The ‘Southern Charm’ star said in the season 10 finale on March 20 that he held off on saying anything about the split because “I didn’t want it to be real”

Southern Charm season 10 came to an end on Thursday, March 20, and so did Craig Conover and Paige DeSorbo’s relationship.

At the end of the season finale, the episode flashed forward to January, when Craig, 36, sat down with castmates Austen Kroll and Shep Rose to talk about his breakup with Paige, 32, after three years together.

“Paige and I had a great Thanksgiving together. Like, everything was normal at her parents’, like our chemistry and like, everything…” Craig began. “Then a couple weeks later she called me and was like, ‘We gotta talk.'”

Austen, 37, asked if that call took place prior to Christmas, and Craig confirmed it did.

“I was like, I can’t believe this is like happening,” Craig continued. “And it was really calm. She’s like, ‘I need to find myself.’ And she’s like, ‘I have to take control of my life again and we need to break up.’”

Craig called it a “bummer” that he couldn’t tell Austen about the split because he worried about it getting out. “I wasn’t going to f—— say anything ’cause I didn’t want it to be real,” he explained.

Paige eventually announced the breakup on her Giggly Squad podcast in late December.

After telling Austen earlier in the March 20 episode that he planned to propose to Paige in 2024, Craig confirmed to Austen and Shep that he bought an engagement ring for the Summer House star.

“She asked me to buy her a ring and like, I did,” Craig said. “I went to New York, designed this whole ring. Before last summer. Then she was like, ‘Actually, hold off.’ Looking back, maybe that was her starting to panic or freak out.”

The Pillow Talk author also revealed that he “offered to move to New York” to be with Paige. “She asked me to raise kids in Manhattan and she’s like, ‘You will resent me forever if you have to live this life in New York,’’ Craig continued.

But for Craig, making the sacrifice to leave Charleston, S.C. for Paige felt like the right choice for what he considered a “rare” love.

“We were best friends, we loved each other, we had a great sex life, we just checked so many boxes that you’re like, where the f— am I going to find … how are we giving this up?” Craig wondered. “It’s weird to mourn someone that’s still alive.”

Paige spoke about the breakup on the latest episode of Summer House: After Show, saying that she had new perspective on her relationship with Craig since it ended.

“I think I loved him so much that I tolerated too much,” she told costars Amanda Batula and Ciara Miller. “And now that I’m out of it and I look back on things, I’m like, ‘Oh wait, any time I had like, a career milestone, he found a way to like make it about him.’ “

The podcast host described the situation as “embarrassing.”

“That’s something that I look back on now, and I’m like, ‘Oh, wow, I really was very blinded,” Paige continued. “I had to like do a lot of damage control.”