Despite ups and downs with his fellow Summer House costar Kyle Cooke, Carl Radke is hopeful that they can stay friends as season 7 starts to air.
“It’s hard to watch back when Kyle has such strong opinions about whether I’m checked out [of our Loverboy business] or [if] my relationship [with fiancée Lindsay Hubbard] changed me ‘cause I don’t think that that’s necessarily the case,” Carl, 38, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, February 8, while promoting the new season of Summer House. “I mean, I’ve spent the last three and a half years giving my all to Kyle and the business. I’m very proud of everything I’ve done, and we’ve worked really, really hard — and that’s what Kyle demands.”
In addition to being housemates on Summer House, Carl and Kyle, 40, also work together at Loverboy, which the Traitors personality owns alongside wife Amanda Batula.
“I get that there [are] ways to be concerned about me and there’s ways to like handle it,” Carl told Us on Wednesday during a joint interview with Lindsay, 36. “Going into the summer, I had my own feelings about where I was at with the business and my career trajectory. And at the end of the day, [thinking] ‘Is this the best thing for me?’ You know, I haven’t had a drink in, at that point, a year and a half, and working at an alcohol brand, it didn’t feel like it aligned authentically for me.”
He added: “So there was a lot of confusion about where I should go moving forward and also [Lindsay and I’s] relationship. … I have a loving partner who wants the best for me and she was very supportive and she was urging me to talk to Kyle about some of my frustrations. And I did.”
Carl — who proposed to the Hubb House founder in August 2022 while filming the Bravo hit — teased to Us that the two Loverboy businessmen discuss their issues on Summer House season 7, which premieres later this month.
“Ultimately, Kyle and I are friends. I want the best for him. I want his success and I want his happiness,” Carl, who is Loverboy’s vice president of sales, said on Wednesday. “But I also had to really look myself in the mirror and kind of decide what’s best for me and what’s best for my career, but most importantly [what I want] is I want to get back to that friendship with Kyle because the business [has] overshadowed that. [Our relationship has] taken a huge backseat and that’s on both sides. It’s not just one or the other.”
Carl further revealed that it’s been “frustrating” to see cracks in their friendship since he’s always been “very supportive” of the Maryland native. “I’ve always been ‘Team Kyle,’ so to hear otherwise, sometimes it’s hard. But I wanna move forward and not necessarily focus too much on the past,” he told Us. “I 100 percent think I can get back to that place with Kyle.”
The Bravo star continued: “Kyle turned 40 this past summer [and] I just turned 38 two weeks ago and we’re both growing up and I’m engaged, he’s married and naturally there’s gonna be some evolution with the friendship. … I wanna find a healthy place for us as friends. I think we’ll find that, but working with your friend — this is a warning and a disclaimer — is really, really hard.”
Carl and Kyle — who launched Loverboy in 2018 — sat down for dinner “the other night,” the Pittsburgh native recalled.
“I love the guy, like, he’s got that charm and he’s got just an energy that people wanna be around him,” Carl gushed. “And I love being around Kyle. I care about him and I love him but it’s been hard. I’m not gonna lie. So we’re gonna navigate it the best we can, and I’m gonna lean on Lindsay more than ever this season just for love and support.”
Summer House premieres on Bravo on Monday, February 13, at 9:00 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
