“Southern Charm” star Thomas Ravenel said Tuesday he will not return to the Bravo reality show for its sixth season after being accused of sexual assault earlier this year.
“I’m not doing the show anymore,” Ravenel wrote on his private Twitter account. “In the contract they have the right to fictionalize your story. They took advantage of me. I decided I’ve got too much to lose and informed them I’m not coming back.”
Bravo declined to comment.
In May, Charleston, S.C., police opened an investigation into the reality star after a woman publicly accused him of sexually assaulting her mother in 2015.
Bravo and the production company behind “Southern Charm,” Haymaker, also opened their own investigation into the allegations, and Ravenel was absent from the show’s reunion episode earlier this year.
“Once all the information is gathered and carefully reviewed, appropriate action will be taken,” the company said at the time.
In a document filed with the Charleston Police Department in May, an unidentified Caucasian woman accused the Bravo reality TV star and former politician of “sex offense/forcible rape” during the second week of January 2015.
All additional information was redacted, but real estate agent and model Ashley Perkins described the alleged assault of her mother in a number of media interviews earlier this year. Perkins said her mother, Debbie Holloway Perkins, met Ravenel on Tinder in October 2015, and was sexually assaulted by Ravenel when they went out on a date a few months later.
Ravenel, a former politician who once ran a failed campaign for the U.S. Senate as an independent, has starred on the Bravo reality series since 2014.