Paige DeSorbo is still figuring out what to do with herself during the summer.
The 33-year-old had spent the last six years on Bravo’s “Summer House,” where she partied in the Hamptons and (more preferably) rotted in bed while gossiping with her best friends, including Hannah Berner and Ciara Miller. Although DeSorbo left the reality series in 2025 after seven seasons, she admits it took some time to adjust to life without the cameras capturing her every move, thought and outfit on the weekends.
“Last summer came at me too fast. I was like, ‘Wait, what do people do in the summer?’” DeSorbo says in late July, punctuating the thought with her signature giggle. “I’ve relaxed. I think everyone needs a break from being perceived.”
She does miss one aspect of being on “Summer House,” she says. “I would justify all my purchases because I had to film. I need this outfit. Now when I’m shopping, I’m like, ‘Well I don’t need an arrival outfit for Friday afternoon.’ So that part is a little bit sad,” she says with a laugh.
But DeSorbo actually does have plenty of reasons to rationalize a new look or two. After leaving the show, her career is reaching new heights. Last year, she and Berner took their popular podcast “Giggly Squad” on a nationwide tour, twice selling out Radio City Music Hall as thousands of women gathered to hear their takes on dating, anxiety and pop culture. They just signed a massive podcast deal with SiriusXM that’s reportedly worth $150 million. The duo also wrote the New York Times best-selling book “How to Giggle: A Guide to Taking Life Less Seriously.” And DeSorbo and Berner are developing their own Netflix comedy series, about 30somethings living in New York, which Amy Poehler is executive producing.
While on the road, DeSorbo launched a loungewear line called Daphne (named after her beloved cat), and then hosted red carpets for Vanity Fair’s Oscar party and the Actor Awards. She’s also dabbled in acting, starring in a Super Bowl commercial for Kinder Bueno and appearing on Mindy Kaling’s Hulu comedy “Not Suitable for Work.” Along the way, DeSorbo has become a role model for millennial women, and is receiving the Courage Award, presented by Purina, at Variety’s Power of Women event.
“When I’m going through something and I feel an overwhelming sense of ‘This would help more people than not by saying it,’ it feels comfortable for me because I’m talking to my best friend on Giggly Squad,” DeSorbo says. “We always refer to Giggly Squad as our personal journals that millions of people happen to listen to.”
DeSorbo has shared so much of her personal life on television, on her podcast and online that strangers feel like they know her in real life, and she gets it. As a longtime “Giggly Squad” listener myself, I tell her I felt bad arranging our interview in person — we’re meeting in a conference room at her agency WME — because I know DeSorbo would rather not leave her apartment. She lets out a cackle before turning stone-faced: “You’re spot on.”
On “Giggly Squad,” which she and Berner launched during the pandemic in 2020, DeSorbo is refreshingly candid about everything, and fans of the podcast (who DeSorbo and Berner have dubbed the Gigglers) find her relatable because seemingly no topic is off limits. Like, seriously: She recently went into vivid detail about her family vacation in Italy, where DeSorbo tragically spent most of the trip in the bathroom with a violent stomach bug.
“I’d like to say I put more thought into what I’m going to share or not, but I really don’t,” she says. There’s one exception: “With my family members or dating, I don’t share as much because there’s other people involved.”
That new reticence signifies a change from when she was paid to share her life on TV. Six months before her “Summer House” exit, DeSorbo went through a high-profile breakup in 2024 with fellow Bravo star Craig Conover of “Southern Charm.” So she’s purposely offering fewer details about her current relationship, though on the podcast she started hinting about her new man, Joe D’Amelio.
“When you’re on reality TV, it’s kind of your job to say everything that you’re thinking. Now if it doesn’t come up naturally, I’m not going to force it,” DeSorbo says with a shrug. “I’m not boasting about my relationship, because it is pretty much like everyone else’s. I’m kind of, like, ‘Who cares?’”
She alludes to the petty drama she used to deal with on “Summer House.” “I haven’t been at a dinner where someone has asked ‘Do you even trust him?’ So that’s been kind of nice.”
Having cultivated the “Giggly Squad” audience over six years, DeSorbo has become more comfortable opening up about weightier topics, like having panic attacks and taking beta blockers for anxiety. Recently, she’s been outspoken about her experience in a physically and mentally abusive relationship more than a decade ago, when she was in college.
For years, she says, she “didn’t talk about it ever, to anyone, except maybe a couple close friends and then family” out of embarrassment. “I felt like ‘How could I let this happen to me?’ I didn’t want them to think less of me,” she recalls. “I thought that way for the rest of my 20s, and I just really never brought it up.”
Eventually, in her early 30s, and after years of therapy, she felt she was “doing a disservice” by not sharing her experience with her young female fans. DeSorbo hopes that speaking up will encourage other women to leave if they are in a difficult situation.
“I think my ‘character’ on ‘Summer House’ was strong and confident, and the No. 1 thing about domestic violence is it can truly happen to anyone,” she says. “I felt like I was a good example of, ‘She doesn’t take shit from anyone she’s dating.’ I felt almost a little fraudulent not saying that I had been through this, because it shaped a lot of how I did date in my later 20s.”
For her advocacy efforts, DeSorbo will be honored by the Purina Purple Leash Project, a charity that helps create pet-friendly shelters for survivors of domestic abuse. Studies show that roughly half of survivors will delay leaving their abusers if they can’t take their animals with them, yet only 20% of domestic violence shelters accept pets.
“Paige’s willingness to share her story is a powerful act of courage that can help others who have experienced or are experiencing abuse feel less alone,” said Nina Leigh Krueger, CEO of Purina. “The love Paige shares with her cat, Daphne, is also a meaningful reminder of the healing comfort and connection pets bring to those recovering from trauma. We’re proud to honor Paige as we work to create a world where abuse survivors and their pets can find safety together along every step of their journeys.”
DeSorbo, who adopted Daphne in summer 2024, believes pets can help in any healing process. “There’s no other time than a situation like domestic violence where you need someone to have your back,” she says. “And I feel like a pet having a pet with you could make a difference.”
DeSorbo sees value in putting a voice to all kinds of anxieties that women face in their 20s and 30s. She and Berner are candid about not feeling the need to rush into marriage and pregnancy — not wanting to put their careers on hold to have kids just because they’re a certain age.
“I’m lucky, because I don’t have parents who pressure me into getting married and having a child. I don’t even think about society pressuring me. I really only think about my own eggs pressuring me, and I froze them, so they’re fine,” DeSorbo says. “So until I wake up one morning and I’m like, ‘Today would be better if I had a baby’… I have not woken up yet and had that thought.”
All of these musings are fodder for DeSorbo and Berner’s upcoming Netflix series. DeSorbo and Berner came up with the idea for their Netflix series while on tour, and two years later have finally started writing the show, in which they would play fictionalized versions of themselves. DeSorbo teases they’re inspired by “feel-good” and “easy-to-watch” sitcoms like “New Girl” and “Broad City.”
“We want it to feel like us,” she says. “There’s definitely a millennial feel to the show.”
DeSorbo hopes to keep acting and isn’t opposed to returning to reality TV — “Never say never,” she teases — but would prefer to be a host rather than a contestant.
“I don’t see myself competing in some type of challenge where you have to run, get a flag or figure out a puzzle,” she says. “I’m 33. If there’s a situation where I’m uncomfortable and I can’t have my phone, I’m not going.”
And when she does have kids, DeSorbo says she’s prepared for them eventually to watch her on “Summer House.”
“The No. 1 thing people would say to me, as an insult, was, ‘If you have kids, will you show them “Summer House?” I used to get a little embarrassed, like, ‘Oh God, what would I say to my teenage daughter?’”
She no longer feels that way. Obviously, she’s not dying for them to witness all the drinking and hookups. But DeSorbo hopes her kids will recognize the way she’s stood up for herself and other women.
“If she sees it, I’m going to be so proud,” DeSorbo says. “I’m going to tell her exactly which man did what, who to avoid, and why that behavior is unacceptable. It’s going to be a whole TED talk in my home.”