'Summer House' OG Carl Radke reveals he's no longer working at the company founded by castmate Kyle Cooke ahead of the show's return.
Loverboy no more! Well, at least not every day.
After three years, Carl Radke is no longer working for the canned alcohol business founded by his Summer House castmate, Kyle Cooke.
"I'm still an investor, I'm very proud of that," Carl tells ET, sitting down in New York City alongside fiancée (and fellow Summer House star) Lindsay Hubbard. "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."
"Maybe there's a world we can work together in the future," he continues. "Kyle and I just got dinner together the other night, you know? We're friends; it's gonna be hard to relive all of it but I think both of us are very supportive of the journey."
It's a journey fans will see play out on season 7 of the Bravo hit series, returning Monday night. The trailer for the season teases tension between the two, as Kyle's seen telling his wife, Amanda Batula -- who also works a the company -- that Carl is "checked out" of the business.
"Ever since he's been dating Lindsay, he's been doing less," Kyle remarks, before telling the larger group, "Carl can walk away from the company right now and the company won't feel a f**king thing."
"I was pretty surprised," Carl admits of Kyle's comments. "I really feel like I've worked incredibly hard, from morning to night, not only being on the computer and the phone, but being out in the public promoting events, parties -- I've been to 40 cities for this company, 10 times more than anybody else. Like, I've put myself out there, I've knocked on doors; I've done things that no one else in the company would have done. Now, it's been a group effort. You know, I wouldn't be here without Kyle or Amanda, but it was surprising to hear him say I'm checked out, and I think that's kind of a cop out."
Carl says all of their lives have become busier as their profiles have risen outside the company, with Kyle taking just as much time away from the brand as he has to focus on other opportunities. Carl does acknowledge that Kyle's the boss and is allowed his opinions about his employees' work ethics, but still feels like the commentary leading up to this exit was unwarranted.
"We've built a massively successful business," Carl notes. "The work we've put in, from three-and-a-half years ago to now, I mean, it's pretty ridiculous what we've done. I'm very proud of it. ... So, it was sad and surprising to hear Kyle's perspective."
That said, Carl confesses to not being completely transparent with his pal for how he was feeling as his employee.
"I didn't really fully open up to him about some of my frustrations until probably a little bit past when he was kind of going, 'What the heck's going on?'" he explains. "So there's a little bit of that, but listen: I love Kyle. We're friends. It's gonna be hard to watch, no doubt, but I'm optimistic about the future. I mean, I think figuring out the friend aspect and where we grow into ... maybe there's a different friendship down the line."
"Also, it might be healthier," Lindsay chimes in. It's worth noting, Carl got sober after joining Loverboy's sales team.
"I definitely was hitting my wall of like, is this the best fit for me?" he shares. "When we're standing in bars and traveling all around, and doing all this stuff, and I'm looking at it, I'm like, this doesn't align necessarily authentic with me. It's challenging, the environment."
"But also, my dream was never to build the baddest, coolest alcohol brand," he adds. "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."
As for what's next, Carl's focusing on his original passions and seeing where they align in the reality star/influencer world in which he finds himself living.
"I went to school for TV and film at Syracuse, I've produced films, a documentary, so I'm looking at some film projects," he says. "I'm gonna lean into the non-alcoholic [beverage business], too, you know? I think there's some places I can navigate there, podcasting -- I know it's the natural thing for everybody on Bravo, but talking more about mental health, sobriety... things like that is something I'm looking at. Maybe [Lindsay] and I do a podcast."
Lindsay jokes the two could call their potential show Couple's Therapy, and they'll have plenty of fresh material to explore as they plan their dream wedding for later this year. They're eyeing to say "I do" in November in a to-be-revealed "international" location.
"We're waiting on a contract to come through," Lindsay shares. "There's been a lot of prep, talked to various people; we've got a lot of advice. We've got a lot of opinions, we've got a lot of support, but it's a big deal."
The couple has three must-haves for the big day: good music, good food and good people.
"I'm so excited for our families to be together," Carl beams. "We have a very mutual friend group, but we also have friends that I've met in the last year-and-a-half that I never have known before, and she's met a lot of my friends she's never known. So it'll be awesome."
"Seeing all of our favorite people in one place at one time? I mean, I think that's why it's the best day of your life right there," Lindsay notes. As for whether all their co-stars will snag an invite, that's to be determined.
"Can you ask us again in May?" Lindsay laughs. The current season will have finished airing by then, which might see the group in a better... or worse-off place. Whatever the case, it's more than likely at lease one element of Summer House will be incorporated into the big day: cameras.
"We would love that," Carl says.
"I think that it's an interesting time because it's not in the summer, right?" Lindsay points out. "We're talking about fall, and it's not in the winter to be on Winter House, either -- which I don't know why it would -- so I think that is being talked about, but I do think that's a network decision."
"It would be crazy for the audience to have been watching her and I, individually, since season 1 and now together, and then to be left out of that big part of our life?" Carl adds. "We're very open to having the audience watch, but again Bravo's gotta be the one to sign off."
Before then, fans will get to see Carl pop the question on camera. The romantic moment wasn't without some Summer House-style drama, though.
"I'm gonna wanna skip [watching the episodes that cover our] last weekend, because I had a full-blown meltdown," Carl admits. The supertease features a glimpse into that moment, with Carl running away from production while telling them, "I don't want a camera. No f**king cameras. F**k you guys."
"When you go through a life moment that is so important, and so big, and just meaningful -- it was like one of the biggest things I ever was gonna do in my life," he reflects. "There's a lot of drama that surrounded the proposal and all that stuff, which you'll come to find out, which was in my seven years of doing this stuff, it was just-- it got to me so deeply that I did something wrong, and it really, like, it made me feel really s**tty about something I really tried so hard to make special and unique given all that the nuances of filming a TV show. ... So I hit my breaking point and I don't really want to see myself in that kind of... I've never really acted like [that]."
Summer House airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo starting Feb. 13.
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