This has been a significant year for Lexi Wood. Not only did the model become a full-fledged reality star, but she has also been at the center of much of the drama during her freshman year on Summer House. Now, she’s opening up like never before about her ill-fated relationship with Jesse Solomon and the dynamics in the house.
As fans know, Lexi, 27, quickly took a liking to Jesse, 31, and the feeling seemed to be mutual. However, as the weeks progressed, she learned that his affirming actions toward her weren’t really what they seemed.
Lexi recently sat down for an in-depth interview on The Viall Files with Nick Viall. One of the first notable topics that came up was when Nick asked about Lexi’s relationship with Jesse and if she ever wondered when he pursued her. Regarding this, Lexi said, “Well, it’s funny. In hindsight, I feel like there’s definitely things that he said all the time. Like, he would say to me, ‘Oh, West got so famous from f**king over Ciara.”
She continued explaining by saying, “And I’d be like, hmm, hmm. But I really thought it was more of like a venting session that he was just like venting to me. Or like, he would say a lot of things about West.” She was then asked if she thought Jesse was jealous of West Wilson, to which she said, “Yes. But also at the end of the day, I was like, well, there’s no way because he’s doing a million things to show me that like we are in an actual relationship. He’s venting to me all the time about everybody else in the house, or he’s like, he does all these things where I genuinely just thought he was venting.”
She added, “Now, obviously, hindsight, you’re like, oh, okay, that is, that actually is weird to say. I almost feel like he did want to be, I mean, he even said in a podcast, he’s like, the hate helps my algorithm, so keep going. Like, he loves this. So I’m like, okay, this, I think especially after him saying that, I’m like, you knew what you were doing.”
They continued this line of questioning for a while, and the Summer House newbie was then asked if she considered Jesse to be “calculating.” She said, “Yeah, so for example, in the summer, he would say to me, ‘Oh, everybody’s talking about you, whatever, but that’s so good because you’re getting so much airtime. Like last year, my first season, nobody even cared about me.’ And so there were just these like little things that he would say, or he’d say like, don’t trust this person, or, and it, in the moment, to me.” She went on to reveal that Jesse told her not to trust anyone in the house.
The topic of them waiting to sleep together came up, and the co-host asked if Lexi felt Jesse said the things she wanted to hear in order to have sex with her. She replied, “Yeah. I think now watching it back, it’s funny because I didn’t know, I would say 98 percent of the things that I’m watching. I’m watching and I’m like, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa.’ I would have never dated somebody like that.”
She went on, “I would have never, there’s so many things that, that’s just not boyfriend material to me.” They also got into more of the specifics of the way Jesse treated Lexi. Specifically, she said, “I said it to him multiple times. I was like, ‘Look, I feel like you’re isolating me. I feel like you’re manipulating me. I feel like I’m being gaslit all over the place. I don’t feel like this is fair. I can’t, like you’re saying one thing, doing another.’”
Lexi continued, “You’re two different people on and off camera. He like needed to hang out with me nonstop. It was on and off camera. It was just like, it was consuming.” The hosts then asked if she felt like this was done in a “possessive way” and she said, “I felt like a possession, yes. Like I felt like if I didn’t fall in line with what he needed from me, then something would happen where now watching back, he would end up just talking shit behind my back.”
They later asked what she was most shocked to learn and she named the toe sucking incident. She says she was out of town because her grandmother was getting cancer treatments, and he would constantly call. She called this a turning point for their relationship.
From there, the topic of Ciara Miller came up, and the hosts asked how she felt about their flirty nature. They specifically mention him lying on her in the pool. According to Lexi, “Yeah, I think Jesse’s inappropriate, and it’s just all bad. Like it’s not fair even from the first episode that I saw him talking about me behind my back being like, ‘oh, her butt, oh this, oh that.’”
She then said, “Like I don’t love that he, I feel like he hypersexualizes every female. Like, to me, and again, that’s not somebody that I would have been in a relationship with. That’s not who he showed up to in front of my face.”
Regarding Ciara, they also talked about her connection with Jesse and the birthday party situation, where they were the only two cast members to not respond to the invite.
Lexi spoke about this by saying, “With their relationship, honestly, you’re going to have to ask them because I think she’s asked me not to speak good or bad.” The hosts asked specifically if Ciara “asked you to keep her name out of your mouth,” and Lexi said, “Yes. So I think I can only speak about how I felt. I didn’t ever see any of it. It was never done in front of my face, so I actually had no opinion. I, yeah, I didn’t know anything.”
Regarding the birthday party fiasco, Lexi says it’s not a lie that Jesse posted about going to lunch with Ciara on the same day as her party and that she has the screenshots to prove it. Still, she says she will always blame Jesse for the drama she has with Ciara.
The interview goes on, and Lexi discusses being made to look “crazy” by Jesse to everyone else in the house. She said, “I think that Jesse manipulated every single person in the house. Gaslit every single person in the house, and it’s really disheartening to watch back because I did feel so misunderstood all summer, and now I obviously understand why. I did feel distant.”
She went on, “I did feel isolated and all of these things, but obviously, I do understand and I do think that he was purposely, I mean, I can’t, I don’t know, but I do think that he miscommunicated so many different things, and it did draw a wedge between me and a lot of people in the house.”
Lexi then said, “Like, I don’t think that they purposely, everybody else in the house purposely put up a wall, but I think naturally, when one person is making somebody look crazy, then they would be like, ‘okay, weird.’ Yeah, and I do think that he did that.”
Toward the end, they asked if Lexi would return for a second season, and she said she would be interested. Additionally, they asked if she believed Jesse was dangerous for women to date, and she replied, “Yes. I think that he needs to get real with himself, do a lot of inner work that I don’t know if he’s ready to even look that far inward for. But through my experience, I wouldn’t tell my worst enemy to date him right now, where he’s at.”
Fans can watch Lexi on Summer House on Wednesday nights.
