Southern Charm’s Kathryn Dennis Says She Was Forced to Keep Her First Pregnancy a Secret

When Kathryn Dennis found out she was pregnant with her first child, it wasn’t as celebratory an occasion as she’d hoped.

The Southern Charm star says she was separated from her friends and family and was forced to hide her pregnancy by then-boyfriend Thomas Ravenel.

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“I was removed,” Dennis, 26, tells PEOPLE in a wide-ranging interview on April 30, ahead of the season 6 premiere of Southern Charm. “He moved me immediately to a different state, kept my pregnancy a secret until the day I gave birth.”

Dennis welcomed daughter Kensington Calhoun, now 5, in 2014, when she was 22. She says she found out people knew about their baby only when a media outlet reached out to her directly and asked.

“I received a call in the hospital bed,” she says. “And then it was, ‘Okay, now people know.’ It was just very, very odd circumstances.”

Image zoom Kathryn Dennis and Thomas Ravenel Brianna Stello/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

But even after giving birth, Dennis says she never felt supported by Ravenel, 56, which made the adjustment to motherhood that much harder.

“I felt sad and scared and lonely and confused and quarantined and isolated,” she says. “I was just trying to understand what was going on with the other person —feeling actually happy looking at my child while the other person was not necessarily present, even mentally.”

“I’d cry a lot, it was all new,” she adds. “I didn’t have anyone.”

Image zoom Kathryn Dennis with daughter Kensie and son Saint

Dennis and Ravenel also share son Saint, 3.

Three years ago, Dennis lost custody of the children and entered rehab in 2016 after she failed a drug test, testing positive for marijuana.

In 2016, Ravenel was awarded full custody, but Dennis has since earned back 50/50 custody. In October, she filed documents in Charleston seeking to obtain primary custody of the two children after Ravenel was arrested and charged with assault and battery in the second degree.

Ravenel has denied all the allegations through his lawyer.

“My client enjoys a certain degree of fame, which has unfortunately made him a vulnerable target for such claims,” Ravenel’s late attorney, Richard P. Terbrusch, told PEOPLE in a statement. “The person this woman describes is simply not the man that I know. My client is a loving father, successful businessman, and upright member of the community. He is appalled and hurt by these allegations — and is committed to defending his reputation in the appropriate legal forum.”