Summer House’s Carl Radke and Kyle Cooke’s Honest Quotes About Their Friendship After Season 7 Drama, Loverboy Controversy

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Summer House’s Carl Radke and Kyle Cooke’s Honest Quotes About Their Friendship After Season 7 Drama, Loverboy Controversy

Through thick and thin. Summer House’s Carl Radke and Kyle Cooke’s reality TV bromance has been going strong since at least 2016 — but has it always been smooth sailing? Fans met the duo when Summer House premiered in 2017 after filming the prior summer. As two of the original cast members of the Bravo show, the pair have grown both together and apart. They even started working together at Loverboy in 2019 after Kyle founded the business one year prior. Carl was a self-proclaimed “recovering f—kboy” going into season 3 of the show in 2019 after he hooked up with former housemate Lauren Wirkus on seasons 1 and 2. While he had a few more lows along the way — including confronting his complex relationship with alcohol — he found love in the Hamptons as well, proposing to Lindsay Hubbard in August 2022. Kyle, meanwhile, had to face the consequences of cheating on his then-girlfriend, Amanda Batula, during season 3. The couple overcame their issues and tied the knot in September 2021. Through it all, Carl and Kyle remained one of the strongest friendships in the house. In fact, when the Maryland native married Amanda, Carl served as their officiant. The following year, however, Kyle and Carl’s relationship seemingly hit a bump in the road as they began to drift apart following Carl’s romance with Lindsay. [jwplayer 4wUcDU5c-zhNYySv2] Tension appeared to be at an all-time high between the pair while filming season 7 of the reality series in summer 2022. In a January 2023 teaser for the show, Kyle claimed that Carl was “checked out” as the VP of Sales of Loverboy. Carl, meanwhile, alleged in the trailer that everything he was doing for the business was “not good enough” for Kyle. Ahead of the season 7 premiere in February 2023, the Pennsylvania native exclusively told Us Weekly that he was trying to “find a healthy place” with Kyle as friends amid their recent struggles. “I love being around Kyle. I care about him and I love him but it’s been hard. I’m not gonna lie. We’re gonna navigate it the best we can,” the salesman explained, noting that their business relationship had begun to affect their friendship. “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.” That same month, Carl revealed that he was no longer working for Loverboy. "I'm still an investor, I'm very proud of that," he told Entertainment Tonight. “I'm fully supportive of the company.” Summer House airs on Bravo Mondays at 9 p.m. ET. Scroll down to see what both Carl and Kyle have said about their friendship amid their work shakeup and beyond:

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The Blame Game

“He’s checked out. Ever since he’s been dating Lindsay, he’s been doing less,” Kyle claimed in the Summer House season 7 trailer, which dropped in January 2023.

Carl, for his part, argued with Kyle on the beach, saying, “I’ve been working my ass off, and it’s not good enough.”

Elsewhere in the teaser, Kyle told his other housemates, “Carl could you walk away from the company right now and the company won’t feel a f—king thing!”

Credit: Courtesy of Kyle Cooke/Instagram

Kyle Considers Carl His ‘Brother From Another Mother’

The Trinity College-Hartford alum gushed over his longtime friend in January 2023 via Instagram in celebration of his 38th birthday. “Happy birthday 🎉 to my brother from another mother, my best man, and my 6’5” handler👨‍👦,” Kyle wrote alongside a picture of the pair smiling. “We’ve come a long way — looking forward to keeping the wild ride going. Xoxo.”

Credit: Courtesy of Carl Radke/Instagram

Carl Is Still ‘Team Kyle’

“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,” Carl exclusively told Us in February 2023. “I 100 percent think I can get back to that place with Kyle.”

The Bravo personality explained that the pair are “growing up,” noting that Kyle turned 40 in July 2022 while he celebrated his 38th birthday in January 2023.

“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,” Carl added. “I think we’ll find that but working with your friend — this is a warning and a disclaimer — is really, really hard.”

Credit: Courtesy of Carl Radke/Instagram

Finding Their New Normal

“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?’” Carl exclusively told Us in February 2023, pointing out that he spent three and a half years working alongside Kyle and Amanda, who is Loverboy’s creative director. “I’m very proud of everything I’ve done, and we’ve worked really, really hard — and that’s what Kyle demands.”

Now that he’s stepped back from the job, Carl insisted that he and Kyle are finding their way back to having a close relationship.

“Ultimately, Kyle and I are friends. I want the best for him. I want his success and I want his happiness,” the Syracuse University alum revealed. “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.”

Credit: Courtesy of Carl Radke/Instagram

Carl’s New Loverboy Role

"I'm still an investor, I'm very proud of that," the former film producer told Entertainment Tonight in February 2023. "I'm beyond proud of what I've done for that company, but for me day to day-- I'm doing other things now which is great. I'm fully supportive of the company, I still get texts and emails about Loverboy, I pass them to the right person, but I think it was best I moved on."

Carl noted that there might be a “world [where] we can work together in the future,” but for now the pals have decided to focus on their friendship. "Kyle and I just got dinner together the other night, you know? We're friends,” he continued. “It's gonna be hard to relive all of it [on the show] but I think both of us are very supportive of the journey."

Credit: Courtesy of Carl Radke/Instagram

Carl Was Always In Support of Kyle’s ‘Dream’

“My dream was never to build the baddest, coolest alcohol brand," Carl confessed to ET in February 2023. "I wanted to support Kyle's dream. I love the guy to death. I believed in his vision, and I wanted to support that; but it's also now a point where I wanted to maybe reconsider what I'm doing at the business, and you're gonna see a lot how that unfolds. It's hard, because we are friends, but the friend world has gotten very blurred by the professional life."

Credit: Sasha Israel/Bravo (2)

Kyle ‘Hardly Recognizes’ Carl Filming Season 7

During the season 7 Summer House premiere, which aired in February 2023 and filmed in summer 2022, Kyle expressed concern over how much Carl had changed since he started dating Lindsay.

“These are two of my best friends dating, you’d think I’d be jumping up and down,” Kyle confided in housemate Mya Allen. “I thought I was going crazy. The guy just officiated my wedding and I can hardly recognize him.”

The Loverboy founder confessed that his and Carl’s work relationship was “weird too” amid tension over his whirlwind romance. “I’m so scared to death to talk to him. I actually want Carl and Lindsay to be amazing together,” Kyle continued. “I don’t want him to be, like, I don’t support him and Lindsay.”

Kyle later told his wife that he was “stressed out” over his awkward dynamic with Carl, revealing he thought his best friend was ready to quit Loverboy. Carl, meanwhile, told the cameras that he was feeling the pressure of his and Kyle’s work and personal relationship evolving.

“I love Kyle to death, but we work together. We spend a lot of time with each other,” the Pennsylvania native said during a confessional after joking that he wished there were more guys in the house than Kyle to talk with all summer. “And to be honest, lately, it’s been a little rocky. Still trying to figure out, is Loverboy for me. It would be nice to mix it up a little bit.”

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Carl Gave Kyle 'Plenty of Opportunities to Fire Him'

In an exclusive February 2023 interview with Us, Kyle confirmed that his former colleague "resigned in good graces” — but was already on thin ice.

“He gave me plenty of opportunities to fire him,” Kyle told Us, adding that he paid Carl “a full-time salary for an entire year when he spent most of it checked out.” The businessman also noted how he was "disappointed" how "Lindsay and Carl ... [made] our business everybody's business," revealing that he "didn't see that coming." Ultimately, however, Kyle acknowledged that being in an alcohol-fueled atmosphere was not a healthy environment for someone who is trying to remain sober.

Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo

Carl Claimed He Wasn’t ‘Valued’ at Loverboy Before Leaving

“I feel like there’s an elephant in the room,” Kyle told Carl during Summer House season 7, episode 2, which aired in February 2023. “I just want to check in because I can’t put my finger on it, but something’s off.”

The entrepreneur hinted that something had shifted with Carl when it came to working at his company, Loverboy, which Carl eventually acknowledged. “Work wise, it’s just been nuts. I’m burned out. I’m thinking longer term,” the former VP of sales told Kyle during the beach chat, which was filmed in July 2022. “Sometimes I feel like the face of the brand sometimes. [I think], ‘Well, Amanda and Kyle aren’t doing as much as I am publicly sometimes.' It falls on me. I just feel like the effort that I put it and the recognition and the value that I feel like I bring — it’s not maybe seen as much. And it hurts.”

Carl continued: “Some days I’ve been pissed. I’m like, ‘F—k, I’ve been working my ass off and it’s not good enough.’ I don’t feel like I’m valued sometimes.”

Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo

Kyle Alleged Carl Started ‘Doing Less’ When He Began Dating Lindsay

While the longtime friends talked out their issues at the beginning of Summer House season 7, episode 2, tension rose between the pair when Carl left town without giving Kyle and the company fair warning.

“We’ve worked so hard … and then he neglected it for nine months,” Kyle alleged of Carl’s work ethic while talking to his wife during the February 2023 episode. “This is just a small little microcosm of the last nine months. He’s trying to claim he’s working 90 hours a week. Ever since he’s been dating Lindsay, he’s been doing less.”

Kyle’s frustration boiled over when Carl was away in Los Angeles and his work was seemingly put on the backburner. “When I hired him, he was unhireable,” the alcohol brand owner told housemate Mya of Carl during a group dinner. He then claimed that during the early days of Loverboy, “[Carl] showed up to work drunk. He showed up one day so coked out that he didn’t bring his computer to work.”

After pal Danielle Olivera tried to defend Carl, Kyle hit his breaking point, telling her, “I’m getting worked up, you know why? Because if you had any f—king clue what actually goes on Monday through f—king Friday, come talk.” He further claimed that Carl was given the “chance of a f—king lifetime” and that he gave his friend a lot of leeway when other bosses wouldn’t have.

Credit: Courtesy of Kyle Cooke/Instagram

Reuniting Amid the Drama

"Filming can be A LOT. But the actual airing of the footage is what really challenges friendships and relationships," Cooke captioned an Instagram Story selfie of him and Radke in March 2023. "The cast gets to see what they missed while others were filming. Confessionals create an environment where you can speak your mind way more feely in the moment to someone's face. And then social media platforms allow everyone else to weigh in on what they saw in the condensed edit."

He added: "So in a weird way I just wanted you all to know that @carlradke and I are watching this season together as friends and learning a lot about ourselves and one another in the process. We'll be good. I love this guy."

Credit: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

Kyle Was Team Carl and Lindsay During Their Proposal

During season 7, episode 13, which filmed in August 2022 and aired in May 2023, Cooke was a pivotal part of Radke proposing to Hubbard. While their mutual friend Danielle Olivera took issue with the engagement after her own drama with the couple, Cooke chose to help Radke with his special moment.

“Dude, I’m proud of you and I’m excited for you guys,” the entrepreneur told Radke during the episode after he popped the question. “I know we’ve been through a freaking lot this year, but I don’t want you to think for one second that clouds my excitement and my happiness for you. I know you well enough to know that this is the real deal.”

Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock

It’s Been ‘Difficult’ for Carl to Watch Kyle ‘Lash Out’ on Show

“Kyle brings a lot to the table. Energy. Comedic stuff,” Radke revealed during a May 2023 appearance on the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast. “What’s been hard is we have a friendship here. There’s a long history with us.”

The businessman noted that seeing Cooke “lash out” on season 7 of Summer House at both he and Hubbard when they “have looked out for him and really [tried] to protect and look out for his relationship” has been “really difficult to watch.”

However, Radke pointed out that he and Cooke give each other “a lot of grace” in their friendship since they understand how being on reality TV can make things worse. “I hope we can continue to forgive and move on,” he said, adding that his former boss has apologized since they feuded on season 7 of the reality show. “I’m proud that we’ve moved forward a little bit. There’s still more to it for me and our relationship to move forward in a positive way.”