Summer House’s Ben Waddell is setting the record straight after Amanda Batula claimed he wanted to have sex with her while she was married to Kyle Cooke.
“There’s no group text, it’s fully untrue,” Ben, 39, wrote via Threads on Monday, June 1, responding to a fan question about Amanda, 34, alleging on season 10 of the Bravo show that he wanted to have sex with her when they were in Italy and “there was an entire text chain about it.”
Ben further explained that Amanda “took it back at the reunion,” referring to her remarks on camera, which he has maintained were totally untrue.
“[She] said she ‘over-exaggerated’ that story. Hope that clears that 🙏🏼,” Ben concluded.
During the Summer House season 10 premiere, which aired in February, Amanda revealed how she first met newbie Ben. She explained that they had mutual friends who got married in Italy in summer 2024.
“We were up. Yeah, we stayed up,” Ben told his new housemates, playing coy about what transpired during his and Amanda’s first encounter. Amanda teased, “It was great.”
West Wilson then asked what everyone in the cast appeared to be wondering: “Did you guys go to an orgy or something?”
Ben and Amanda both made faces, but she later told the cameras, “Ben and I met at my best friend’s wedding in Italy while we were skinny-dipping.”
She explained that Kyle, 43, whom she married in September 2021, was there when the skinny-dipping took place. (Kyle and Amanda announced their divorce in January after four years of marriage.)
“How do I explain this?” Amanda pondered before saying, “We ended up, me, the bride and Ben skinny-dipping in the pool while Kyle was blasting a speaker walking around the outside of the pool. We really got to know each at that point, fully nude.”
Amanda and Ben’s past became an even bigger topic of conversation during episode 6, which aired in March. During the episode, everyone went around the table to say what they loved most about Amanda in honor of her birthday.
Before Ben could answer, newbie Bailey Taylor chimed in, saying, “‘Ben’s going to talk about how he wants to definitely sleep with you.’ Definitely knew he was going to go there.”
Ben denied the allegation but weeks later, Amanda claimed to the cameras that he did want to have sex with her when they were all together in Italy. According to Ben, that is the accusation she will clear up at the reunion.
Before summer came to an end, Ben was officially dating Sabrina Belle, whom he had been causally seeing before he joined the show. Amanda, for her part, confirmed in March that she and costar West, 31, are dating following his 2023 romance with her former BFF Ciara Miller.
Part 2 of the Summer House reunion airs on Bravo Tuesday, June 2, at 8 p.m. ET.
