Shep Rose knew he “finally hit bottom” when he received a call from Andy Cohen following 2023 BravoCon.
“Apparently, there was an internal email from WWHL staff about my antics,” Shep, 46, wrote in his new book, Nothing in Moderation: A Psychedelic Reckoning With Excess. “I agreed with them and expressed remorse.”
Shep admitted that Andy’s call was “funny” to him and wondered how many other Bravo personalities experienced a similar conversation. The Southern Charm star wrote that he answered the phone “sheepishly” as Andy told him that “something needs to change.”
From what Shep recalled, he was “hammered the whole time” he was in Las Vegas for the three-day fan event in November 2023, drinking “Jack Daniels and ginger ale” while playing blackjack. He also “did cocaine on a couple of nights with strangers” from the hotel bar.
Shep claimed in his book — which was released on Tuesday, July 21 — that he had a rather unsavory interaction with a “high-level executive” at the network.
“I totally blew him off,” Shep recalled. “Then realized who he was and clumsily tried to rectify the situation. Big cringe.”
There was also a “screaming match” with Southern Charm costar Craig Conover on the list of Shep’s “Vegas meltdowns.”
“So, I got sent to the principal’s office for a slap on the wrist,” Shep wrote. “But the network’s reaction wasn’t what worried me. I was concerned about myself.”
Shep’s actions at BravoCon 2023 were addressed during the Southern Charm season 9 reunion, which was taped one month after the Vegas trip.
“As I sat there in that dressing room, I realized something had to change,” Shep wrote. “The wild ride that had been my life for 20-plus years was finally catching up to me. What was once amusing was not embarrassing, and I didn’t feel like I was in control.”
He added, “Frankly, I was scared, which was a feeling I’d never felt before.”
This led to Shep’s week-long trip to Costa Rica, where he took ayahuasca on four different nights while on a journey to find “positive change.” The Bravo star’s book is a (quite detailed) reflection on what he experienced while taking the hallucinogenic drug.
Ayahuasca is currently illegal in the United States, but in South American cultures, it is used in spiritual, social or medicinal processes allowing for deep emotional healing and trauma release.
Nothing in Moderation is out now.
