No split news to report. Southern Charm star Craig Conover revealed that he is still dating girlfriend Natalie Hegnauer amid speculation that he was involved with Summer House’s Ciara Miller.
Craig, 32, and Ciara, 25, are set to costar on the upcoming Bravo series Winter House, so fans wondered if something happened between the two during filming after she seemingly flirted with him via Instagram in March.
“Well, there’s a lot that happens in Winter House, but no, I’m still with my girlfriend, Natalie, here in Charleston,” he exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday, April 1.
However, Craig was vaguer when describing what went down on the show, which wrapped earlier this year. “All I can say is that everything that you could have ever dreamed to happen in, like, a show of your favorite people happened. It was really, really fun,” he noted. “We can’t wait to be able to talk about it too. We have a great group chat that we talk [in] every day and it’s fun.”
Us confirmed in February that stars from Southern Charm and Summer House would unite for Winter House, which was shot at a lodge in Stowe, Vermont. Other cast members included Lindsay Hubbard, Paige DeSorbo, Kyle Cooke, Amanda Batula and Austen Kroll, whom Craig teased might find a connection on the series.
Ciara, for her part, showed her support for Craig in March after he started his own law firm. “Who knew my attorney would be SO f—king cute ?!?” she commented on his Instagram post at the time.
While Craig assured Us that he and Natalie are solid, he confessed that they struggled with the distance during filming. “We have traveled apart before. She travels a lot. When we met, she was traveling a lot, and I travel a lot. So we had traveled a lot before. We had fortunately been able to travel the first couple of months of the year together and our few ski trips. And so, we were fine in the beginning,” he recalled. “We were just bummed that we’re going to be away from each other for so long, but then, as it goes on and as you’re doing this fun stuff and you’re seeing other people pair off and do their thing, you do start to miss your partner. So it was more just lonely and you wish they were there to kind of enjoy it.”
Natalie did not get to come see Craig, due to previous commitments and the coronavirus pandemic. “She was on a ski trip in Park City with her friends that she already had planned. It was good timing as in that trip was already planned, but it was bad timing too because who knows, maybe she could have visited. COVID kind of made that tough, though, because we were in our little bubble, but fortunately we made it out of it,” he explained. “It’s nice to share those experiences with your partner. We were fine, fortunately. You’ll see how it unfolds on Winter House, which is good, but yeah, I’m still with Natalie and that wasn’t a concern with me being cast.”
As fans await whatever drama will play out on Winter House, Craig is celebrating the second anniversary of his Sewing Down South company and the announcement of a flagship store in Charleston, South Carolina, which is scheduled to open its doors in May.
“We never dreamt of finding the store we had found now, which is a 2,600-square-foot spot in the heart of King Street. It’s just one of those things that you have to go with your gut. When I launched a company, everyone thought I was crazy. And fortunately, it ended up working out,” he told Us. “My partners were like, ‘You know what, if Craig’s got his heart set on this, let’s do it.’ And I think we can really revamp this new age or this new era of retail, which is the goal.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
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