'Southern Charm': Craig Conover, Austen Kroll tease where their relationships go in 'most interesting season'

Southern Charm has hit a massive milestone with the premiere of Season 10 of the Charleston, South Carolina reality TV show (episodes released Thursdays on Hayu at 10:00 p.m. ET). For Craig Conover, who's been on the show since the beginning, and Austen Kroll, who arrived on Season 4, it's been all about showing their growth throughout the years.

"It's just become my life, ... which has been kind of funny, because you have this big family of everyone that watches, that you share your life with and different chapters, and some are not great, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel," Conover told Yahoo Canada in Toronto. "And just to be able to share the journey with everyone has been really fun. ... In a way people are living parallel with us, which is cool."

"When I came in, ... all of the original players were there for Season 4 and I found it a daunting thing to come in, and really my only connection to the group was Shep, and then it quickly became Craig and so on and so forth," Kroll added. "So to see how it's changed since then, to where it is now, it's been really cool."

"I think it's really kind of interesting how this show, in particular, shows the growth and evolution of 30-, 40-something year olds. ... I just watched my first scene that I did and I'm like a 29-year-old, and I just want to drink."

But when it comes to the tenth season of the show, Conover and Kroll highlight that it's stacked up to be "the most interesting season yet."

Austen Kroll brings girlfriend, Audrey Pratt, to 'Southern Charm'

While Season 9 on Southern Charm was filled with the drama between Kroll, Taylor Ann Green and Shep Rose, Kroll has introduced us to his girlfriend, Audrey Pratt, in Season 10. Kroll says they've been dating for three months when the show starts, and taking the step to share his relationship on the show was something Kroll took seriously.

"I thought that last season for me was going to be kind of a reflective year, ... I'm just going to kind of focus on myself, ... and obviously, everything came out between Taylor and I, and so that's what I had to deal with," Kroll said. "But then I meet somebody, Audrey, and I think that it's been wonderful for me, because she's really been a proponent of my peace, and I think that the older I get just the more important that becomes."

"I think that being on this show for a while, ... my friends and stuff are always very wary of someone new that we begin to talk to, right, ... are they talking to you for the right reasons or are you going to bring them around to filming? Because that is a big step in itself and that was something that I actually talked to her about. ... I was like, is this something that you want to do? Is this something that we want to show? ... Things won't always be peachy keen and you need to make that choice for yourself, just like I did when I came on in Season 4."

'We're just trying our best and we'll see what happens'

On the relationship front, the trailer for Southern Charm Season 10 teases that Conover and Paige DeSorbo seem to still be getting some questions and criticism for their long-distance relationship, with Conover based in Charleston and DeSorbo living in New York.

"We meet a lot of people now that are in similar situations as us, so it's been fun to represent that on television," Conover said. "There's a lot of decisions you have to make constantly on what's more important."

"We've been together for three years, now we have to figure out how to fit into each other's life a little more. So I think when you're not fighting like other people on reality TV, on other shows, people think you don't have your own issues. We do have our own issues, they're just different than other people. We would love to live in the same place, but we live in two separate places. So we're just trying our best and we'll see what happens."

Conover added that while relationships on reality TV frequently don't work out, not following that "playbook" comes with its own criticism.

"It's funny, because the playbook of everyone else on reality TV doesn't seem to work that much, but stepping outside of the box seems to really ruffle a lot of feathers, ... just in general," he said. "I think people forget that we're normal people too."

"We're dating because we like each other and we hope it works out. And so we have to figure out our challenges, just like everyone else. Filming is just a part of that."

'We're trying to find our footing'

As we saw in the Episode 1 of Southern Charm Season 10, the big question is where the relationship between Rose, Conover and Kroll will go, after we ended the last season with a serious conversation about Rose's drinking, in addition to the tension around Kroll's relationship with Rose's ex Green.

"I think realizing that when he was in a relationship with Taylor, he was his happiest, just in my opinion, and so he starts to explore ... trying to find a relationship again," Conover said. "He starts to date someone that doesn't live in Charleston, so we get to have some good conversations about long distance. He gets to learn more about me and Paige's relationship."

"Shep and I had a few things to figure out from last year with Taylor," Kroll added. "What you'll kind of see as the season begins is that we're trying to find our footing and the best path forward."

'It's really fun to invest in your backyard'

In addition to the podcast they host together, "Pillows and Beer," Conover and Kroll are also opening a bar in Charleston, a place that's near and dear to their hearts.

"Opening a bar in Charleston is something that Craig and I have always tossed around the idea of doing," Kroll said. "Craig has his store. ... I don't have a brick and mortar in Charleston, so doing this bar for me was a huge thing."

"Four or five years ago, the spots that we were going to are completely different than the spots that we would go to now. And so that's kind of the thing that we tried to impart on this was, once you've graduated, per se, from those spots that we used to go to, this is the kind of spot that you can go to now."

"It's really fun to invest in your backyard," Conover said. "We have such a love for Charleston and I feel like we mean so much to the city at this point, and Charleston has been in my life since I went to college there."

"The place that we renovated was a very popular bar cut Warehouse ... and so ... we had to handle it with care. We definitely both had memories at the old bar, too. And so I think there's a lot of pressure on us to see how we did it, and we're pretty confident that everyone, locals and visitors alike, will be happy with what we did with it."