A former girlfriend of Thomas Ravenel has told how her brief relationship with the Southern Charm star came to an explosive end in a 'Jekyll and Hyde'-style attack at his Charleston, South Carolina, home last summer.

And, in a bizarre turn of events, she has revealed how the bitter aftermath of that short liaison cast a light on an allegation of rape and in turn inspired a second woman to file a criminal report against 56-year-old Ravenel who is now being investigated for forcible rape in the first degree.

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail TV, Los Angeles native Luzanne Otte, 37, has recounted the disturbing incident and said that there are two very different sides to Ravenel - 'daytime Thomas and evening Thomas'.

Luzanne Otte, 37, has told DailyMail.com about her breakup with Thomas Ravenel, saying there are two very different sides to the Southern Charm star - 'daytime Thomas and evening Thomas'

Otte and Ravenel (pictured together) met last May through Otte's close friend, Southern Charm grand dame, Patricia Altschul

She described how Ravenel had initially seemed a charming and entertaining man with whom she thought she might have a future, until he turned on a dime to reveal a frightening, dark and 'hateful', side.

Southern Charm grand dame, Patricia Altschul with whom she is a close friend, introduced Otte to Ravenel last May.

Speaking from her family home in the Pacific Palisades Otte said: 'Patricia told Thomas that he needed, "a major woman", and she thought that I could partner with Thomas and make a great couple. So she kind of wanted to make that happen - a matchmaker if you will.'

Otte, a Harvard graduate who studied canon law at Notre Dame Law School and now works in the office of the general counsel for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, admitted she had reservations based on what she had seen of Ravenel on screen.

The disgraced politician's volatile relationship and vicious custody battle with Kathryn Dennis, 25, the mother of his two children Kensie, 4, and Saint, 2, has been well rehearsed on the Bravo TV show.

And Ravenel has long appeared to glory in his reputation as a caddish ladies man.

But, Otte said: 'I thought if Patricia saw something in this man it was worth exploring and I should take a pause and consider it.'

They met at a cocktail party at Patricia's house, Otte said. At the time Ravenel had started dating his current girlfriend, Ashely Jacobs.

Otte described how Ravenel had initially seemed a charming and entertaining man with whom she thought she might have a future, until he turned on a dime to reveal a frightening, dark and 'hateful', side

Ravenel's volatile relationship and vicious custody battle with Kathryn Dennis (left, with children Kensie and Saint, and right with Ravenel), 25, the mother of his two children Kensie, 4, and Saint, 2, has been well rehearsed on the Bravo TV show. Otte said that Ravenel would speak about Dennis while at cocktail parties

Otte said, 'He had pursued me in May and I just wasn't interested at the time and Patricia and Thomas both kind of said, "Give it a try".

'I finally broke down and he did this grand gesture and said, "I broke up with Ashley. I really want to date you. I don't want to make the same mistake again" - referencing Kathryn Dennis I guess.'

According to Otte, Ravenel told her he had 'dumped Ashley like garbage'.

Nevertheless his attention charmed her. She admitted: 'The flattery got to me and I went to Santa Barbara [in June] where he was playing polo and we spent a few days together and had a lovely, lovely time.'

It was early days but she was glad to go to Charleston a few weeks later to spend time with Ravenel and see her friend Patricia.

But in Charleston, Otte recalled, Ravenel's behavior was 'vastly different'.

Looking back, Otte said, there were a couple of red flags from the get go. She recalled a cocktail party in which Ravenel started speaking about his ex-lover, Dennis.

According to Otte: 'Kathryn had just gotten out of rehab at the time and was trying to get on the straight and narrow and he seemed almost sadistic by bringing up her failings and weaknesses.

'It was very dark, and it was in the company of three other people, that he said he thought he would be better off if she overdosed.

Otte is a childhood friend of Kim Kardashian. Otte and Kardashian have known each other since they were seven years old and recently snapped photos together at a high school reunion

'I've never heard anyone say that about their worst enemy, much less the mother of their children. I mean aside from the basic human cruelty it was just very disturbing.'

Otte said that Ravenel was 'merciless' in the way he spoke about Dennis.

At that same party, Otte said, Ravenel addressed rumors - of which she was unaware - that he had slept with their former nanny, Dawn Ledwell.

Otte said: 'There were rumors at the time [apparently] that they had had sex and he said that was ridiculous and that she's not somebody that he'd be attracted to and comments like that…

'He was trying to say to the people in the room like, "You've seen her, she's not somebody I've have sex with".

'I mean it's just peculiar to offer that kind of stuff up apropos of nothing. At the time nothing had come out about sexual abuse or rape or anything.'

Today Otte can't help but look back on Ravenel's comments and wonder at his unbidden efforts to dismiss the rumors as nonsense.

Two weeks ago Ledwell filed a police report accusing Ravenel of violently raping her when she worked in his household in January 2015.

But if Otte had been willing to set aside any niggling doubts regarding Ravenel's character her final evening in his house put an end to that tolerance.

She recalled: 'We'd come home from a lovely dinner. It was my last night in Charleston and I was upstairs sorting my stuff and I heard a ruckus downstairs.

'I thought [Thomas] was in some sort of an altercation on the telephone with somebody and sort of peeked out the door and he was coming up the staircase and I realized there was no phone and he was directing that diatribe against me.

Altschul (pictured above with Otte) had told Otte that Ravenel's current girlfriend, Ashley Jacobs had mentioned seeing a photo of Otte with Kim Kardashian on Instagram

'I'd never been spoken to like that, it was just such an incredible turn from where we were ten minutes prior.'

Otte said that Ravenel seemed 'trance-like' as he raged and yelled, and accused her of 'f***ing the neighbor' in an unprovoked rant that made no sense to her at all.

She said: 'I mean it was just outlandish, bizarre. He was in a total trance. He was very looming, he's a big man, he's intimidating and when he wants to intimidate you he knows exactly how to invoke those characteristics.

'He likes to tell people he was a wrestler in college. He got right up to me and it seemed like he wanted to fight me, like physically fight me and it was so outlandish I wanted to laugh but my instinct was… don't laugh at him because he's going to hit you if you do.

'It was like I was in some Kafkaesque nightmare. I had no idea what was happening.'

Otte would not say what happened beyond the verbal assault that night though she is clear she is not alleging any sexual assault.

She said: 'There's really no sense in going beyond the verbal assault. You don't tolerate that kind of behavior and it was just an unbalanced, uncomfortable situation.

On her final night with Ravenel, Otte says the reality star went into a 'trance like' rage and accused her of 'f***ing the neighbor' in a nasty verbal assault. She said that it was then she decided to end the relationship

'You should never fear that you're going to be hit or never fear that something's going to happen.'

She said that she just wanted to 'get out of the house'. Instead she tried to calm Ravenel down. She managed to get downstairs and when she came back up she said he was lying down.

She said: 'He wasn't completely better. He was still acting strange, but he had calmed down almost as quickly as he erupted.'

Otte stayed with Patricia Altschul that night.

She said: 'Something happened that night. It was just that it was Jekyll and Hyde. It was dramatic. It was just a 180 from who you saw during the day.

'It was something I will never forgot because it was as if something possessed his body and he was just in a trance and he couldn't make eye contact.

'It was almost as if the things he was saying to me hew as actually saying to somebody else, in his past. It was just bizarre.'

The next day, she said: 'He didn't seem to remember what he had done but he did apologize. He said, you know, "A woman should never be treated that way". And he was very respectful.'

For Otte, the incident was enough to snuff out any romantic interest but Ravenel's apology and her friendship with Patricia Altschul meant that she wanted to end things amicably.

She thought she had, until four months later when Altschul called her to let her know that Ashley Jacobs, Ravenel's current girlfriend, had mentioned Otte and questioned her motives.

Dawn Ledwell, the former nanny to Thomas Ravenel's two children, has claimed that the Southern Charm star raped her while his infant daughter slept next door

Last Monday Dawn (pictured with her daughter Adara) filed a report with the Charleston Police Department and Ravenel found himself at the center of an investigation for Forcible Rape

Dawn (pictured here with Ravenel and his daughter Kensie) was known to Southern Charm fans as 'Nanny Dawn' on the show

Otte says she has found herself the target of online trolls who have enthusiastically embraced and run with this 'false narrative' in which she is a crazed ex, a stalker and fantasist desperate to be on reality TV.

She said: 'Thomas actually wanted me to be on the show when I was in Charleston and I said, "No'" - that's my worst nightmare!'

Recently, she said, pictures of her alongside Kim Kardashian were cast up as proof of her hunger for fame.

But according to Otte, 'I've known Kimmy since we were seven - we're childhood friends… But Ashley Jacobs and her followers recognized me and perpetuated this narrative that I was now trying to be on Keeping up with the Kardashians. It's just preposterous.'

The pictures, according to Otte, were taken at their high school reunion last month.

Otte says she has no idea where all the venom has come from only that it has reached a stage where the social media buzz has impacted on her real world and left her anxious and fearful.

She has sent a Cease and Desist letter to Ravenel and Jacobs and she has spoken with Los Angeles Police Department following threats to her safety and the publication of her address online.

Last month Otte's story took a further bizarre lurch when, she said, Ravenel's girlfriend Jacobs was taking part in a podcast one morning with a live feed displaying comments from members of the public watching it.

Dawn was inspired to come forward after Ashley Perkins claimed that Ravenel paid her mother Debbie (pictured together) $200,000 to sign an NDA about another alleged assault

Perkins claims that Ravenel sexually assaulted her mother (pictured) after they went on a Tinder date together

Photographs provided to DailyMail.com show Debbie Perkins' marks on her wrist after the date

Perkins has claimed that Ravenel assaulted her mother in the nanny's room of his home

She said, 'I haven't watched it myself but she did a podcast on The Morning Toast and [it turns out] Ashley Perkins was kind of keeping an eye on it.

'People are familiar with my name now if you follow those circles because she accuses me of doing so many things.

'So Ashley Perkins was kind of aware of me and [when the subject came up] she said something to the effect of, "You know why aren't you guys responding to what Thomas did to my mother, or my mother's story? You know, you're still talking about Luzanne, focus on what matters".'

Coincidentally, Otte explained, the feed was being watched by a Fox News reporter who picked up on Perkins's comments and found a story originally posted by FITSNews in which she claimed that Ravenel had raped her mother, Debbie, during a Tinder date in December 2015 and subsequently paid $200,000 on condition that she sign an Non-Disclosure Agreement to silence her.

Two weeks later former nanny Dawn Ledwell, 43, drove from her home near Charlotte, North Carolina, back to Charleston where she lived during her time working for Ravenel and Dennis and filed her report alleging that he violently raped her too.

Otte is very cautious in making any judgment on these allegations.

She said: 'It's a huge leap from him being disrespectful and attacking me to what these women have allegedly endured but certainly, as far as that goes, that he's got a couple of sides to him, that resonated with me, certainly.

Ravenel has consistently and vehemently denied any wrongdoing and all allegations against him

Ravenel, pictured second from left with the Season 5 cast of Southern Charm, declined to comment but a source close to him has told DailyMail TV that he is 'at a loss' as to what is driving his accusers

'Thomas is a lost soul. I've never met anyone like him and that's not a compliment.

'I don't even have the words to describe how hateful he is and how reckless he is. He needs help.'

But everything that she claims to have experienced, as well as the serious nature of the allegations leveled by others, has rendered Otte less circumspect when it comes to her views on Ravenel's continued tenure as part of Bravo's Southern Charm cast.

She said, 'I've been threatened in so many ways. Honestly this process has been so overwhelming.

'I have to say Patricia has been unbelievable (in her support) and I have been struck by so many people's kindness but being put in a position where ho feel like you have to defend yourself and furnish proof that I am who I say I am? That's not right.

'Their perception is that we're engaged in a war but I haven't even entered the battle. I've done nothing and they just keep coming.

'To me I don't see how they can't fire him. It's upsetting to see somebody who's that destructive and reckless. With everything I know I just, I don't want to see him and I'm sure the other ladies don't want to see him either.'

Ravenel has consistently and vehemently denied any wrongdoing and all allegations against him. He declined to comment but a source close to him has told DailyMail TV that he is 'at a loss' as to what is driving his accusers.