Craig Conover addressed his breakup from Paige DeSorbo on Thursday’s episode of “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.”
The “Southern Charm” star said, “I don’t want to be involved,” after Cohen asked if he’d co-sign DeSorbo’s claim that she never cheated on him “emotionally or physically” — rumors she’s been fighting since their split.
“I got broken up with. I’m the ex-boyfriend moving on with my life,” he said, before adding, “I’m sorry that I’m not reading Reddit every day and getting on there and defending her. I never said [she] cheated, so I’m not a part of [that].”
Conover also called DeSorbo’s “Summer House” co-star Amanda Batula “mental” for demanding he speak up and squash the cheating rumors.
He then said that DeSorbo “lied” on her podcast when she said “the breakup was mutual.”
Conover explained, “I didn’t tell her what to say. I got a text from her saying, ‘I’m announcing [the split] on my podcast. And then she said it was mutual, which it wasn’t.”
Still, Conover said he’s “working through” the split. He was “very sad” at first, but surrounded himself with friends and family, who helped get him through the many stages of grief.
“I went through denial, then fixing — or trying to fix it — [being] sad, and then I had anger for a little bit, and now I’m kind of getting excited for the future as much as I can,” he said.
This is the first time Conover, 36, has spoken about the split since DeSorbo, 32, claimed that he publicly lied about their breakup timeline.
The “Summer House” star revealed that she and Conover broke up over Thanksgiving weekend, but she let him pretend they were still dating for a month while he did press for “Southern Charm.”
“Craig then went on and did press for ‘Southern Charm,’ did whatever he needed to do, acting as if we were still together,” she said on “Giggly Squad” on Monday. “And that was fine. I said that he could do that. He was processing in his own way.”
Conover even gushed to Page Six about their future together and how he was “starting to love” spending more time with DeSorbo in New York City during an interview on Dec. 6, 2024.
The Sewing Down South founder later appeared on “WWHL” where he maintained that they were still dating but were “not obsessing over the future.”
“I am happy representing the couple that we are now and just dating a strong, independent, career-driven woman,” he told Cohen on Dec. 12, 2024.
During the same “Giggly Squad” episode, DeSorbo also called out Conover for allegedly refusing to dispel “baseless” rumors that she cheated on him.
“I never, in the three years that I dated my ex-boyfriend, I never physically cheated on him, emotionally cheated on him,” she maintained.
DeSorbo publicly announced their breakup on Dec. 30, 2024 –– around one month after they had called off their three-year relationship.
Prior to Thursday’s “WWHL” appearance, Conover had only briefly spoken out about the split in an Instagram Story and shared that he was “very shocked.”
“This has all been very, very unexpected to say the least. But I guess life has to … I gotta start living again, whatever that looks like, whatever my new normal looks like, I have to start,” he said on Jan. 7.
Conover and DeSorbo’s relationship woes have been playing out on the current season of “Southern Charm.” They’ll also be featured in the upcoming season of “Summer House.”
During Thursday’s episode of “Southern Charm,” Conover claimed that DeSorbo had picked out two possible engagement ring options and that he was going to propose “by the end” of 2024.
Meanwhile, in the trailer for Season 9 of “Summer House,” DeSorbo broke down in tears while thinking about how she and Conover “are gonna break up and everything [she has] will, like, go away.”
“Southern Charm” airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
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