Kyle Cooke doesn’t think he was “rage-texting” Paige DeSorbo when he inundated her with messages airing his grievances about her then-boyfriend, Craig Conover, and her best friend, Hannah Berner.
Cooke defended his decision to vent to his “Summer House” co-star during Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” live event — presented by Tri-State Cadillac –with hosts Evan Real and Danny Murphy at Chelsea Table & Stage in New York City on Thursday.
“I think ‘rage-texting’ is a little [bit] of a stretch because I was, like, kind of spitting facts,” he told audience members.
Cooke, 42, acknowledged that the messages he sent DeSorbo, 32, were “not really geared toward her,” but the Loverboy founder was frustrated that Conover, 36, had invested in a competing alcohol brand and that Berner, 33, accused him of getting her axed from “Summer House” after she did an ad for another company.
“I was just like, ‘I can’t believe this. Like, I’m so discouraged,’” he recalled.
During Wednesday’s episode of the Bravo reality show, Cooke and DeSorbo got into a screaming match after she confronted him over the messages, in which he wrote about being “f–king apes–t” over her two closest friends’ actions.
The confrontation became even more heated when Cooke called DeSorbo “two-faced” for saying she did not have a problem with his texts at an event he deejayed just a few days prior.
“To be honest, I was so blindsided by Paige popping off,” he told Page Six at Thursday’s live show. “The only reason I called her two-faced was because I checked in with her at my DJ event. I was like, ‘Hey, I’m sorry.’ I was like, ‘In the moment, I could not believe what I was hearing.’”
Cooke and DeSorbo will continue to hash out their issues in next week’s episode of “Summer House,” but he teased that they were able to repair their friendship.
“Ultimately, sometimes I just gotta blow off some steam, and sometimes she has to blow off some steam, so we’re good,” he told Real and Murphy.
Berner starred on the series from 2019 to 2021 but left after being unable to resolve her beef with Cooke.
At the time, it was unclear what the former co-stars were arguing over, but Berner later claimed their fallout stemmed from her decision to appear in an ad for one of Loverboy’s competitors, Truly Hard Seltzer.
“The truth is beef started ’cause I did an ad for Truly seltzer, and I didn’t know that I, like, wasn’t allowed to,” she said in a July 2024 episode of Barstool Sports’ “BFFs” podcast. “I didn’t know that I wasn’t allowed to drink other drinks.”
Cooke later slammed Berner’s side of the story and insisted to Page Six that he has “nothing to do with casting” and that there was “no truth” to her narrative.
“I’m flattered anyone thinks I could have that kind of pull, but clearly, I don’t have any control over what Bravo does,” he told us at the time, calling the situation “upsetting.”
However, during Thursday’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” event, Cooke said he wants to make amends with Berner — but only if she stops “spewing lies.”
Meanwhile, Cooke’s feud with Conover stems from the “Southern Charm” star’s decision to invest in another one of Loverboy’s competitors, Spritz Society.
In May 2024, Conover told Page Six that he had reached out to Cooke to invest in Loverboy after being approached by Spritz but ultimately went with the latter after seeing both options.
Cooke vehemently denied Conover’s story and accused him of “lying” about the timeline. Instead, Cooke claimed Conover had already made a deal with Spritz when he approached him and was not actually interested in hearing his offer.
Cooke and Conover have yet to resolve their issues, as the former told Real and Murphy on Thursday that the latter has only continued to spread “a bunch of misinformation.”
However, the two will hash out some of their issues on the current season of “Summer House,” which airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo and streams the next day on Peacock.
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