Olivia Flowers is officially saying goodbye to Southern Charm.

Months after rumors circulated that the reality star wouldn’t be returning to the series for its upcoming tenth season, Flowers confirmed her exit from the Bravo series during an episode of Scheananigans with Scheana Shay that published on Friday, July 12.

“I’m not on this new season,” she told the Vanderpump Rules star. “So I have a lot more free time.”

Flowers, 32, went on to say that her departure “wasn’t my choice,” noting that her relationship with boyfriend of over a year Alex Williams — who lives in Dallas — was one of the reasons cited for her firing.

“I was super bummed,” Flowers said. “I got the call like, a few weeks before filming. The production company was just like, ‘You don’t really seem to be in Charleston that much. We’re noticing on your Instagram you’re in Texas, you’ve got this new boyfriend, and it just seems like you’re choosing a different path.”

That’s not how Flowers saw it. “I don’t think it’s choosing a different path. I’m just kinda living my life,” she said. “My parents had just moved to Texas, and the boyfriend thing just happened very randomly. I’m really glad… like, he was the best part that came out of that year. But had I know it was working against me or making people think I was choosing a different path? I wish there had been more communication there.”

Southern Charm fans first met Flowers in season 8, where she was romanced by Austen Kroll.

The two dated for a little over six months before calling it quits ahead of the season’s reunion. But things between the former couple got messy when Kroll confessed in season 9 that he had locked lips with Flowers’ friend and confidante Taylor Ann Green.

That betrayal wound up ending Flowers’ friendships with both Kroll and Green.

“A lot of different things happened that shifted the dynamic of the group and changed a lot of friendships,” Flowers told PEOPLE of the drama, as the show began airing. “And then the more and more it made its way into our inner circle of friends, the more it had to be addressed. It was definitely a chain link of events that took place.”

Even after apologies were issued at the reunion, Flowers refused to forgive Green. “We both just kind of went our separate ways,” Flowers told PEOPLE in March. “As small as Charleston is, we haven’t run into each other at all yet. We just went to one dinner the other night and kind of bumped in, but I think moved on.”

Kroll and Green’s duplicity was just some of the drama Flowers was dealing with in season 9. While cameras were rolling on the show in February 2023, Flowers’ brother Conner died of a fentanyl overdose in his Charleston, South Carolina residence.

“It certainly made it just that much more challenging to finish it out,” she explained to PEOPLE in October. “But my castmates were all really supportive in their own individual ways and a lot of people stepped up to help me and my family and be there for us.”

Flowers admitted that the support she felt from her castmates made it bearable for her to continue filming. “That was so incredibly appreciated,” she said. “They are why I kept showing up to finish it out. At the end of the day, it’s a job, it’s a commitment, and some days it was incredibly difficult. I had someone like Rod [Razavi] who was able to help me through it.”

All of this strife, Flowers told Shay, is why she hoped to return to Southern Charm for season 10.

“I wanted to have another season to get to be more me,” she said. “Last season was very heavy, and I was honestly just trying to keep my head above water. I was looking forward to having another [season] and getting to be a little bit more myself, show my personality and exploring the new friendships and all that.”

“So yeah, I was super bummed about it,” Flowers continued. “I feel like I really gave everything I could given the circumstance, you know? Charleston wasn’t the happiest place for me at that time. My friend group had completely changed after filming, my house brought back some difficult memories. I wanted to take that beat for filming. Had I known it was working against me or coming across a certain way? … I was just like, ‘What?’ I went from feeling pretty confident and excited for the next [season] to then being… blindsided”

Southern Charm can be streamed on Peacock. Season 10 is expected to premiere later this year.