When Summer House returns for its milestone tenth season next year, the house will be without one of its signature bed bugs.
Paige DeSorbo announced this week that she’s leaving the Hamptons-set Bravo hit after seven seasons. It wasn’t a shock in that speculation had been mounting that she would exit the house that she had arguably outgrown, but it still felt like a gut punch for a large swath of the Bravo fandom who have grown to leave her quippy, unapologetic presence on the show.
In many ways, Paige and Summer House came into their own in tandem. She joined the series at a major—and as it turned out, pivotal—inflection point alongside Hannah Berner (more on her later) and Jordan Veroi (he’s apparently a ski influencer now who unsurprisingly never made the cut for Winter House), as it underwent a quasi reboot after the Wirkus twins-led cast failed to completely connect with viewers. She was an instant hit, developed an unbreakable bond with Hannah, wound up dabbling in some in-house romance that was never that serious, and naturally sparred with the show’s existing queen, Lindsay Hubbard. A fashionable star was born, and Summer House was suddenly on a much more dynamic and exciting path forward.
Funnily enough, it was the pandemic that took things to the next level for Paige. Bored at home, she and Hannah started going live on Instagram every single night to shoot the shit with fans—and, with that, the “Giggly Squad” was born. Ironically, the name of their hit podcast stems from a comment that Kyle Cooke made about them on the show and, just as that was taking off, Hannah flamed out on Summer House amid a vicious feud with the Loverboy himself.
And, while Hannah’s firing and fall from grace with fans may have spelled trouble for Paige—Was she attaching herself to a sinking ship? Would she survive on the show without the built-in backup of her live-in BFF?—this moment of uncertainty essentially allowed her to Trojan Horse the foundation of the immensely successful career she would go on to build for herself outside of Bravo without anyone really realizing it. In what would turn out to be a crucial move, Hannah and Paige didn’t (couldn’t?) discuss Summer House much on Giggly Squad, which helped to cement the podcast as its own entity that wasn’t beholden to the reality show that made them famous. The relatable duo played to the already-huge audience that found them during the pandemic, carefully built a community around them and ran with it.
Meanwhile, on Bravo, Paige proved that she would be just fine without Hannah by her side. She got even closer to Amanda Batula, and Ciara Miller had joined their bed-obsessed crew during Hannah’s last season. At the same time, the network experimented with a crossover spinoff called Winter House, which is where Paige developed a connection with the people’s prince of Southern Charm, Craig Conover.
The starry duo would go on to date for three years, proving to be greater than the sum of their parts during most of their relationship—in addition to practically being on TV nearly all year by appearing on all three of their shows and thus making themselves unavoidable, Paige was also a clear positive influence on Craig, encouraging him to grow up a bit and focus on expanding his own brand empire as she built hers. In turn, he won more people over, too. Yes, there was the constant question of how they could ever possibly overcome being long distance—with Paige clearly resistant to settling down and moving to Charleston, would Craig really move to New York City?—but it kind of felt like they secretly had it all figured out, and they’d just make it work.
Well, not quite. Paige broke up with Craig at the end of last year after realizing she didn’t picture her future with him anymore. As her career was blowing up, pumping the brakes to start a family seemed increasingly unlikely and unappealing. What unfurled in the months that followed their split was perhaps the ultimate proof of concept for Winter House: By taking a risk and mixing casts from multiple shows, Bravo had successfully bred a long-lasting relationship between fan-favorite stars, which grew interest among viewers across the board. And, in the world of reality TV, while star-crossed lovers make for good business, a breakup is a gold rush.
As Paige more or less rose above the drama that unfolded between the Summer House and Southern Charm casts who went to battle for their own, it started to become evident just how much Paige had potentially outgrown the platform that made her a household name. Instead of going to the usual tabloids and podcasts to do tell-all interviews, she sat for a select few glossy profiles in high-brow publications. She and Hannah wrapped a sold-out podcast tour and released a best-selling book. They co-hosted the red carpet for Vanity Fair’s Oscars after-party. Meanwhile, we’re watching her cry in bed about her anxiety via surveillance cameras? The dissonance was unmistakable.
If Paige didn’t have to pry open her personal life to remain relevant and continue building her career, then why should she?
In a lot of ways, Paige’s decision to leave Summer House at this juncture brought her arc to the perfect end. Despite her attempts to be the bigger person and have a cordial public breakup with Craig, things got messy—and she still came out on top in their war of words without really breaking a sweat. (Plus, imagine if they were still together, and she still had to appear on Charm as his girlfriend, despite leaving Summer House? She needed this clean break.) After years of getting pegged as a “mean girl,” she found common ground with Lindsay, and the former foes cultivated the friendship everyone always wanted them to have. She found lifelong friends in Amanda and Ciara and, of course, Hannah. And, perhaps most notably, Summer House itself has fulfilled the promise of its premise, building a bigger and bigger audience every year, ultimately surpassing Southern Charm in its ability to capture the zeitgeist.
During her seven seasons on Bravo, Paige milked the greatest reality TV platform in the world for all that it’s worth, perhaps better than anyone else ever has—other than, of course, former Real Housewife of New York Bethenny Frankel, who was so adept at this that the network named a contractual clause after her. Both women created brands outside of their respective shows that became so undeniably huge and so popular that they basically had no choice but to leave behind the artform that they’d perfected in order to fully realize them.
But, as everyone knows, Bethenny also eventually returned to RHONY for a legendary second run that many consider to be some of the best seasons of any Bravo show ever. So, here’s to hoping that Paige inevitably does the same. Until then, though, she’ll go on to make the entire world giggle—in clothes she sold them.
Gibson Johns is an award-nominated entertainment journalist, host, podcaster, and reality TV commentator known for his Bravo hot takes, celebrity interviews and prolific tweeting. His work has appeared in Esquire, Men’s Health, Betches, Yahoo! and more. He’s conducted hundreds of interviews with top celebrities like Khloe Kardashian, Matt Damon, Chrissy Teigen, Kate Hudson and Gabrielle Union, as well as interviews with over 80 “Real Housewives.” He’s appeared as a moderator at multiple BravoCons, hosted premiere panels for Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Potomac and Dancing Queens, and been a guest on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy.