Never in the eight-year history of The Real Housewives of Cheshire have we witnessed such a complicated and misconstrued game of he said / she said (well, she said / she said in this case) unfold on our screens.
Frankly, the latest drama rocking the group (although at a juicy boiling point) has left us confused, and fans divided, and a lot of it revolves around one central figure – newbie Paige Chohan.
Those watching series 16 will know that the ongoing beef between team Seema Malhotra (supported by Paige) and frenemy Hanna Kinsella (supported by Rachel Lugo) is sizzling right now and shows no sign of simmering down any time soon – tbf, it was never going to be resolved ahead of an impromptu girls' trip, was it?
In short (because it really is unnecessarily complicated), Hanna and Paige have VERY different memories of their first encounter – with Paige calling Hannah (and Rachel) "frosty" and then accusing Hanna of making up a conversation outside toilets. Throw around choice words hurled in the heat of the moment like "b*tch", "snake" and "liar" and it's clear that neither side of this row is planning on backing down any time soon. Of course, it's the drama we live for every series but, naturally, fans are taking sides and passions are running high on social media.
Allow us to take this opportunity to remind everyone: this is a reality series, produced for our entertainment. These fabulous women film with full crews and producers just metres away – they are hardly wearing body cams 24/7. New additions to the cast – like Paige and Natasha Hamilton – are thrown in time and time again to purposefully shake things up. This happens on every reality show going, so, let's all collectively chill a little here.
After a quick glimpse of the official Instagram account for RHOCheshire – who posted a clip of Hanna and Paige's row on a dodgeball court on their feed – we noticed fans going in hard on Paige in the comments, with many leaping to the defence of full-time cast member, Hanna.
One fan wrote, "Seema and Paige need to leave the show wow what drama queens and nasty. Keep your head high Hanna you’ve done nothing wrong!"
Another commented, "Why is RHOC forcing Paige on us? Getting more air time than the regular 'Housewives'. Not doing her any favours as she is coming across as obnoxious, overbearing, spoilt, and desperate."
Yikes. Interestingly, two of Paige's friends took to the same comment thread to defend their friend, both claiming that they were there when Paige and Hanna met for the first time (at an event off-camera).
One wrote, "I was with my close friends Seema, Khatra and Paige at the Menagerie event 🎉🥂when Seema introduced Paige to Hannah and Rachel. Yes they were both frosty and aloof towards her. But we didn’t let the incident spoil our night and carried on with the fabulous evening and as I was with Paige all evening and went to the toilet together. There certainly was no conversation with Hannah by the toilet if there was, I would have seen it so that’s just a fragmented made up lie!!!
"Paige is a fantastic girl and I hate seeing she is being made out to be a liar. The four of us are very close friends and always there for each other. The whole thing needs to be squashed. There are far worse things going on in the world."
Another wrote, "I was with Seema and Paige that night in question when Seema introduced Paige to Hannah and Rachel! And yes Hanna wasn’t warm towards Paige and the only thing that was said by Hannh that night was “Are you Persian?” There was NO other conversations had other than that! NO outside toilet conversations! It’s all a big fat lie!!! Yes Paige is not coming across well as she is been made out to be a liar and she is trying to stand her ground about a situation that never occurred! Emotions run high when lies are being created!"
Neither Paige nor Hanna have publicly addressed the situation following the most recent episode. Saying that, Paige did post a snap of her on holiday in Iceland, captioning it, "It’s all good! 🚁✌️".
A sign that the #dramz has been squashed? Again, probably not before a girl's trip.