Bravo’s Paige DeSorbo and Craig Conover broke up. Now therapists are hearing about it in client sessions.

Big news broke in the Bravo-sphere when Paige DeSorbo of Summer House officially announced the end of her three-year relationship with Southern Charm’s Craig Conover. Group chats exploded with grieving fans and theories about what went wrong, while Jon Hamm called it the “end of an era” during his appearance on CNN's "New Year's Eve Live" broadcast. The separation has had such a profound impact on fans that some therapists are reporting that clients are coming to sessions prepared to discuss the end of Paige and Craig.

“I’ve had probably six sessions since it happened,” said therapist Emma Mahony in a video posted to her Instagram on Jan. 2, just three days after DeSorbo announced their parting during an episode of her podcast Giggly Squad. “In half of them, [the break up] has come up.”

Paige and Craig are no Brangelina or Ben and Jen (parts one and two), so what makes their breakup resonate? Part of it has to do with the parasocial relationship that fans have had with the reality TV stars, both during their relationship and long before they got together, according to Mandy Heisler, a Baltimore-based therapist and Bravo fan. Conover, 35, has been on people’s screens since 2014 and DeSorbo, 32, since 2019. They were each in different casts up until filming the debut season of Winter House in February 2021, when their close friendship began to blossom. After going public as a couple in October 2021, the pair started navigating a long-distance relationship between Charlestown, S.C., and New York City. Their falling in love, then settling into togetherness all, and the ups and downs that come with all of that played out on TV in both Southern Charm and Summer House.

“Fans and viewers followed their love story closely, witnessing the ways they showed up for each other despite significant challenges,” Heisler tells Yahoo Life. “This transparency created a deep sense of connection for many women who may have viewed them as ‘couple goals’ or recognized elements of their own experiences in Paige and Craig's journey.”

“Everyone was rooting for them,” Andy Cohen said on his SiriusXM show, Radio Andy, following the split. But Mahony tells Yahoo Life that the dissolution of the relationship and how DeSorbo talked about it on the podcast made an impact beyond just their Bravo fan base.

What DeSorbo said

DeSorbo provided insight into the breakup on the Dec. 30 episode of her podcast, chatting with her co-host, Hannah Berner (a former Summer House cast member), about what she had learned about herself from the relationship and what led to its end.

“I started dating Craig when I was 29 and I’m 32 now. And your 30s for women, I feel like, really are very transformative and you change a lot and you grow a lot. And him as well,” said DeSorbo, noting that Conover, 35, played a major role in her growth over the three years. “He’s definitely like the best boyfriend I’ve ever had. Like I could truly say that. He was a great boyfriend and he did everything correct and never made me feel insecure or anything like that. And so, it almost is harder when no one’s done anything to be mad about.”

There was no “Scandoval” situation and no wrongdoing, she said. Just two people who decided that they wanted different things for themselves. The self-confidence that DeSorbo has found at 32 was also a factor. “I just felt so myself this year. I loved throwing myself into work, I loved doing everything I was doing. … I just felt very me,” she said. However, age hasn’t worked entirely in her favor.

“One of the things that I get most insecure about is [that] I am 32, so a lot of the rhetoric online and directed at me is, ‘You’re 32, like, shouldn’t you pack it in and get married?’” she said. “You can be 32 and decide to change the entire course of your life. You don’t have to get married and have a baby because you think you have to. Just because you’re in your 30s doesn’t mean you’re running out of time.”

It’s that part in particular that spoke to so many women, says Mahony.

Why it’s resonating

People are getting married later in life than they used to and finding more fulfillment from their careers and close friends than from marriage. However, the average age of marriage for women in America is 28 years old, which continues to contribute to societal pressure.

Mahony, who works primarily with women between the ages of 25 to 35, says many of her clients face an onslaught of questions about marriage and family plans once they’re in a relationship. Reluctance to take the next step, even in a relationship that appears to be perfect, is more common — it’s just rarely discussed publicly, rather saved for private chats with people like Mahony.

“There’s an area of feeling like you don’t have permission to say, ‘I don’t know if I feel like this amazing partner I have is the one. He’s really great and I think the world of him, but something in me just doesn’t feel right,’” says Mahony. “These are battles that women are going through in their relationships, especially as they approach certain ages, but they’re only talking about it with their therapist because it feels too heavy. And there’s a lot of guilt in having these feelings because it’s pretty hard to find a great guy.”

Some have the expectation that people will disapprove of their decision to start over after a certain age. “Women I work with will do a lot to make [a relationship] work even if it’s not necessarily feeling right,” says Mahony. “They don’t necessarily yet feel like they have the permission to walk away from something unless they feel fully wronged or unless there’s a big smoking gun.”

In doing so, DeSorbo is showing other women that it can be done and that it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. “She demonstrates that success, independence and personal fulfillment can coexist without needing to conform to traditional expectations,” says Heisler. “This can feel empowering and validating to women, especially in their 20s and 30s, who feel stuck in the wrong relationship or pressured to conform.”

DeSorbo’s experience is reaching people far beyond her demographic, according to the comments on Mahony’s video. “Not only for younger women, this is helping those of us a bit older too. Wonderful example of healthy but difficult decisions,” one person wrote. Another said, “I’m almost 50 and I totally agree. It’s nice to see Paige normalizing this breakup. There’s nothing wrong with it and people should not even have to explain their breakups to others unless they want to. Your internal happiness and feeling at peace should be a priority.”

Mahony wasn’t expecting that response to her post, but she isn’t surprised. “It doesn’t have to be a failure of a relationship if at some point in time you say, ‘This isn’t serving us anymore and we’re not living in alignment of how we want to continue living our life.’ And that could be after three months of dating, that could be after six years, 20 years, 40 years of being with someone,” she says.

It turns out that reality television can be as revelatory as it is entertaining. “Watching someone navigate challenges or share their story can inspire others to evaluate their own lives and feel less alone,” says Heisler.