Paige Michalchuk, Degrassi: The Next Generation

Paige Michalchuk (Lauren Collins)

Paige had both male and female love interests during her eight season run on high school drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Male love interests

Paige dated Spinner between the end of Season 2 until the middle of Season 4. She dated Matt between the end of Season 4 until early Season 5, until Matt broke up with her because Paige’s life was too structured and orderly. In Season 6, Paige chose Jesse over former boyfriend Spinner. In Seasons 7 and 8, she dated Griffin, until she moved to LA and effectively left the show.

Female love interests

In Season 5, Paige and recurring/regular character Alex had a story arc in which Alex kissed Paige and sparked confusion about Paige’s sexuality, though they eventually had an official romantic relationship. Though they only started dating in 5×12, they were already broken up by 5×18. From the end of Season 6 through the beginning of Season 7, Paige and Alex had an on-again, off-again relationship, where Alex’s career as stripper caused problems between the two of them. In Season 7, they had a story arc where they ended their relationship for good and Alex left the series. In Season 7, Ellie Nash kissed Paige to prove to a boy that kissing people isn’t a big deal, though Paige did not like the experience.

She returned briefly as a guest character in Season 13 and later appeared in one episode of the continuation series, Degrassi: Next Class, a one episode guest role in episode 500: #ThrowbackThursday.

Appearances:

• 96 episodes. Regular S1-7, Recurring S8, Guest S13, and Next Class S2. She is credited in 143 episodes but only appears in 96

Female love interests:

• Alex Nuñez (Deanna Casaluce, S3-4 recurring, S5-6 main cast, S7 guest 61 episodes)

Relationship story arc with a woman: Yes

Male love interests:

• Griffin (Nathaniel Stephenson, recurring 8 episodes)
• Jesse (Steve Belford, recurring 13 episodes)
• Matt (Christopher Jacot, recurring 6 episodes)
• Spinner (Shane Kippel, main cast S1-10, 141 episodes)
• Jimmy (Aubrey Graham, main cast S1-10, 113 episodes)
• J.T. (Ryan Cooley, main cast S1-7, 86 episodes)

Relationship story arc with a man: Yes

Filter Relationship Arc:

• Female (Regular), Male (Regular)

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.