Ciara Miller and Amanda Batula reflect on all things 'Winter House' season 2 and how it sets up 'Summer House' season 7.
Ski season is over. Well, at least when it comes to season 2 of Bravo's Winter House, which wrapped its run last week. But unlike its sister series, Summer House and Southern Charm, the Vermont-set vacation show doesn't get a reunion, seemingly a way to protect the new season of Summer House -- which was filmed months before Winter House hit TV screens, but airs months later -- from getting spoiled.
"It does become confusing, two shows, trying not to spill the beans on what happens," Ciara Miller rattles off to ET over video chat, alongside castmate Amanda Batula. "There's things that you can't talk about just yet, but definitely play into your feelings in this particular show. It's hard to sometimes keep the stories straight."
"It all bleeds together," she continues. "We're the same group, same people, consistent bulls**t.
"It's almost like our Summer House reunion is, like, Winter House and Summer House combined," Amanda adds. There will be plenty to unpack at that reunion, which likely won't tape until this spring. Until then, tensions may continue to rise (or hopefully, ease?) between some of the cast.
Season 2 of Winter House and its press cycle created new (or maybe just snowballed existing) strain with much of the housemates and Lindsay Hubbard. While Lindsay and her now-fiancé, Carl Radke, only joined the show for a handful of episodes, the majority of the season's drama played out while they were in Vermont; the energy seemed so intense between Lindsay and the women of the house that social media lit up with a flood of questions, many asking, "Why do the girls hate Lindsay?"
"I don't feel like we hate Lindsay," Ciara says in defense of herself and Amanda. "Summer House was also airing during this time, so there was a lot of tension, to be honest, on my part -- I can speak for myself."
Winter House season 2 filmed in March of 2021, as season 6 of Summer House played out on TV -- and March was the month that the "love triangle" episodes between Ciara, Lindsay and Southern Charm star Austen Kroll aired.
"It was definitely a tough time," Ciara reiterates. "Prior to them even getting there, pretty much the whole house was like, 'How is this going to go?' It was definitely different."
Austen and Lindsay's romantic entanglements pulled focus on Winter House, after Austen claimed Lindsay made moves on him the night of Amanda's wedding to her now-husband, Kyle Cooke. Earlier that day, Lindsay and Carl confessed their feelings for one another to each other, which led most of their co-stars to assume they were now a couple. The pair's since refuted that timeline, saying they didn't officially start dating until weeks later.
This timeline (and Austen's "she touched my d**k" claim) became fodder for the group, so much so that Amanda says she felt obligated to let Lindsay know about the gossip; the consensus among viewers on social media, though, was that Amanda was somehow "setting up" Lindsay to look bad by bringing the information to her. Even Lindsay described the info dump as "aggressive."
"Setting her up for what?" Ciara asks.
"See, here's the thing. I was not setting her up," Amanda says. "In that moment, when I talked to her, I truly felt super uncomfortable that the entire house was having this conversation, and to my understanding, no one knew Luke [Gulbranson] had approached Lindsay, who then told Carl, that wasn't-- none of us knew that. So here I am thinking that we're literally all talking about them. It made me truly uncomfortable that we're all talking about them -- we're all talking about this instance and neither one of them knew, 'cause they are friends -- and especially Carl -- like that would have been really crappy if he would have watched it back and been like, 'Oh wow, no one said anything to me, 'cause we are filming a show."
"It's one of those situations where you're damned if you do, damned if you don't," Ciara chimes in. "It's all on record, and it's not like we were actually hiding it from her. Like, obviously she's going to find out. So, someone says it to her face, or she watches it back in eight months and then she finds out then. It's almost like, OK, it's better that you said something in the moment than to watch it back in nine months and figure out that, oh, everyone was talking about this, and I had no idea!"
"Yeah, and none of the guys were going to say anything," Amanda reveals. "I even asked them to, so then I felt like, I need to be a decent person and let Lindsay know. Granted, this was the scariest thing that I had to bring up to her. It's not what I wanted to do, and I do get nervous in these sort of conversations with her. I didn't know how she was going to react, so I just got very, 'Here's what it is, don't be mad at me for saying it...' I mean, someone had to do it."
After Amanda debriefed Lindsay on the situation, she confronted Austen about his story. He attempted to walk back his memory of the night, asking in confessional interviews how it became a big deal in the house.
"Classic," Amanda and Ciara reply, in unison.
"Austen, I feel like, just says things when he's drinking and then regrets it in the morning and he's like, 'Let’s pretend that didn't just happen...'" Amanda surmises.
"To completely bring up the entire situation and to act like it wasn't going to be a whole house discussion or, like, it wasn't going to be a topic of conversation? C'mon," Ciara deadpans. "He's been doing this longer than most of us -- or at least longer than me -- we're not stupid. If you bring up something as controversial as that, you know it's going to be a topic of conversation in the house. You know what you're doing. So, for him to then backpedal when actually being confronted about it and then, like-- which whatever happened, OK, yeah, maybe it's between them, but to try and act like, 'Oh, it actually didn't happen...' when you told the full story? It's just a little weird."
"I think he takes his anger out on the wrong people, but you know, whatever," she adds, before Amanda jokes Austen had his "panties in a bunch" over the ordeal.
What didn't add up to some viewers was the house buying into Austen's account of Kyle and Amanda's wedding night, and not considering Lindsay's denial as fact.
"I mean, I think we watched the summertime," Ciara explains, before paraphrasing something Lindsay said on Summer House while defending her make-out sessions with Austen -- despite Ciara's feelings for him.
"I mean, they're friends, right?" she asks. "It wouldn't be weird if that happened. They kiss, they make out. It wouldn't be weird. It was that same narrative from the summertime. It wasn't out of the ordinary, or out of character, for either one of them."
"It wasn't not believable," Amanda says. "For me, it was messy enough where I'm like, what would Austen gain at all from saying this? Like, how is he benefiting? I would understand if it was a lie that took someone else down, or he gained something from it, but he only looked bad in this-- in every -- situation so, for me I was like, what would be the purpose of lying or making it up?"
Even with the house whispering about what she may or may not have done with Austen that night, Lindsay left Winter House on good terms with the crew, especially Amanda. The two exchanged "I love yous" before Lindsay and Carl's departure, a sentiment that may no longer stand. The two haven't spoken since Amanda sort-of called out Lindsay for being rude to fans on an episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen earlier this year.
"Lindsay and I have always had that just... I would say complicated sort-of relationship, but there has always been love between us," Amanda shares. "That Watch What Happens Live thing, I thought that we were in a good enough place where me saying that wouldn't have come off-- or, she wouldn't have thought it was malicious or an attack."
The confession came at the prodding of WWHL host Andy Cohen, and bled onto Instagram, where Lindsay shared a series of posts to her story defending herself against that "rude" label. One post included a photo of Lindsay and Amanda smiling together at BravoCon, captioned with, "I’m so f**king tired of people dragging my name through the mud when I’m nothing but nice to them, show them kindness, respect and support. Clean up your side of the street because mine is doing just fine."
"I never in a million years would have imagined that sort of reaction from it, or that sort of hurt that she felt," Amanda admits. "If I knew that, I would have just absolutely kept my mouth shut, and just kept drinking."
Amanda did hold back at confirming Andy's suspicions at first, knowing the comment might get her in trouble. Co-star Paige DeSorbo even told Amanda to expect a nasty text message from Lindsay.
"I knew she wouldn't be thrilled if I said she could be rude," Amanda says. "I knew that she wouldn't be like, 'Oh, thanks, Amanda...' but I also didn't expect that severe of a reaction from her. I really didn't think it was going to make her that upset, and I feel bad about that, but there's a lot of pressure on Watch What Happens Live to be funny, be entertaining, be witty, spill the tea, you know? Like, make people laugh. I want everyone else to sit in that seat and think on their toes and always do the right thing ."
"I tried to sugarcoat it, but I'll do better next time," she adds, to which Ciara says, "Moral of the story."
One story that's finished, at least according to Ciara, is her relationship with Austen. The two sat down for what Austen called a breakup conversation during their final night filming Winter House; Ciara says they've only exchanged pleasantries since.
"Certain people aren't allowed back on Summer House," she says, shutting down any cameos from Austen on the upcoming season.
"We're done with the Austen Kroll story everyone, we're done," she then declares. "Wrapped it up, the bow, we've tied it, 'cause I know everyone on Twitter is sick of it. Me too, honey. Me too."
Even without Austen, Ciara promises "a ride" in what's to come on Summer House. Together with Amanda, they sum season 7 up as "chaotic," "a doozy" and "emotionally exhausting." Only a few details have eked out about the crew's most recent Hamptons stay, most notably a falling out between one-time besties Lindsay and Danielle Olivera.
"There's underlying things or stuff that happened prior to that buildup, but for the most part, I think we all watched it play out and you guys will too," Amanda previews.
Check out the video above for more thoughts on the season that was from Ciara and Amanda -- including Ciara's response to Jason Cameron labeling her "rude" to production, and why they feel bad for newbie Jessica Stocker's experience on the show. All episodes of Winter House season 2 are now streaming on Peacock. Season 7 of Summer House premieres in 2023 on Bravo.
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