Thomas Ravenel’s real life is interfering with his storyline on “Southern Charm.”
Thomas Ravenel ’s real life is interfering with his storyline on “Southern Charm.”
After two women accused Ravenel, 55, of sexual assault, Bravo announced Ravenel would not appear at the show’s Season 5 reunion earlier this month and claims against him would be investigated by Haymaker, the production company behind “Southern Charm.”
“Haymaker… and Bravo take allegations like these very seriously,” the network said at the time. “Haymaker is conducting an investigation, and once all the information is gathered and carefully reviewed, appropriate action will be taken.”
In May, Ashley Perkins accused Ravenel, a politician and former South Carolina state treasurer, of sexually assaulting her mother, Debbie, in 2015. Shortly after, a woman named Dawn (who asked Page Six not to use her last name) who worked as a nanny for Ravenel’s children filed a police report charging him with forcible rape after a 2015 incident.
But both women told Page Six that neither Haymaker nor Bravo have contacted them about an investigation, while a source close to the network said Haymaker and Bravo have to refrain from their investigation until the police investigation into Ravenel has concluded.
Haymaker did not return requests for comment ahead of publication.
Ashley Perkins first decided to tweet about mother Debbie Holloway Perkins’ alleged sexual assault at the hands of Ravenel after she saw a “Southern Charm” preview and witnessed how “unbothered” Ravenel appeared.
“That really enraged me,” Ashley told Page Six via phone, so she posted — and later deleted — a tweet that accused Ravenel of sexually assaulting her mother and paying her off in a $200,000 settlement.
According to Ashley, Debbie and Ravenel’s story began when they matched on Tinder in October 2015. While Debbie did not watch “Southern Charm” or recognize Ravenel, Ashley immediately did. Despite initially thinking the account was fake, Ashley said Ravenel ultimately asked Debbie out “a couple of times between October and December.”
Debbie finally agreed to meet Ravenel on Christmas Day as they were “boycotting” the holiday that year, said Ashley. “He was supposed to pick her up and they were going to go to downtown Charleston and try to find a place that was open for dinner and some drinks, that was the plan,” Ashley said. “He showed up almost an hour earlier than he was supposed to.”
He allegedly left a voicemail at that time, which Ashley posted to her blog. She did not accompany her mom on the date and did not witness the alleged assault, but she told us what her mother told her. Debbie could not comment herself because she signed a confidentiality agreement.
“He comes to pick her up … once she gets in the car with him, he changes the plan to, ‘Now I wanna show you the renovations on my house downtown.’ And my mom was working in real estate at the time, so she was in the car with him, so she was like, ‘Yeah, that’s fine. Let’s take a look and then go out afterward.’ So he took her to his house and my mom said it was very clinical. He was not flirty at all. He ends up giving her a tour of his home.”
According to Ashley, Ravenel poured wine for himself and Debbie as they continued the tour of his property, making their way to a guest house where Ravenel’s nanny stayed.
Ravenel pointed out a bathroom near the nanny’s room where he claimed he caught ex-girlfriend, mother of his two children and “Southern Charm” co-star Kathryn Dennis “hooking up with a guy,” said Ashley.
Ashley claims that her mother said Ravenel then seemed like he “went into a trance” before allegedly assaulting her.
“He ends up pushing her onto the nanny’s bed. He gets on top of her and he held her wrist with one hand — that’s how she got her wrist injuries — he pushes at her shirt and her bra. At one point he pulls his pants down and puts his penis in her face,” said Ashley.
“He also put his hands in her pants and he penetrated her vaginally and anally,” she added.
“She’s trying to get him off saying, ‘Stop. Stop. Stop.’ When he had his penis in her face, she randomly screamed to him, ‘You’re a rapist!’ And she said once she called him a rapist, [it] was like dumping cold water on him. He just like froze, got off of her and was done.”
Ashley claims that Debbie returned to the main house to gather her belongings. She said that Ravenel threw a wine glass at Debbie’s things and told her, “You need to get yourself an Uber.” But Debbie had no account, so Ravenel drove her home.
Ashley says she met her mother upon her arrival home. When they arrived outside, Ravenel allegedly told Ashley, “Hey, I’m going to this party at the Tides. See if you can get a group of your hot young girlfriends to come join us.”
In response, she said, she had “some choice words for him.”
After returning from her evening with Ravenel, Debbie was in a “quiet and withdrawn state,” Ashley told us, but eventually told her daughter about the alleged assault.
The next day, they researched Ravenel and Debbie decided she did not want to press charges. Ashley says she encouraged her to take photos in case she changed her mind, which she eventually did.
Ashley said Debbie contacted an attorney friend who discouraged her from taking Ravenel to court. Instead, Ashley said, her mom made a “throwaway Twitter account” to contact Dennis and “sent her the wrist pictures.” Nothing came of the interaction, and on New Year’s Eve, Ashley says Debbie decided to contact women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred.
Ashley claims that Allred had her mom meet an attorney in Columbia, S. C., to discuss the case, and Allred was not present for the meeting.
After the meeting, said Ashley, Debbie decided to move forward with a settlement conference in June 2016. She met with her lawyers at the Belmont Charleston Hotel while Ravenel was in New York City with his attorney and conferenced in for the discussion. Ashley said she was also present, but was not asked to sign any agreement barring her from discussing what happened at the conference. “
That was a mess-up on somebody’s part,” she told us.
“One of the pieces of evidence that they thought they had was my mom had posted a ‘Throwback Thursday’ picture on Facebook that was like 10 years old of the two of us at a concert and they pulled that out and tried to prove that my mom didn’t have PTSD.
