Their relationship has been combustible at the best of times - and now a stunning blonde socialite has been thrown into the mix.

Viewers tuning in to the third season of Southern Charm - which has its premiere on Monday- may have been wondering whether Thomas Ravenel and Kathryn Calhoun Dennis have patched things up for the sake of their two young children - as had been hinted on social media after the pair posted cozy photos over the holidays.

But Daily Mail Online can reveal the 54-year-old millionaire and his 24-year-old ex are once again apart - and Ravenel, meanwhile, has been cozying up to yet another young beauty.

She is 30-year-old Nadia Bakalov, a glamorous Eastern European socialite who agreed to go on a date after the aging playboy wooed her in the self-help section at Barnes & Noble.

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Blossom season: T-Rav and the socialite he met in Barnes & Noble, Nadia Bakalova. A friend says they hope that their friendship will develop

Social life: Thomas Ravenel posted pictures on social media of him partying in his native Charleston with his new friend after their bookshop meeting

Response: T-Rav's partying, however, has prompted an angry response from Dennis, with whom he has two children - the second the product of a 'whirlwind' weekend romance

Selfie time: Friends say T-Rav and Nadia Bakalova are just 'close friends' for now because of their busy schedules - but are hopeful it can blossom into more despite the 24-year age gap.

Ravenel recently whisked Bakalov away to a polo event in West Palm Beach, Florida and the pair have been spotted attending exclusive parties and posing arm in arm in selfies.

Friends say they are just 'close friends' for now because of their busy schedules - but are hopeful it can blossom into more despite the 24-year age gap.

Bakalov's emergence is likely to further inflame Ravenel's already caustic relations with former girlfriend Dennis, who gave birth to their second child, son St. Julien Rembert, last November.

The mismatched couple have formed the central intrigue in Southern Charm, which follows the lives of party-loving southerners who flaunt their pedigrees amid the historic plantations and mansions of Charleston.

Their relationship was still intact after season one, when after a tumultuous summer of on-off 'hooking up' the finale episode ended by fast forwarding eight months to show them together with a newborn daughter Kensington, born in March 2014.

The pair were then filmed that summer of 2014 living together, adjusting to parenthood and planning the christening in season two, which aired in the spring of 2015, but the shaky domestic bliss did not last.

Daily Mail Online revealed last March that they had gone their separate ways after the season finished, and before it aired, and by the beginning of 2015 Ravenel was seeing other people - and posting a suggestive picture of him kissing another woman on Instagram.

But when Ravenel appeared on the Bravo show Watch What Happens Live to promote Season Two, Dennis accompanied him. They were photographed appearing intimate together the next morning - about nine months before the birth of their second child.

But by the time the Season Two reunion aired in early June, fans watched Dennis stand up, point at his face and scream at her baby's father for cheating - yelling 'you f***ed a lesbian'.

So fans of the Bravo show where understandably shocked to hear to pair were expecting a second child - son St. Julien Ravenel - late last year. Both Ravenel and Dennis put it down to a 'whirlwind' weekend romance rather than a reconciliation.

The feuding parents had already been locked in a legal battle over child support and visitation for Kensington - and now that fight is over two children.

A season three teaser reveals them very much at war, with one scene showing Ravenel clambering out of a window to escape his flame-haired ex.

It was filmed last summer as the pair fought over Kensington, were no longer dating and before it became public knowledge that Kathryn was pregnant again.

Back together? This was the scene in New York last March the morning after Ravenel appeared on Watch What Happens Live to promote season two of Southern Charm - roughly nine months before the birth of the second Ravenel-Dennis child, baby boy St. Julien

Tempestuous: The ups and downs of Kathryn Dennis and Thomas Ravenel have gripped Southern Charm viewers. Kathryn shared this photo of herself with her babies' father, in the stripes, just a few weeks after baby St. Julien's birth, hinting the two had rekindled their romance after the second child was born

Hands on dad: Ravenel has posted pictures of himself caring for both Kensington, two, and St. Julien, who was born in November

Online tribute: T-Rav described his babies with Dennis as 'the most precious people in my life' on this post, leading his followers to think the couple might reunite or even marry. That now seems impossible

Polo-loving Ravenel is believed to have met Bakalov after filming had wrapped, so viewers won't get a glimpse of the statuesque beauty, who is of mixed Bulgarian and Macedonian extraction but grew up in Virginia.

However Dennis made her feelings clear after a picture of the lothario and his new love interest emerged on social media just before Valentine's Day.

She tweeted: 'Where are u now that I need ya? And your kids need ya? 'Oh wait. With some hoe [sic] traveling the country. #Asshole.'

The redhead has continued to take thinly-veiled swipes at Ravenel's womanizing on her Instagram account, where she posted none-too-cryptic comments such as 'Remember that time where you confused a life mate for a soul mate?'

A Valentine's Day post featured an array of cute gifts from her two children, captioned: 'Family means nobody gets left behind. -Lilo & Stitch (currently playing and felt appropriate as a caption). I love my valentines.

'This was the best year yet. Why? I was celebrating TRUE love!!!! Love my babies!!!!!'

Also proud: Kathryn Calhoun Dennis, T-Rav's former 30-year-younger lover with whom he has two children, has also posted proud pictures including with the baby

Growing up: The young mother has posted pictures of Kensington , now two. The former couple are at odds over support

Split before: This picture, revealed exclusively just over a year ago by Daily Mail Online, showed T-Rav locking lips with a mystery woman after Kensington's birth 'when I was no longer with Kathryn'. But he and Dennis later had their second child together

Dennis's Valentine's swipes came after she and Ravenel spent much of the holiday season together - seemingly having reconciled once again after their son's birth. But that was long gone be February.

Bakalov's social media account, meanwhile, reveals her champagne lifestyle - with photos of her sunbathing on yachts, enjoying luxurious breaks in Dubai and showing off her Mercedes sedan and Christian Louboutin shoes.

The Coastal Carolina University graduate lives between Washington, D.C. and the South Carolina vacation spot of Myrtle Beach, where she works in real estate.

She also spends much of her time in Charleston and is believed to have known other members of the Southern Charm cast before she first bumped into Ravenel at a Barnes & Noble earlier this year.

'Nadia was in the self-help section,' a source told Daily Mail Online. 'She's recently been through a tough break up herself so she was looking at a few books about positive thinking.

'Thomas came over, they struck up conversation and swapped numbers. They met for drinks but it wasn't anything too fancy, Thomas has a reputation for yachts and champagne but he can do low-key occasionally.

'Since then they've been on a number of dates and attended a polo tournament. It's too soon to call them boyfriend and girlfriend, but they have enjoyed their time together.

'Nadia's attitude towards Kathryn is one of ambivalence. She's never met her, she doesn't particularly want to meet her and she doesn't care what she thinks.

'She respects the fact he has children and cares deeply about them, but as far as she is concerned Kathryn is just Thomas's ex.'

Ravenel - nicknamed T-Rav by Southern Charm's viewers - is the son of former congressman Arthur Ravenel Jr.

He lives between a large home in downtown Charleston and a sprawling plantation estate in Edisto Island, about 40 miles from Charleston.

High-life: T-Rav boasts on social media of his love for yachting

Rider: The millionaire also enjoys polo and has taken his new friend, Nadia Bakalov, to see him play in Florida

In control: Ravenel enjoys getting behind the wheel of boats and sharing images of himself doing so

Home sweet home: Ravenel's plantation house in Edisto Island. He moves between it and his downtown Charleston residence

Dennis, meanwhile, divides her time between her parents' home and friends' houses in the city. Much of the second series of the reality show focused on Ravenel's attempt to win the Senate seat for South Carolina.

He ran against Lindsay Graham but finished a distant third. The Senate bid was an attempt to re-start his political career following his spectacular fall from favor in 2007 when – as State Treasurer – he was arrested on drugs offences and later jailed for 10 months.

A court heard he began taking drugs aged 18 and was seen using cocaine at numerous parties held in the Charleston area.

One of his sisters called him 'the golden boy that so suddenly fell from grace'.

Dennis has political connections of her own and is a direct descendant of the seventh vice president, John C. Calhoun.

She has served as a page for John Land in the South Carolina Senate and has been a model since the age of 14 but went almost straight to the maternity ward after graduating from the University of South Carolina.

Ravenel did not respond to attempts by Daily Mail Online to ask him about Bakalov and he has taken down all pictures of them together from his social media accounts.

Reached by telephone, Bakalov declined to comment, saying: 'I don't want to say anything.'