‘I was gaslit into silence’ – Craig Conover drops bombshell as he reveals engagement ring Paige DeSorbo denied ever existed and says he’s done letting others rewrite his truth after brutal breakup and public humiliation - suong

“You let someone tear your truth apart long enough… and eventually, you stop trying to hold it together.”

After months of keeping quiet, Southern Charm star Craig Conover is finally breaking his silence — and he’s doing it with a vengeance. The 36-year-old reality star shocked fans this week when he appeared on the The Toast podcast, armed not only with emotional clarity, but with irrefutable evidence: a photo of the 4-carat engagement ring he purchased for ex-girlfriend Paige DeSorbo — the same ring she insisted “never existed” on national television.

It was a moment months in the making. Craig, who had long been accused of fabricating or exaggerating the seriousness of his relationship with Paige, reached his breaking point after the Summer House season 9 reunion aired in May. During the taping, Paige, 32, smirked as she dismissed Craig’s claims about the ring, calling the timeline “convenient” and mocking his Watch What Happens Live story about returning the ring during a trip to New York with his alleged new girlfriend.

“[The ring] doesn’t exist,” Paige told host Andy Cohen at the time, rolling her eyes as she added, “It’s crazy.”

To many, it was a throwaway comment — just another moment of reunion snark. But to Craig, it was the final straw.

“I was gaslit into silence,” he confessed during his sit-down with The Toast hosts Jackie and Claudia Oshry. “I kept thinking, ‘It’s not worth it. Let it go. Don’t get messy.’ But when someone rewrites the truth about something that personal? That’s not just shady — it’s cruel.”

And then he pulled out the receipts — literally.

In a podcast moment now going viral, Craig revealed a photo of the engagement ring: a 4-carat elongated cushion-cut diamond set in platinum, with a hidden halo beneath. The image was time-stamped March 11, 2024, and the metadata confirmed it was taken in Charleston, South Carolina.

“I think I did pretty good,” he said softly, showing the ring to Jackie, who audibly gasped.

Fans erupted. Within hours, screenshots of the ring — and Craig’s emotional explanation — began circulating on Bravo fan pages, with many praising him for “reclaiming his truth” after months of public shaming.

“I didn’t want to prove anything to anyone,” Craig added. “But at a certain point, when you’re called a liar enough times — when your integrity is questioned on TV — you start to lose your own grip on what really happened. And I wasn’t going to let that be the last word.”

The episode has reignited debate over who really controlled the narrative in the Paige–Craig breakup. For months, public sentiment leaned toward Paige, who remained calm, poised, and vaguely indifferent during interviews. Meanwhile, Craig was painted as the clingy ex who couldn’t let go — the emotional one, the overinvested one.

But this new revelation paints a different picture: one of a man who planned a proposal, got blindsided by a breakup, and then watched the person he once loved rewrite the story to make him look unstable.

“Returning the ring was one of the weirdest days of my life,” Craig said. “And no — it hasn’t been resold. I’m still figuring out what to do with it.”

When asked if he regrets ever buying the ring, Craig shook his head.

“No. I loved her. I really did. I was all in,” he said. “And I’d rather have that be true, and get my heart broken, than spend my life pretending I didn’t care.”

As for his current relationship status?

“I’m single,” he confirmed. “I dated someone briefly, and she was lovely. But I wasn’t ready. I’m still healing. Still figuring out who I am without the version of my life I thought I’d have.”

Meanwhile, Paige has remained silent amid the firestorm — no response, no statement, no public acknowledgment of the photo Craig shared.

But for Craig, that silence speaks volumes.

“I didn’t do this to get a reaction,” he said. “I did it to finally breathe.”

And now that the truth is out, it’s no longer about the ring — it’s about reclaiming the story that was never hers to tell.