Claudia Oshry is not impressed with Kyle Cooke’s comments about Craig Conover investing in her and husband Ben Soffer’s drink company, Spritz Society.
Cooke, 41, claimed that Conover, 35, was not honest with him about his partnership with Spritz Society during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live on Thursday, May 23. (Cooke owns his own beverage brand called Loverboy.)
“Look, I wish him the best, but the way he handled it, and we don’t have time to get into it, really rubbed me the wrong way, and I’m just trying to take the high road,” Cooke said. “He has a reputation of lying and he lied to me.”
Claudia, 29, fired back during the Friday, May 24, episode of her and sister Jackie Oshry’s “The Toast” podcast, claiming Cooke left a lot of details out of his story. Spritz Society recently announced that Conover was one of their latest investors.
“I wasn’t going to do an episode on [Watch What Happens Live], but then this morning so many people were sending me like [Cooke] really went in on the aftershow and what he did was lie,” Claudia claimed. “And he didn’t even lie about me. He lied about two people I love very much.”
The social media personality wanted to clear the air and add context about Spritz’s partnership with Conover that Cooke allegedly left out during his interview with Andy Cohen.
“He went on Watch What Happens Live and threw some serious allegations … and I have all the facts and all the dates. I have all the timestamps and I have all the receipts,” she said. “I think that a really huge piece of the context that a lot of people might not have about Loverboy and the show and they’ve said this on the show but you might not have put it together but Loverboy is Kyle’s company and he doesn’t take on investors.”
Claudia shared that her company thrives by utilizing investors and she and her team “believe in compensating talent.” She also shared that the opportunity for Conover to get involved in the team came organically and it all started when she and her husband met Conover at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour last summer. While on a party bus filled with influencers headed to the concert, there were Spritz beverages available to drink.
Claudia shared that Conover was enjoying the drinks but had no idea that she and Soffer owned the brand at the time and didn’t learn that information until after he struck up a friendship with Soffer. When Conover did learn that information, Claudia shared that the Southern Charm star “wanted to get involved.”
“Nobody was thinking about Kyle, nobody thinks about Kyle and Loverboy,” she said on Friday. “Like things can exist, like two people can be successful and there’s one million canned cocktail companies besides us and they’re all bigger than us.”
While Claudia didn’t think that Conover getting involved in the brand was a big deal, she shared that Conover felt the need to tell Cooke beforehand. He also wanted to give Cooke the chance to change his mind about a potential investment.
“Craig took Kyle out to dinner before the announcement — not the day before like a week before it was going to be announced,” Claudia claimed. “Maybe actually more than a week and he said, ‘I would let you know I’m doing this partnership with Ben and ‘The Toast’ girls, but if you will let me invest in Loverboy I won’t do it.’”
Since Cooke doesn’t accept investors, he allegedly turned Conover down. Claudia added that Conover is “really smart” about his money and that’s why he wanted the opportunity to invest in a beverage brand.
“Kyle knew he had first right of refusal and I feel like Craig, really, that’s what a good honest person does,” she said. “And to be called a liar on the show and then completely not include that very vital conversation was dishonest. I don’t like you calling my friend a liar. Craig is a really good person like he’s honest, he loves [girlfriend] Paige [Desorbo.] He’s a hard-working guy.”
Conover has not addressed Cooke’s most recent comments but did speak out about Spritz Society’s competition with Loverboy in an interview with Page Six earlier this month. “I understand why he’s had to work so hard, because the grind in the alcohol business is extreme,” he told the outlet, noting that he “would have loved to invest” in Loverboy but wasn’t given the chance.