location of his business Sewing Down South, living in a newly renovated home and dating Summer House’s Paige DeSorbo. He credits major lifestyle changes with being able to achieve all of that.

“I changed the way I lived,” Conover says. “I pretty much stopped drinking. Probably once every two months I'll have a drink or two, but that is drastically better than drinking every night or every other night. I'm having fun finding that middle ground.”

Conover knows that differs largely from the man viewers have gotten to know of the years. “Blacking out at a reunion is crazy to me, looking back my life now compared to that,” he says. “But it's funny and it's part of it. One time I said that to Andy [Cohen] and he's like, ‘Craig, stop. It was great. It was exactly who you were at that time.’ I don't have it figured out, but I'm in a better place than I was and just every day trying to be better.”

The Pillow Talk author teases that season 10 has “my favorite couple of episodes in Southern Charm history.” However, “it's not going to be what a lot of people think, which is the drinking stuff. It's more going to be relationship stuff that we explore together,” Conover says. “I think it's going to be fun to watch us in this stage of life.”

Taylor Ann Green

Green returns to Charleston after a particularly messy season that saw her lie to former best friend Olivia Flowers about kissing Flowers’ ex Kroll following her breakup with Rose. “It was a little gut-wrenching because I don't know where I stand with most of the people on the cast,” Green, who became a cast member in season 8 after being introduced in season 7, says of coming back for season 10.

Green shares that she and Kroll are “good” now as they both focus on new relationships this season, and she created boundaries with Rose. “I'm respectfully asking him to leave me alone,” she says. “As an ex, there's no reason for us to be best buds. He just wants to [say], ‘Oh, we had a great run. It was fun.’ It was actually very taxing on my end. I was very hurt and broken and I acted out in ways that I never would.”

Even her relationship with Flowers, 30, has begun to mend. “She did contact me when we first started filming and was checking in to see how everything was going,” Green reveals. “We haven't been able to actually catch up in person, but I think we're hopefully moving forward in a better place.”

Still, Green calls lying to Flowers “my biggest regret in doing all of this the last four years.”

“My biggest regret is the coffee shop scene and not telling Olivia the truth right away,” she reiterates. “But I definitely hope to see that there are some moments  [this season] where people can see that what happened last year was a mistake — it's not who I am — and see a different side of me.”

Austen Kroll

Viewers have watched Kroll not quite commit to relationships since season 4. But this season, the Trop Hop Beer founder has a full-fledged girlfriend, Audrey Pratt. “When I met her, I thought that she was wonderful and we were hanging out and I was going up to Charlotte, where she lives, and we were hanging out so much and this is going to sound terrible, but she didn't annoy me. I could never get enough of her,” Kroll says. “That has not always been the case.”

So Kroll decided on the relationship. “I decided to finally have this talk and be like, ‘You are my girlfriend.’ And that was a huge thing for me,” he recognizes. “I hadn't called someone my girlfriend in a long time since Madison, and that was a big deal.”

Does this mean Thomas’s “f---boy exorcism” that he tried to do on Kroll in the season 9 reunion worked? “I'm trying to figure it out on the fly of what am I going to do? How am I going to be around this person?” Kroll says of his approach to dealing with Thomas in season 10. “You don't just slander someone with horrible and awful things for as long as he did at the reunion and then expect it to all be cool.”

Nevertheless, “there was so much growth there that has continued to this season,” Kroll says. “You watch the Housewives, and these women are already in their career. They've been married and they've already had kids. This show is us trying to get there. We're one of the only ones on Bravo that you can watch us grow up like that.”

Molly O’Connell

Along with popping up on Southern Charm in the past, O’Connell has also appeared on Below Deck and competed on America’s Next Top Model. O’Connell reveals that she lost most of her modeling jobs, though, when she gained 45 lbs. due to a thyroid condition.

“The body positivity movement is there, but in the fashion world, it's still not quite as accepted, especially in the more high fashion stuff that I tend to do,” O’Connell says. “I'm more of print and high fashion, and that really tends to be very, very thin. You're a clothes hanger, you're not supposed to have much shape so that you can see how the outfit lays. So gaining 45 lbs., I've lost essentially all of my jobs. It's definitely been hard.”

O’Connell finds it important to talk about her experience “because I know that so many other people struggle with that,” she says. “I also have had disordered eating where I would binge and then feel bad about it. It's an ongoing struggle. When I hear other people being open about it, I love that. It's something that's rampant.”

Rodrigo Reyes

The interior designer returns for his second season after joining as Southern Charm’s first LGBTQ+ cast member last year. “I really appreciated having people saying that they are happy to see representation out there,” Reyes says. “I never thought I'd be some spokesperson for a community, but it is nice to have people be like, ‘Wow, is a gay Latino on this show.’ It was a natural fit because I'm entwined and know everyone's drama.”

While viewers won’t see Reyes’s proposal to his partner Tyler Dugas air in the upcoming season, the Bravolebrity looks forward to showing more of his life with his partner of nine years and their dogs.

“If I can shine a light on senior dog rescue or any kind of rescue of any animal, that's something I'm most happy about. Because senior dogs need the most love, especially if they're stuck in foster care or can't find a home,” Reyes says. “This season we have a birthday party for my dog, Bella. She turned 13, and her dad just turned 15 a week. They're still going strong.”

Reyes also has something he feels a bit anxious about seeing play out on screen. “Everyone drank a bit in The Bahamas, and I feel like that's like, ‘Oh s---, what did we say? What did we do?’ That's a little anxiety-inducing,” he says. “But at this point, there's nothing you can do about it. Just embrace what you've said and own it. I'm happy for people to own up to their shortcomings.”

Related: Southern Charm: Shep Shares How Austen 'Broke My F---ing Heart' as Olivia Clears Up Dating Timeline (Exclusive)

Shep Rose

As one of the only original cast members left standing, Rose sought to make amends with his longtime friends Conover and Kroll in season 10 after adjusting his drinking habits that caused the schism with them. Rose continues to avoid hard liquor, “but I can get caught up in the shot game,” he admits.

Attending an Ayahuasca retreat in Costa Rica in January helped Rose reset.

“I feel like after 45 years I should know something a little more concrete, but I was never going to do life traditionally or any way that society might assume that I was going to,” the Average Expectations author says. “I'm going to continue to celebrate the luck that I have and try to honor it the best I can. I'm going to continue to try to do the things that make me happy and keep me out of trouble a little bit, whether it be athletics, fishing, surfing, hiking. These are the things that I think I'm going to focus on and we'll see.”

While Rose continues to embrace the ride of reality TV, he does confess that one scene from the past 10 seasons makes him cringe.

“The stupid yelling match I got in with Taylor over an egg toss,” Rose says of the season 8 moment. “That was a tough season in general because the honeymoon was over, so people were pulling at strings. But it’s okay. That's another big takeaway for the past year: reinvent yourself and always be self-examining. That's the only real-life work is to analyze yourself and try to fine-tune and course-correct. Like out on the ocean, the wind changes. You got to change the sails.”

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Southern Charm premieres Thursday, Dec. 5, at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.