Southern Charm stars Austen Kroll and Patricia Altschul could sense “the writing was on the wall” before Craig Conover and Paige DeSorbo broke up.
“Was I surprised?” Kroll, 37, said during his Thursday, January 30, appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. “I mean, I know it’s, like, a block kind of answer, but the writing was on the wall. I knew something was amiss for a month or so before I heard this news.”
DeSorbo, 32, announced in December 2024 that she and Conover, 35, called it quits after three years of dating. When Altschul, 83, later heard the news, she similarly was not taken aback.
“I thought Paige was mean to Craig,” Altschul claimed to host Andy Cohen on Thursday. “If you think back, Naomie [Olindo] was mean to Craig. I think he deserves somebody who will really love and cherish him because remember he said to her, ‘I want to get married and have kids.’ And she said, ‘Blech.’”
Craig Conover ‘Had Plans to Propose’ Before Paige DeSorbo Breakup
When asked whether DeSorbo was indeed “mean” toward Conover, his friend Kroll played coy.
“I mean, she definitely was the dominant person in their relationship,” Kroll said. “That’s a nice way of putting it.”
Conover dated Southern Charm alum Olindo, 32, from 2014 to 2017, later moving on with Natalie Hegnauer. Following the Sewing Down South founder’s split from Hegnauer in 2021, he started seeing DeSorbo after they met while filming Winter House season 1 later that year.
DeSorbo has not publicly responded to Kroll and Altschul’s accusations, but she previously stressed that the split was amicable. During an episode of her “Giggly Squad” podcast last month, DeSorbo stated that “no one did anything” wrong.
“I think we both were just being really mature and saying what we want and what we didn’t want,” the Summer House star said at the time, stressing that she and Conover would likely be able to stay friends. “I think that’s extremely powerful to be able to voice how you’re feeling in real-time and what you want for your future.”
Paige DeSorbo and Craig Conover’s Relationship Timeline
Weeks later, Conover called the breakup “very unexpected” in a social media video of his own.
“I guess I gotta start living again, whatever that looks like. Whatever my new normal looks like — I have to start,” he said in Instagram Story footage shared on January 7. “‘Gratitude will get you through this, with time comes clarity’ – all of the advice, I’m trying to listen to. “But, yeah. [It happened] right before the holidays. I was very shocked. And it’s OK.”
Conover further noted that “it takes two people to be in a relationship.”
“You can’t control other people, you can only control how you react to it,” he added. “Remember to be kind to Paige and me and yourselves and all of that good stuff. … [It’s] a 3-year relationship, it’s your best friend who you talk to all day every day, and then they’re just gone.”
Us Weekly recently confirmed that Conover now has a profile on celebrity-favorite dating app Raya. Per an insider, his profile noted that he’s “based in Charleston and often visits New York.” Conover maintains a residence in South Carolina but often visited the Big Apple, where DeSorbo lives.
Elsewhere on Thursday’s episode, Kroll said that speculation DeSorbo started dating again was “not a rumor.” She appeared to deny the comment in an Instagram comment on WWHL’s page, writing, “Ahh, yes a man I haven’t spoken to in six months knows exactly what I’m doing.”
