Ciara Miller is one of Paige DeSorbo’s ride or die friends — and she’s done pretending that Craig Conover was perfect during his and Paige’s relationship.
Ciara, 29, previously revealed that on a scale from 1-10, she was a one when it came to how surprised she was that Paige, 32, and Craig, 36, called it quits in November 2024. The Summer House star exclusively told Us Weekly on Friday, February 14, that her ranking still stands for a variety of reasons.
“I rated that a one because I feel like that’s my best friend. I’ve had a front row seat for three years and I feel like I really know that girl,” Ciara said of Paige, who broke up with Craig over Thanksgiving weekend. “There were just some things where I was like … this isn’t it.”
After Paige confirmed in December 2024 that she and Craig had called it quits after three years of dating, she received backlash for seemingly moving on too quickly to start 2025. Paige was accused of cheating on Craig, which she denied. But Craig’s silence on the topic throughout January raised even more eyebrows. (He later told Andy Cohen in February he didn’t “want to be involved” in that narrative and denied spreading any of those rumors.)
“There’s been a lot of misogyny online especially definitely geared toward Paige and it’s been so crazy,” Ciara told Us, noting that Paige tried to “reiterate” her “boundaries” or “where you stand and it’s somehow, like, still not good enough.”
The model noted, “You’re dating people to figure out if you want to be with them. And ultimately, she didn’t and that’s totally fine.”
Ciara pointed out that before their breakup, Paige really helped transform Craig into the man Southern Charm fans know and love.
“We’re not gonna sit here and act like Craig is just like the ultimate peach,” Ciara quipped. “I’m sorry, but she did a lot of work to get him to this point where he’s at now.”
She continued, “And whether he’ll give her credit or not. The Craig that we know now is not the Craig, you know, that we were dealing with three years ago.”
Since sparking a relationship with Paige in summer 2021, Craig’s Sewing Down South business has expanded, and he’s become more focused on work and he’s stopped partying in Charleston. Prioritizing work — and at the time, Paige — led to friction for Craig and his Southern Charm costars, who felt he was no longer down to hang out unless it was business-related.
Craig, meanwhile, said during a season 10 episode of Southern Charm which aired in January, “That’s what makes me happy now. Working and making money.”
Ciara told Us on Friday that the changes with Craig became more evident when Paige became part of his life. (Craig also stopped drinking hard alcohol amid their relationship.)
“Let’s talk about those two years and even this past year. Like, there are just a lot of things,” Ciara explained, claiming, “I’m not saying that Craig is all bad because he’s not, but I just think like people are, I don’t know, people are quick to jump on Paige and it’s like, ‘Whoa, not too much.’”
After Paige denied in early February that she ever “physically” or “emotionally cheated” on Craig, she made a bombshell claim herself. During the season 9 premiere of Summer House, which premiered on Wednesday, February 12, Paige alleged that she “caught” Craig “texting two bitches in the course of our relationship.”
Craig denied the allegations during an appearance on the Tamron Hall show in a clip obtained by Us on Friday. “I think it was a retaliatory scene,” he said in response, noting, “I’ve never cheated.”
Ciara, for her part, said that it seems that Southern Charm puts Craig in a better light, while she said Summer House holds men and women accountable.
She pointed out that when people say that “Paige is mean to Craig” and his ex-girlfriend Naomie Olindo was “mean to Craig,” it should raise more issues about Craig in her mind. (Craig dated Naomie from 2015 to 2017.)
“Let’s ask ourselves if people are mean to him, why are they mean to him?” Ciara asked. “If that’s your perception of mean, what’s your definition of mean? Like, she’s not kissing the ground that he walks on? She has an opinion about things? She’s steadfast in what she wants for herself and her future and what her future family’s gonna look like?”
The Traitors star noted that Paige’s decision to tell Craig on several occasions that she wasn’t ready for an engagement or to start a family doesn’t mean she should be villainized.
“I’m sorry, but Craig had three years to move to New York and he didn’t. He had three years to buy a ring,” Ciara told Us, revealing, “I don’t really feel like he bought a ring, but like whatever, none of my business.” (Craig claimed in a season 10 Southern Charm preview that aired earlier this month that he bought Paige an engagement after she allegedly asked him.)
Ciara mused, “If he wanted to move to New York, he could have gotten an apartment here.” She explained that Craig can’t say “you were waiting on her and all of these things, but you were also — if you wanted to do them, you would have.”
Looking at how Southern Charm and Summer House has covered Craig and Paige’s relationship and subsequent split, Ciara said it’s obvious how different the Bravo stars are being framed.
“I definitely think the Southern Charm audience and the Summer House audience is completely different,” she shared. “We’re taking the Summer House audience all day long over the, like, super insanely traditional misogynistic fan base [that] I feel like that kind of Southern Charm has. It’s very old school and honestly, I’m from the South. I totally get that, like, mentality.”
Ciara concluded, “But we’re in 2025 and I’ll be damned if I’m an 80-year-old woman sitting on TV and coming after another woman saying that she’s like being mean to someone. Being mean to this man. Like, ‘No, no, no.’ I think we need to ask ourselves different questions.”
