Paige DeSorbo of ‘Summer House’ Got Valuable Financial Advice From Andy Cohen
Paige DeSorbo is ready for her post-Bravo era.
Earlier this year, the Summer House alum announced she was leaving the reality series to focus on her new fashion brand, Daphne. It was a big leap, but one that was a long time coming, she told TZR in a new interview.
Paige DeSorbo always new she wanted to launch her own business
Paige joined Summer House with the idea that she would use it as a platform to bigger and better things, she said.
“Behind the scenes, from the day I got on, I knew I wanted to put out some type of product,” the 33-year-old explained. “Cultivating my brand throughout these seven years was not as easy as it looked, because it could have gone really left really quickly if I didn’t jump on it. When I first started seeing our episodes [with the reaction] being like, ‘You’re just so lazy,’ I was devastated. I was like, ‘Oh my God. Everyone thinks I’m stupid? That I don’t know how to do anything?’ I truly was so upset about it. I feel like if I didn’t immediately lean in and act on it, I could have not been taken seriously at all.”
While being on TV can give someone a great platform from which to launch their business, it also comes with certain challenges. Specifically, there’s the so-called “Bethenny Clause,” which allows Bravo to take a cut of profits from businesses launched in connection with the show. (RHONY star Bethenny Frankel famously struck this clause from her contract, allowing her to keep all her profits from the Skinnygirl brand, giving the clause its name.)
“Contracts are so intense and so scary…Everyone has the Bethenny Clause [in their contract]. It’s kind of like when you think of a prenup — you’re doing it preemptively to protect what you have,” DeSorbo said. “But Bravo is also not a bitter jealous ex trying to be like, ‘Well, actually, bitch’…So no, it wasn’t a factor…In terms of Daphne, I don’t think they have any claim. Now, if I become a billionaire…”
‘Summer House’ alum reveals the advice she got from Andy Cohen
A career in reality TV is not always a guarantee of long-term financial success. (Just ask Kate Gosselin from Jon & Kate Plus 8, who went back to work as a nurse after her TLC show ended, or fellow Bravo personality Brandi Glanville, who’s burned through her savings fighting a mysterious medical malady.) But Paige says she got some good advice from Andy Cohen about managing her money early on in her Summer House days.
“I’ve always heard Andy be very like, ‘You should have things outside of Bravo…In earlier seasons, he’d be like, ‘You’re saving your money, right? And you’re making good financial decisions and you’re building things outside of it?’” she said. “It would be like seeing your dad and him being like, ‘And let me see your report card.’”
As for whether she’d ever return to TV, Paige says it’s not likely in the near future. But she’s not writing off the possibility entirely.
“There will always be reality TV, if there really is a time in my life where I’m like, ‘What about waking up with cameras again?’” she said. “I don’t see it for right now, but you have no idea what life is going to be.”
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