It turns out that Austen Kroll was attempting some very subtle “flirting” with Molly O’Connell on the Southern Charm cast trip to Mexico.
While pretty much everyone else was focused on the romantic tension building between Austen and Salley Carson during Season 11, Episode 12, nobody seemed to notice that he actually had his sights set on Molly, following his breakup with Audrey Pratt.
“I tried to dip my toe in the water, and, like, flirt with Molly a little bit,” Austen admitted on the Southern Charm After Show, referring to the group’s dinner outing to Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s former home in Puerto Vallarta.
When Rodrigo Reyes asked him to spill the tea on what he said to Molly, Austen vaguely explained how he had engaged in “just, like, small talk,” but was “only talking to her.” He added, “It was, like, my first attempt at, like, flirting with somebody post [split].”
RELATED: Austen Kroll Reveals the Real Reason He Broke up With Audrey Pratt (EXCLUSIVE)
By Austen’s account, his flirtations with Molly were “just very playfully funny,” because he “didn’t want it to go anywhere.” His goal in pulling out “the old playbook,” he said, was more or less to prove to himself that he still had some game, and to see how it felt to play the field again.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this feels terrible. Women hate me,” Austen joked, ultimately concluding that “Molly was so unaware, or, you know, just not interested.”
Molly O’Connell responded to Austen Kroll’s flirting confession
Indeed, Molly admitted elsewhere on the After Show that she had been as in the dark as everyone else about Austen’s attempts at flirting with her.
“Apparently, he hit on me in Mexico,” she said. ” I, I guess, am oblivious to that kind of stuff. I think I just feel like oh, I’m gross. Or like, oh, there’s no way he’s hitting on me. He must just be being funny.”
Molly added that she actually found out about Austen’s intentions from castmate Shep Rose.
RELATED: Molly O’Connell Reveals She Has a Boyfriend — and Shep Rose Has Thoughts (EXCLUSIVE)
“Shep came to me and was like, ‘So, Austen said that he hit on you, and you just completely stonewalled him,'” she recalled. “And I was like, ‘When?’ Like, I can’t even rack my brain … to, like, remember what he said that was flirty, because I think I just, like, blow it off as, like, just being funny.”
After acknowledging that she perhaps needs to explore a “deeper issue” with self-esteem, she continued, “So, I had no idea. I was like, oh s–t, well, I didn’t mean to be, like, rude and like, ‘Oh shut up, Austen,’ when he was apparently hitting on me. So, I don’t even remember what he said.”
Salley, meanwhile, jogged Molly’s memory, reminding her that Austen was talking about her “booty” at one point on the trip.
“Yeah, and he said, like, ‘She has curves in all the right places,'” Molly recalled. “And I’m like, ‘Hype me up, Austen.'”
Inside Austen Kroll and Molly O’Connell’s dynamic in Mexico
Viewers of Southern Charm‘s Feb. 18 episode might be similarly confused by Austen’s comments about flirting with Molly in Mexico, as they appeared to have little on-camera interaction.
In fact, at the very same dinner where he claimed to be flirting with her, Molly had very publicly called out Austen and Salley’s budding love connection.
“Can y’all just make out already?” she eventually declared at the table. “Just make out!”
As Molly pointed out in a confessional, “Salley and I are very different in our approach towards men. Salley puts on this, oh, let me bat my eyes at you. ‘Oh my gosh, you’re so hot.’ I’m, like, a man-repeller. I’m, like, gonna do all the weird s–t, and if you still like me, then, hey, that’s awesome.”
As the cast trip continues on Southern Charm Season 11, get a sneak peek at how Austen and Salley’s romance heats up during their Mexican getaway.
