Watching the ups and down with married couple Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula has been a core part of Summer House, with Batula, in particular, becoming a fan favourite cast member, including a lot of excitement about her prioritizing her mental health and starting her own business ventures. While Batula previously stuck to working for Cooke's Loverboy beverage brand, her decision to try to step away from being so tied to her husband resulted in cheers from Summer House viewers.
Additionally, Batula has been particularly open about struggling with her mental health, eventually making the move to seek out a treatment plan. And we've seen Cooke be by her side throughout the process, from the more tense times in their relationship to the happy moments, like this week's episode where Batula has a preview event for her swimwear line.
Watch Summer House Season 9 on Hayu with 1 week free, then $6.99/month
But throughout the nine season of the show, Cooke and Batula have been quite open and honest about their relationship, from navigating their careers to discussions about whether or not they want kids.
"It's obviously a bit of a rollercoaster. We, for better, for worse, we're not good at guarding things or walling things off. What you see is what you get," Cooke told Yahoo Canada in Toronto. "We've had our ups and downs, and they very much played out on national television, which is not easy. ... You go through it, you then get asked about it, and you're [in] confessionals. Then it airs, the internet weighs in, then you do a reunion. And that's a tough pattern to do."
"But in a weird way, I think filming helps us. It's like, if I can't get Amanda to couples therapy, filming is like the next best thing, because you can't brush things under the rug. You can't avoid the awkward or tough to talk about moments, and it's a little therapeutic. ... It almost helps us come to the table and air things out in a way that doesn't naturally happen. We're so different from one another, we're pretty good at like, OK we might have a disagreement without any real resolution, but with filming, it's producers like, 'No, we've got to resolve that.'"
Reflecting on Batula opening up about her mental health on the show, Cooke highlighted that they're really "partners," and he's always looking for ways to help support her.
"I think it was just over a year ago that she kind of told me, 'Hey, I've downloaded an app. I'm kind of trying to learn more about my mental state,'" Cooke shared. "And then she first went on some type of antidepressant and I was just so relieved because. I, quite frankly, through our ups and downs, I never know what's really going on here, and I just give her a ton of love and respect for feeling confident enough to share this."
"I was happy to roll up my sleeves, because part of what she kind of deals with is not only some depression, but some heavy procrastination. So for people that are struggling with mental health, sometimes a huge roadblock is reaching out and finding help. And so I was kind of a relieved that she had this epiphany. ... I wanted to help and make sure she got the right care and all that good stuff. We're married, we're partners, and so in a very productive way, it allowed us to understand ... a little piece of our relationship, and try to find ways to help and improve."
'I think we have a mutual understanding'
For Season 9 of Summer House, the most dramatic moments we've seen with Cooke, so far, have related to an argument with Paige DeSorbo, the "rage texting" incident. It stemmed from Cooke's response to DeSorbo's then-boyfriend, Craig Conover, investing in a rival beverage company, and the rehashing of the Season 5 issues between Cooke and Hannah Berner, DeSorbo's "Giggly Squad" co-host, who said on a podcast she was fired from the show for promoting another seltzer brand and not getting along with Cooke.
"Paige and I had never talked about any of the Hannah stuff, and particularly on the Hannah side of things, there's a kind of a long laundry list of things," Cooke said. "I just was like, if Paige and I are cool, there's no point in going down that road."
"At the end of the day, I was reacting to Hannah doing press interviews, ... and I think that I'm an easier person to take that up with than maybe even addressing it with her best friend and business partner. So it's like, Kyle, for the time being, you're the problem. And I'm like, Oh, I'm just reacting. Sure, I'm an emotional guy, and I let my reactions get the best of me. But ... there's a lot of history there. ... I think we have a mutual understanding and we're close enough as friends, ... we hash it out at the beach so fast. It also kind of reminded me why I felt comfortable venting to her in the first place."
'The Traitors' and bringing Loverboy to Canada
Cooke has also joined the long list of reality TV stars entering the TV competition space, after joining the cast of The Traitors. Comparing Summer House with The Traitors, Cooke highlighted the differences in interest in each participant's personal life makes the experiences particularly unique.
"It's two totally different animals," Cooke said. "[Summer House] is literally all about your personal life and it can not be more the opposite on Traitors."
"It doesn't matter what's going on in your world, once you get to that castle, none of that's relevant, except if you're apparently Tom Sandoval. ... All of the drama has nothing to do with your personal life, which is a very weird dynamic to walk into, because most people are coming from where I'm coming from, where it's like, your life is kind of picked apart or the topic of conversation, or the story arc of a show. ... It's all gameplay. ... It's super intense, but it was a totally different feeling."
But Canadian fans of Cooke will be pleased to know that there's work being done to get Loverboy drinks to Canada, with plans to manufacture the products locally.
In the meantime, Cooke broke down what Canadians need to know about the brand.
"I think of it as [five different] product lines. The hard teas, we're the number 'one better for you' hard tea, so it's all natural and it's zero sugar. So if you want something light, refreshing, ... start with the hard teas," Cooke highlighted. "If you're looking for more flavour, maybe a little more alcohol, little more of a cocktail experience, try the spritz. The Limoncello Spritz is to die for. That's what [the Summer House] cast drinks, you see everybody with a yellow can."
"And then if you're looking for a little more firepower, our cocktails are 12 per cent [alcohol], so they're double the spritz. And it's kind of like a low sugar, but full flavour espresso martini and cosmo. Now, if alcohol isn't for you, that's when we came up with [non-alcoholic]. So we have our original lemon iced tea and peach, ... and now we have Flowerboy, which is a THC social soda. So it's THC plus a bunch of functional ingredients that give you this alcohol-like buzz, without the alcohol."
