Who Is Whitney Sudler-Smith? Learn More About the Southern Charm Creator
There's a lot to know about Patricia Altschul's only son.
Of all the cast members on Southern Charm, there’s probably the most mystery around Patricia Altschul’s son, Whitney Sudler-Smith.
“He’s very private,” Patricia revealed of her son at BravoCon in 2022. “He likes to come on and make snarky comments and then leave,” she noted. “He likes to kind of stir the pot and then stand back.”
And it looks like Whitney’s snark streak is still going strong.
Still, there are a lot of interesting things to know about Whitney, who actually created Southern Charm. Read on to learn more.
What does Whitney Sudler-Smith do for work?
Whitney is the Creator and Executive Producer of Southern Charm. He also served as an executive producer on the show’s spin-offs, Southern Charm Savannah and Southern Charm New Orleans.
"It was kind of a weird pipe dream and it's kind of ballooned into this monster," he told The Daily Dish in 2018. "But I think we're all pleased. It's really a great show."
Whitney has many other creative endeavors, as he shared with The Daily Dish. "I am hardworking, No. 1. I have a production company [with] various shows in development or producing," he said. "I've been playing in rock bands throughout my whole life, and I can shred heavy metal guitar, and I used to be in bands. And I had long hair and played in a lot of heavy metal bands. I play guitar every day. I'll say it's my hobby now, but I'm addicted to guitar, and I play at least an hour a day. And I'm classically trained."
Whitney spends much of his time on the West Coast as part of his career. “I pursued screenwriting in the '90s to various degrees of success and then got into directing. Once I kind of laid roots here [in Los Angeles], I kind of never left. You have your ups and downs in any kind of career but especially in a film career. In the past 10, 12 years, it kind of picked back up — getting a production company together. We're doing a lot of other stuff. I have an office I got to from time-to-time. It's busy here, for sure."
Whitney Sudler-Smith's Relationship with His mother, Patricia Altschul
“Whitney and I are very close,” Patricia once told The Daily Dish in an interview (which you can watch at the top of this post). “He’s my only child, and I’m sure I’ve spoiled him, but I don’t care. He’s turned out, for me, to be kind, loving… He literally has always worked.”
Who is Whitney Sudler-Smith’s father?
Though Southern Charm fans know Whitney’s mother very well, there’s more mystery around his father, Patricia’s ex-husband Lon Smith. In 2019, Whitney shared a rare photo of his father to his Instagram from an outing to a Vikings game.
"My Dad and I catching a Vikings game before they bionically reattach my arm at the Mayo Clinic. Good times!" Whitney wrote at the time.
Sadly, Whitney’s father passed away after a short battle with leukemia, and Whitney spoke about the loss in a July 2022 episode of Southern Charm. “It’s been a sh-tty year. Michael [Kelcourse is] not here since the stroke. And then my father… unexpectedly losing Dad was a real horror show,” Whitney said. “It was a terrible summer.”
During an interview in the episode, Patricia opened up more about her relationship with Lon. “Whitney’s father and I, we were married for 15 years. We got divorced because he needed a corporate wife doing parties for clients, and I was selling paintings to museums and traveling. But we were always friendly. I adored him. He was a great father to Whitney,” she said. “He was a fabulous man. He was so attractive in every way.”
Whitney Sudler-Smith's Relationships with Other Cast Members
Whitney has been linked to a few of his fellow Southern Charm-ers over the years.
Early on in the series, it was revealed that he'd hooked up with Kathryn Dennis. "It was more than what was talked about. As in, it wasn't like a one-night mistake, like he said," Kathryn told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in 2016. "But we were, like, basically together, dating, whatever you want to call it, for about a week-and-a-half, two weeks. But I was staying with him."
He was also briefly linked to Naomie Olindo in Season 8. Naomie first opened up about her connection with Whitney during the August 18, 2022 episode, revealing they had hooked up following the dog wedding. Later in the season, Whitney called Naomie a “naked shoulder to cry on.”
How old is Whitney Sudler-Smith?
In June 2022, Patricia revealed a fun and surprising fact about her son on Instagram: He was “born on the same day and year” as Andy Cohen: June 2, 1968.
