Southern Charm star Olivia Flowers has been navigating some very difficult times as of late. Not only is she dealing with the entity known as Austen Kroll and having her embarrassment filmed, but her family also suffered a devastating loss.
On January 30, 2023, Olivia’s brother was found deceased. It was originally assumed Conner Flowers’ battle with Lyme disease contributed to this death. Now his COD has been officially released and Olivia is acknowledging the results. People has the details.
“Holes in the healthcare system”
In a very emotional interview, Olivia opens up about her brother’s passing. Nine months have gone by, but it isn’t getting any easier for his family. Now the cause of Conner’s death has been revealed and they have to relive the hurt. Ultimately he died due to an overdose of fentanyl.
“I wish you could have met him, because he was just the most amazing guy,” Oliva began. “My brother, he was very lively and loved bringing people together; he literally made friends everywhere we’d go. Even when we went on vacation, we’d go down the hotel lobby to get breakfast and he knew everyone by name. He was this 6’5” beautiful guy who had the biggest heart,” she added.
Unfortunately, Conner was dealing with a “longtime battle with Lyme disease” and pain management drove him to addiction. “It’s just heartbreaking. There are these holes in the healthcare system, and my brother fell into one,” Olivia shared.
Conner’s struggle became evident when he was around 15 years old. Oliva said it took years for doctors to discover the root of his issues despite multiple symptoms. She also explained there is no way for physicians to currently test for the “presence of the bacteria that causes Lyme.”
“It’s all in your head …”
“I remember my parents taking him to doctors literally around the world trying to find answers to these symptoms that he talked about to no avail. My parents saw the best of the best clinics, and Conner was just told over and over, ‘It’s all in your head, you’re fine,’” Olivia noted.
For the chronic pain Conner was experiencing, he was prescribed painkillers. He also took meds for associated anxiety. This process led to his addiction. “He started depending, at a very young age, on this prescription medicine to feel normal. And we as a family started to see this toll it took on his body,” Olivia admitted.
But the pain management wasn’t managing, and things got worse. Conner was a former golfer and even had a golfing scholarship, but he eventually had to drop out due to his symptoms. “It just changed him. The symptoms he had from Lyme, they were debilitating,” Olivia remembered.
The journey was long
After eight years, Conner was eventually assigned to a functional medicine physician who didn’t treat his symptoms but rather identified the underlying cause of his problems. However, Lyme had been in his system for so long that it had exacerbated his internal health problems. And the very opioids and Xanax he believed were healing had turned into an addiction.
“Now, not only was he getting treatment for Lyme, but he was also in rehab dealing with getting off this medicine,” Olivia shared. “Nobody wanted to get better more than Conner did.”
She continued, ”It was just such a hard time. We are very, very close as a family. We were all very involved and rallied round him. But for years he was just in and out of rehab, trying so hard to get on the other side of this.”
“He always maintained that he had a problem,” she recalled. “It was never a fight to get him to go to rehab; anytime my parents would get him help, it was because asked for it. He wanted to stop this.”
Conner was invited to appear on Southern Charm
It was the winter of 2021–2022 when Southern Charm’s ninth season began filming. Conner was residing at a wellness facility in Arizona, where he was getting treatment for both his Lyme and his addictions. He had previously been invited to participate in the series alongside his sister but passed because he wanted to focus on his health instead.
“He was in the best shape I’d seen him in years,” Olivia said. “We had all gone up there to spend Christmas with him and he was completely clean. He just looked and felt great. My brother had such a hunger for life and an entrepreneurial spirit. He loved to work. He had huge dreams he wanted to accomplish. And he was talking about his plans to move to Dallas, Texas, where he already had jobs lined up.”
The day everything changed
Then Olivia received the news she never wanted to get. Conner had recently been in Charleston and was supposed to meet up with his sister for dinner. “We were supposed to have dinner together while we were here. I talked to him on the phone that day and we were going to meet at our house in Isle of Palms. But I went there, and it didn’t seem like anyone was home, so I left.”
“My dad called me and said he could see on the cameras in our driveway that there was an ambulance there. And I turned around to get back but by the time I got there, the house was blocked off and nobody was allowed to go in,” Olivia revealed.
“I think I stood there for, it felt like an hour — just asking questions, not getting any answers. And it wasn’t until the coroner pulled up that I put two and two together and realized he was gone.”
Conner died a week before his 33rd birthday.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
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