Ciara Miller and Mya Allen sound off on their new podcast, Danielle Olivera's 'raw' emotions and more from 'Summer House' season 7.
Ciara Miller and Mya Allen are taking back the narrative. Or, at least, adding to it.
The Summer House stars just launched a joint podcast, Co-dependents, which they say fills in the gaps that exist from what fans get to see on the Bravo series. The show only captures their weekends spent partying with friends over a three-month stretch in the Hamptons, all edited down into 42-minute episodes.
"There's no production company -- we are the production company -- so you get to hear us, raw and unedited, just our truthful feelings about pretty much everything," Mya tells ET.
"Everything," Ciara reiterates. "Life, dating. It kind of gives the viewer a different viewpoint of us, as opposed to, on Summer House, it's kind of in the midst of 12 different people. So this is kind of a more intimate setting for us to communicate with our fans, and also just be open and real about our lives and things that we're going through -- and hopefully a positive aspect for us, too; a positive point where we can open up and really be open and vulnerable on all subject matters."
The show's title is in and of itself a sort of revelation; the pair, who met while filming season 6 of the reality series and bonded over being the series' sole Black cast members, say their relationship hasn't translated properly on screen.
"We function as one quite frequently," Mya declares. "There are still two of us; we are different people with one beautiful sisterhood."
"We are truly sisters," she adds. "We fight about damn near everything. We are consistently bickering, and we just, like, we love to be open with our opinions. It's never mal-intended; it's just a lot of fun, and that doesn't get shown on the show that much."
There's a ying-yang factor here, too; Ciara describes herself as the Co-dependents creative director, whereas Mya handles the business affairs of their burgeoning brand. So far, there's nothing off-limits for the podcast.
"Some things are edited out, just like for like the sake of our friendship and who we are as people and our privacy, but very little of that is actually edited out," Mya explains. "We do try to keep it raw. A lot of times we'll push each other, if I want something edited out, Ciara will be like, 'Nope, people need to hear that...' and vice versa. So we do check each other in a lot of ways."
They promise to "tip our hat" to Summer House on the show, weighing in on the events still set to air on season 7 of the show. Viewers are in the midst of watching the aftermath of Carl Radke's proposal to Lindsay Hubbard, an engagement that set off something inside Lindsay's one-time bestie, Danielle Olivera. Danielle seemed to experience a mix of panic attack, mourning and shock when she found out Carl popped the question, a reaction that's largely confused the audience, seeing as one, Carl told her he planned to propose -- just not when -- and two, she and Lindsay were drifting apart, as Danielle voiced concern over Lindsay and Carl's relationship.
After co-star Kyle Cooke broke the news of the engagement to the house, Danielle burst into tears with Mya and Ciara (on the phone, calling in from a weekend away), before having a rare on-camera conversation with a producer about whether she should attend Carl and Lindsay's surprise engagement party. She ultimately decided to attend the event, where her small talk with Lindsay's other friends largely consisted of being disappointed that she wasn't aware of, or involved in, the proposal in some way.
"I don't necessarily agree with how she might have handled being at the engagement party, but I do empathize with her in the sense of, this was her best friend. She was very hurt," Ciara surmises after seeing it all play out on he show. "Like, I get that."
"Looking back, I'm sure Danielle would maybe do some things differently," she says. "I'm not going to put words in her mouth, but, you know, it was a lot. Like, the whole summer was a lot for her, so I will cut her some slack, truly."
Mya calls what Ciara and the viewers got to see "a pretty accurate representation of what happened." There's no missing moment that would better explain Danielle's intense response.
"Her emotions were raw and very unhinged, if you will, and she was just reacting in the moment," Mya says. "I think that her hurt took over the rest of, honestly, the real world, and that's honestly what you guys get to see. I do think that in the moment she could have handled it in a more positive light. I think if anyone’s getting engaged, it's not about anyone but those two, and I certainly tried to put that thought in my head while being at their party."
"But then you have to realize, friendships are ebbing and flowing," she continues, "and if people are not on the best terms, maybe they wouldn't normally be at an engagement party anyway. And so, put that into account and think about the fact that she was thrown into that situation and she's human. Like, what you'll see now is, she doesn't save anything, or she doesn't keep anything, off camera. She's very much who she is at all points of time in front of the camera, and we just got to see one of her moments her reaction."
Lindsay and Danielle stopped speaking after filming wrapped last September, but came face to face at the recently taped reunion, where Ciara says host Andy Cohen "did a very good job of playing mediator" and translator between them. Mya says "people clocked into work that day, and I think people be pleasantly surprised by who clocked."
"I think that there was at least an open dialogue that I haven't seen in at least the past two summers that I've been involved in the show," Mya adds. "So I think that, in a sense, having the truth come out is a way to step into the forward direction ... but I'm not sure if we are all roses and butterflies, is what I'll say."
If it's any indication of how things went between Danielle and Lindsay, both Mya and Ciara say they believe Danielle will snag an invite to Carl and Lindsay's wedding this November. As for whether either of them will be there, Ciara offers up, "Who's to say?"
"I would be very very surprised to receive an invitation," Mya admits, teasing her own confrontation with Lindsay at reunion. The two started off season 7 on rocky ground, Lindsay upset by what she deemed inappropriate behavior by Mya toward Carl while they were in Los Angeles to film an episode of Celebrity Family Feud, which Mya's maintained was an overreaction on Lindsay's part. While they were able to hash out that issue early on in the summer, it seems some resentment was still bubbling under the surface.
"I don't want to give too much away," Mya shares. "I think that I certainly has a conversation at the reunion that I'm not necessarily feeling that there was much resolve from. So, I think that things are very much in the air for me."
"Listen, everybody has their own opinions and that's why we're all on show doing what we do," she says. "That's why we do a shared house, to share our opinions and our culture and everything that we're doing, and I think that people have their own versions of the truth and you will end up seeing two sides to the story."
"If we could've made it a three-part [reunion], we could've," Ciara adds. "We probably could've kept going, sitting on those couches for, like, 10-plus hours. ... I think it's always surprising what people's reality is..."
"Or delusion," Mya chimes in. "I feel like I experienced that quite a bit."
"Or what 'their truth' is in a situation," Ciara says. "How they replay scenarios that just didn't happen. I think that's always very surprising to hear at a reunion."
"What I will say was the most positive part of my reunion experience was realizing that I have really made a tribe with my friends in our house," Mya confesses. "Like, I had one moment where I was being attacked, and I looked over and all my friends were on the couch. I was sitting back and they were all sitting forward in defense of me and I was like, I'm good. I have my friends, I have my tribe, I've done what I need to do. I'm done."
It's that feeling that has both Ciara and Mya confident this cast could come back together for season 8.
"We don't spend our summers down in the Hamptons to have a bad time," Mya notes. "I certainly don't drive the three hours every weekend to not have fun, or to fight with my friends. So, I feel like, if we all kind of put our adult panties on and just show up to have a good time and party, we could do that."
"I don't feel like we all have to be best friends," Ciara says. "I think the thing that needs to be present is respect."
"As long as everyone's willing to be open, and to actually be honest in a moment of confrontation, then there's so much growth that can happen," Mya remarks. "I think, honestly, one of our biggest struggles in this past summer was that people were not being honest. I do think we got a little bit more honesty this reunion, which y'all will see, and hopefully that can carry into the next summer and how we move forward as a group."
As season 7 airs, there's a chorus of fans online campaigning for the show to evolve beyond the beach and be centered more in the cast's everyday lives back in the city.
"I don't know if I would want permanent, full-on city vibes," Mya admits. "I think that having the escape of the Hamptons does let us have the ability to be a little bit freer during our weekends, like we're not wrapped up in our 9-to-5 work lives, or whatever the case may be."
"Like, I wonder if Kyle would be the Kyle that we see if he didn't have a house and, like, cookies in the freezer for him to eat at 2 a.m.?" she ponders. "Those are the moments that I think that the viewers -- I, personally -- love watching that. So, I still think there should be some aspect of the Hamptons, but there's so much more to our professional lives that don't really get seen on the show, that I think a focus on that would be really cool."
Both women are in the influencer space now, while also balancing more traditional careers: Ciara's a nurse and a model, while Mya does restaurant consulting and runs her own cookie company.
"I'm also rooting for us going somewhere other than the Hamptons for a weekend or two," Ciara pitches. "It would be nice to switch it up from the Hamptons and maybe, you know, go overseas or something."
Ciara promises she'd get out of bed more if the show took her to tropical locales or Europe. She, Mya and housemates Amanda Batula and Paige DeSorbo get regularly roasted on social media for spending so much of their summers lying down. They've even earned the not-so-nice nickname "the bedsore girls."
"I'm sorry, when we are horizontal, we are the funniest you will ever see us," Mya hits back.
"It's not like we're going in there and actually going to sleep," Ciara notes. "We're up for hours. We're up until the wee hours of the morning. We're just laughing. We're laughing from the comforts of our bed, being horizontal, but we can go overseas and be in another bed also, but also I might -- I might -- make a deal with some people."
"She's lying," Mya cracks.
For Ciara, the bed also proved itself to be her safe space while filming the show and adjusting to reality TV stardom.
"People don't understand that we also have a level of anxiety and a level of depression," she says. "Like, something that wasn't shown on the Summer House this season was the fact that I went on antidepressants last summer. Like, my anxiety was at an all-time high. My depression was at an all-time high and I felt very unstable and so, yeah, the most comforting thing for me was to be in the bed and be home and, like, there was a few nights where it was me, Paige and Mya in the bed, and we're honestly just venting about our lives and how we even got here."
"We're all comparing our medications at this point," she adds. "So there is a point of us, yes, being lazy, but it's also, we have anxiety and we have depression, and sometimes my cup is not filled by being around a bunch of people and I need a moment. I need to just be with people I like, make me feel secure and safe, or who I can vent to. That's a big portion, a big portion, of 'the bed bugs' or 'the bedsore girls,' you know? So, whatever. I will lean into whatever it is at this point."
It's those unseen nuances that serve as the perfect jumping-off point for Co-dependents topics. Mya confirms they've already recorded episodes from the bed, touching on subjects including her breakup from Oliver Gray, the details of which she's kept largely quiet until now.
"During our season finale, you'll learn a lot about my past relationship, and we are diving even deeper on the podcast," she previews. "Honestly, maybe I should've held back more than I did when speaking about that situation. I was very, very unhinged, I could say. Uh, lots of emotion..."
Ciara also plans to open up about an emotional topic for her: fertility. While filming season 7, she took a genetic test in solidarity with Paige and Amanda, the latter of whom was concerned about her ability to have children. When they got back their results, Ciara learned she may struggle to conceive.
"It was an unexpected twist for me in this summertime, but that is going to be a conversation I can't wait to have on our podcast," she says, "especially because I do want to be an advocate for the younger girls to test their fertility young, and it's all about early detection and awareness. So, as I'm going on this journey myself, I hope I can be more vocal about what's going on."
"I've always wanted to be a mom, I want to have four kids," she adds, "and hopefully we can bring in the right medical personnel to help us explore that and talk about it more, and talk about options."
"You're going to get an array of topics," she says. "Like, our mental health and how we're dealing with that, being in your 20s, being in your 30s, being single in New York City. Just being a girl that, like, we don't have it all figured out, but we're trying to figure it out."
New episode of Co-dependents debut Wednesdays, wherever you listen to podcasts. Summer House airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo.
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