Studying Time: 3 minutes
Craig Conover opened up like by no means earlier than on this week’s episode of Southern Attraction.
Throughout a candid dialog with very shut pal Austen Kroll, this solid member delved into Austen’s earlier claims that Craig had cleaned up his act a lot whereas courting then-girlfriend Paige DeSorbo… that it induced a rift of their high quality time collectively.
“Austen, listen, you’re one of my best friends,” Conover defined.
“I was never trying to do stuff to better myself to get away from other people. I didn’t ever know that it would change the level of our friendship. I want to get back to a place of love.”
Craig Conover attends the 2024 Individuals’s Selection Nation Awards at Grand Ole Opry Home on September 26, 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photograph by Terry Wyatt/Getty Photos)
Kroll took it from there.
“If I’m being honest, I feel like where all the disconnect has come is you’ve created this wonderful image of yourself and you’re terrified of disappointing someone or something,” he advised Conover.
“Now, in order to maintain this, you’re saying, ‘I need to sit at my house and not see me with a beer in my hand,’ or something.”
After Kroll advised his pal to “loosen” up a bit, Craig ultimately advised Kroll he’d quietly been struggling behind closed doorways.
Craig Conover attends the Cracker Barrel Cheese seventieth Anniversary Occasion on September 25, 2024 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Photos for Cracker Barrel Cheese)
“I can’t because I don’t have any leash on myself,” Conover confessed. “That’s any addict. I used to be like, ‘F-ck, me trying not to be an alcoholic is now affecting my friendship with Austen.’ And that’s the place I used to be coming from. Like, I’ve tears in my eyes as a result of it’s actual.
“I used to be within the trenches on my own attempting to raised my life and then you definitely had been like, ‘Oh, you’re by no means with me anymore.’
“I’m like, ‘Dude, I can’t. I gotta stay home on my couch, because if I leave my couch, I’m gonna drink a bottle of Jäger and do dumb sh-t.”
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA: On this picture launched on June 5, Craig Conover attends the 2022 MTV Film and TV Awards: UNSCRIPTED at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California and broadcast on June 5, 2022. (Photograph by Wealthy Polk/Getty Photos for MTV)
This dialog marked the primary time Craig used the phrase “addict” along with his pal.
“I’m really lucky, dude. I’m lucky I got out of it,” Conover mentioned of his consuming and what may have transpired if he stored taking place that harmful path.
The sincere alternate proved to be a breakthrough for the pair after their falling out… with Kroll saying he cautiously optimistic about the way forward for their relationship.
“Craig’s addiction doesn’t excuse him from being an a–hole, Craig’s addiction doesn’t excuse him from being an angry f–king person,” Austen mentioned in a confessional.
“But it is the starting point and it definitely is not what I expected him to say. And I have to give him grace for being, finally, as open and vulnerable with me as he is right now.”
Craig Conover attends the Sports activities Illustrated Tremendous Bowl Occasion at Century Metropolis Park on February 12, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photograph by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Photos)
Conover echoed this sentiment.
“Man, is it freeing to just be transparent,” he mentioned in his personal confessional.
“If we would have just had this conversation sooner, it would have saved us a lot of heartache and grief and frustration.”