Why 'Southern Charm' 's Thomas Ravenel Is on a 'Quest' for Love Despite Custody Battle with Kathryn Dennis

Southern Charm star Thomas Ravenel teases what's to come with ex Kathryn Dennis' rival Landon Clement — and share the surprise costar who's setting him up on a date

Thomas Ravenel has been a bachelor all of his 54 years, but he says he’s still hoping to find The One — and maybe even have more kids.

The Southern Charm star remains embroiled in a fierce custody battle with his costar ex Kathryn Dennis over their two children (daughter Kensie, 3, and son Saint, 18 months), but he says the new season is focused on his search for a partner in life.

“I’m taking a hard look at Landon,” he tells PEOPLE of Dennis’ rival on the show, Landon Clements. Ravenel was seen taking a stroll with the thirtysomething aspiring entrepreneur in the season 4 premiere, though considering how much conflict his controversial relationship with Dennis caused over the course of the series, he does admit he has concerns that Clements is “so concerned about what other people think.” (For her part, Dennis recently told PEOPLE she thinks Ravenel and Clements are “both so ridiculous that I think that perhaps they kind of deserve each other.”)

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Ravenel maintains that the decision to end his roller coaster relationship with Dennis, who is three decades younger and completed a stint in rehab before filming began on season 4, “was a children-first decision — I might have hung in there. We had some good times, but there was also so much negativity that was very unhealthy for the children. We had to put the children first.”

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Now, as he looks ahead the confirmed bachelor has not only himself but his two kids to keep in mind as he searches for a woman to woo — and perhaps even wed.

“I want a woman who feels privileged to be with me because they know me and they know my character and they know that I tell the truth and I’m honest,” he shares.

“In this quest, given my checkered past, I think it’s going to take a special woman who’s going to be able to accept that,” he adds, “and I think I deserve no less.”

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And Ravenel is finding matchmaking help from a surprising source: Southern Charm grande dame Patricia Altschul.

“I’ve been up and down the Eastern seaboard, now I’m going up and down the Western seaboard,” he says. “I’ve been playing polo in the desert of Indio, which is next to Palm Springs. Next I’m going to Santa Barbara, and Patricia’s going to introduce me to some woman who went to Harvard. She said, ‘She’s 35,’ and then followed up with the question, ‘Is that too old for you?’ I’m like, ‘No!’ ”

Ravenel has happily embraced his playboy persona and doesn’t discriminate when it comes to the age of his girlfriends (though he does acknowledge that lifestyle and generational differences factored into his rocky relationship with Dennis). Though he did find himself in a rather precarious situation lately when he learned that one of the women he was chatting up was a little younger than he would have guessed.

“In one case, I was actually talking to a girl who was one-third my age. She was 18!” he says. “I was like, ‘This is ridiculous. … Oh my God, I can’t do this now.’ She was one-third my age!”

“I have decided and I have concluded that for Thomas to find the right woman for me, I need to constantly put myself in a position to meet the right kind of woman,” he says. “And it’s not going to be hanging out receiving bottle service at [a club.”

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So he’s taking walks with his women now, including Clements, in hopes of really getting to know them because he can now see that “the problem there was, with Kathryn — it’s like a friend of mine in the Hamptons said, ‘Hey, you’ve known the girl three months and a day, and she’s been pregnant three months.’ I didn’t really get a chance to know her. It was too late, she was already pregnant.”

He adds with a laugh, “I know now that I’m not going to get anyone pregnant, probably ever — unless they want to.”

So, indeed, Kensie and Saint could have some siblings on the way if Ravenel is successful in his quest to find “a solid woman … someone that has a good heart, puts off a positive vibe, positive energy. I think that’s healthy for me and for the environment in which my kids are going to be raised.”

Southern Charm airs Mondays (9 p.m. ET) on Bravo.