Credit: Bravo
Paige DeSorbo addressed viewers’ negative perceptions about Summer House season seven, her current relationship with Craig Conover, and if she still plans on moving to Charleston in the future.
The star also hinted at Austen Kroll’s antics on the upcoming season of Southern Charm, and she reacted to the accusation that she manipulated the friendship demise of Lindsay Hubbard and Danielle Olivera.
In an interview with ET, Paige addressed fans’ negative reactions to the current season.
“I have been doing this for five years, and I have no idea when we’re filming how it’s gonna be perceived when it airs,” shared the star. “So, it does make me a little sad when viewers are like, ‘Oh this season’s awful!’ I’m like, oh god…”
She went on to say, “I still had a great time, and I still think there so many funny moments this season and so many relationships that have taken turns, and ups and downs, and that’s really what the show was about it’s about a group of friends — and in real life, groups of friends have that.”
Paige shared what she’d like the cameras to capture. “Our lives in the city really are so different, and I wish we showed more of that on Summer House,” she said. “The other girls [Mya Allen and Ciara Miller] are starting a podcast … Kyle and [Amanda Batula] have so many growing pains with Loverboy. I would love their office– also, they have some of the funniest people working in their office — so I think our lives in New York would be a great television show.”
The star addressed the emotional conversation with her boyfriend Craig, where she tearfully suggested her desire not to leave her family in New York – though they originally planned to live in Charleston together at some point in the future.
“My mom was so nervous that I was gonna get so much online hate, because I was crying about leaving my mom and she was like, ‘You don’t live with us.’ Like, ‘You haven’t lived with us for 10 years, don’t worry about it…'” she explained, “and I talked to my parents after and I said, ‘What if I do have to move to Charleston and have children in a different state?’ And my mom said, ‘Do not worry about it. Wherever you go, I will come to you,’ so that made me feel so much better.”
“Craig and I are still together, and we still have the same conversations that we had over the summer, and we have only been dating for a year and a half,” Paige continued. “I am only 30, and I’m just so focused on my career right now — and he is so supportive of that — and so it’s kind of like, when I’m ready, I’ll go on down to the South.”
During the convo, Craig claimed she loves NYC more than she actually loves Craig.
“I definitely don’t love skyscrapers more than my boyfriend,” Paige shared, “but I am very focused on my career, and I do get nervous that if I moved down to Charleston — which is a little bit smaller of a city — that I would lose myself a little, and I don’t want that to happen, and of course he wouldn’t want that to happen, either.”
“They don’t have my facialist down there, what would I do?” the star quipped.
Paige shared that she and her boyfriend “cheat long distance a little bit” because they see each other once a week via plane trips.
“I used to plan so much,” said Paige. “I’ve stepped back from doing that, and kind of taking things a day at a time. You have no idea what can happen tomorrow, so it’s not like we have a set schedule, but of course, being in a relationship, we get closer and closer, and it is harder to be away now for longer.”
Despite their time together, the couple doesn’t often feature their relationship on social media.
“I have never really posted a boyfriend that much on Instagram, because I’ve always seen my Instagram for the girls,” she said. “Craig is FaceTiming on me all day, do I really need to see him on my Instagram, too? Like, you know, enough with him.”
She added, “You also open yourself up to so many opinions and comments, and being on three shows, all the opinions… I know all the comments.”
“I obviously like to make everything a joke, so whenever I see headlines of like, ‘Oh my god, they hate each other. They’re going to break up…’ I always call Craig and say, ‘Did you know we broke up two days ago? Why are you still calling me?'” said the 30-year-old. “It’s funny. It does bring us closer, and it is such a weird world that we’re in. It’s so nice to have someone that totally gets it and doesn’t get annoyed by random headlines we know aren’t true.”
Due to filming conflicts, the couple could not appear on Winter House season three.
“Southern Charm was filming at exactly the same time, and so, we just couldn’t make it work, but I hear — from what I hear from the Summer House cast that has been there — it sounds good,” said Paige. “Look, Austen did enough during Southern Charm filming that I had zero FOMO during Winter House … I was too engulfed in other drama.”
According to reports, Austen created chaos (again) after hooking up with Taylor Ann Green, the ex of his buddy Shep Rose.
“[Austen] loves a love triangle, and we love that for television,” said Paige. “We really do, we love Austen on reality TV. He’s perfect for it, he always gets himself in some sort of mess … I wasn’t aware until we were actually filming and I heard some speculation of it … It’s just so, so nutty. It’s so crazy, but that’s Charleston.”
The star teased she’s “definitely on [Southern Charm] a lot more” than the previous season because Paige is “just naturally down there a lot more.” She also became friends with Olivia Flowers and Madison LeCroy – Austen’s exes.
“I am kind of starting my own social circle in Charleston, and it feels good to know that it’s not all Craig’s friends, that I have some of my own friends, too,” she explained.
Paige eventually denied the accusation that she manipulated the rift between Lindsay and Danielle.
“I honestly think people think I’m a lot smarter than I am, which I love that for me,” said Paige. “I think it’s so insulting to the other girls that like I can manipulate their brain, because — as we know — I don’t do much. Like, I love lying in bed. So if people think I’m that smart at manipulating, I will take it, because the people around me know that I never know what’s going on.”
She also reacted to the claim that she and her friends Amanda and Ciara lie in bed too much – leading to the nickname “bedsore girls.”
“I kind of love that,” she said. “That is kind of accurate. I think I would like to put a spin on it and just be like ‘bed bugs,’ and that’s a podcast that someone should start.”
Paige hinted she wasn’t that surprised by Lindsay and Danielle’s friendship fall.
“[Viewers] only get 45 minutes each Monday; they don’t know the depth of their relationship and of their friendship,” Paige explained. “I think maybe each summer, when a little scuffle has been left out, then yeah, the viewers are like, ‘But we didn’t ever see them fight…’ But because I’ve spent five summers with them now, I’ve seen their relationship at their deepest point. I’ve seen little snafus that don’t make it onto camera, and they were so close — I mean they hung out all the time — so there’s a lot of underlying things that the viewer never got to see that the two of them know about.”
In Paige’s interview, which took place before the reunion, the star hoped Danielle and Lindsay would “get to some type of agreement” at the reunion in order to “move forward.”
“My first two summers after reunions, we were all still friends,” Paige shared. “We would all still go get a drink after, and then the past couple reunions, we all didn’t hang out after. We all didn’t see each other. So, I’m hoping after this reunion, everyone can kind of agree to disagree and then we can go have a cocktail, because we are a group of friends, you know? We’re different from Housewives. We see each other on random days. We’re in multiple group chats with each other, and I think that’s really what the show is about.”
Summer House season seven airs Mondays at 9/8c on Bravo.