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- Summer House star Paige DeSorbo broke up with Southern Charm’s Craig Conover in late 2024 after three years of dating
- In a new interview with PEOPLE, the reality star says “people are really get taken back by” her split and that most of the hate comes from “older women”
- “It’s like, ‘How dare she break up with a man who’s over six foot and wants to marry her? Is she crazy?,’” DeSorbo says
It wouldn’t be like Paige DeSorbo to have regrets, but she certainly has no qualms about how her breakup with Craig Conover has played out.
“I wouldn’t have done anything differently,” DeSorobo, 32, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I would have taken the Facebook-over-65 mom hate 10 times over if it meant the same outcome and that I chose myself and what I wanted.”
For more on Paige DeSorbo, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.
The Summer House star announced in late December on her Giggly Squad podcast that she and Conover, 36, broke up after three years together. Now, DeSorbo wants to focus on her career, including the release of her new book with podcast co-host and best friend Hannah Berner, How to Giggle: A Guide to Taking Life Less Seriously.
DeSorbo says she doesn’t really understand why she’s received backlash online for her decision.
“If any 32-year-old man said, ‘You know what? Actually, I’m going to focus on my career for a couple more years,’ the response would be, ‘He’s got a good head on his shoulders. He really knows what he’s doing,’” she theorizes. “But when it’s a woman, they’re like, ‘That’s scary.’”
She’s also found that “people are really get taken back by” her split from the Southern Charm star. “It’s wild,” DeSorbo says. “It’s like, ‘How dare she break up with a man who’s over six foot and wants to marry her? Is she crazy?’ “
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Following the breakup, Conover — who’s since started dating again — revealed that he bought an engagement ring for DeSorbo and he agreed to move from South Carolina to New York City to start a family with her.
The Bravolebrity believes most of the hate regarding her breakup has come from “older women — and I totally get that because they lived in a different time,” she says. “I feel like my mom’s generation is the first generation to be like, ‘Hey, we have thoughts and opinions.’ They paved the way for us to be like, ‘Not only do we have thoughts and opinions, but we’re going to enforce them, and we’re going to do what we want.’ It’s just this trickle-down effect.”
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DeSorbo says the “online hate or discourse” surrounding her breakup has actually given her clarity.
“A lot of the times when people don’t agree with me, that brings me back to center and is like, ‘Okay, well one day my daughter is going to want to do X, Y and Z, and I want her to be able to be not have a second thought about it because it’s like, ‘Oh, well my mom went and did all of that and so I could,’ ” she explains. “She could choose to get married at 25, and have seven kids, and I would be so proud of her, too. I want her to know when she gets to that point, she has a choice in whatever she does.”
The fashion influencer admits she has a timeline of her own when she first started on Summer House. “I was 25 and I said, ‘I’d like to be married and have a baby by 30.’ That’s how I felt at that time,” DeSorbo says. “I had no idea I would fall in love with my career as much as I did.”
Summer House airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
