This season of Summer House showcases the excruciating end of Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula’s four-year marriage. In this week’s episode (“The Joke’s On You”), Cooke gifted Batula with a Cartier watch at her 34th birthday dinner. The gift drew scrutiny from fans, since Cooke has been vocal about his financial troubles this season.
The extravagant present comes in the wake of a rocky start to the summer for the pair, marked by a dinner table storm-off from Cooke and a trip to the infamous Summer House “apology dune.” While the couple seems to be faring better in recent episodes, hope of any reconciliation is obviously null with their real-life divorce announcement in January (after filming had wrapped).
The gift comes as even more of a surprise since last week’s episode revealed that Cooke did not invest in castmate and best bud Carl Radke’s business venture. Radke says he invested $15,000 into Cooke’s spiked seltzer company, Loverboy, but the fellow OG cast member did not return the favor. Cooke cites money troubles for his unwillingness to invest in Radke’s non-alcoholic bar venture, the same reasoning he provides for pursuing his DJ career, much to the ire of his now ex-wife.
While Radke was not in attendance at Batula’s birthday dinner, castmate Jesse Solomon pressed Cooke on his failure to invest in his longtime friend’s business. “I think he was just upset that you initially were going to invest and then pulled out,” he said. In a confessional, Cooke says he feels “blindsided” by the interaction as he’s made his business struggles apparent.
Though Radke was not present to call out Cooke’s hypocrisy, the build up to their physical altercation, teased in the season trailer, may be mounting.
As for Batula, she initially expressed appreciation for the gift, but it may have been short lived as she jokes:,“now I can leave him, and I got a watch out of it.” Yikes.
The watch that Kyle gifted Amanda was the Cartier Baignoire watch which retails for $9,000, according to the Cartier website. Not too shabby!
The lawyers will have to decide that one, we’re afraid. Too early to say.
Summer House airs on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.
