'Summer House' stars Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula gives update on pandemic-delayed wedding plans

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Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula are hitting their stride both personally and professionally.

The couple, which has been at the center of Summer House for five seasons now, is now planning to finally tie the knot later this year after a years-long engagement that was prolonged by the pandemic. For perhaps the first time during their journey on Bravo, their relationship appears to be devoid of fighting and rumors, both of which had plagued them during every other season of Summer House. If the pandemic brought them closer together, their beverage brand, Loverboy, seems to be part of what cemented their bond. Loverboy, which offers hard teas, spritzes and, soon, espresso martinis in a can, is an ever-expanding, ever-visible brand that they started together several years ago. Carl Radke, a longtime friend and original Summer House star, also works with them now.

Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula appeared on the latest episode of In The Know’s pop culture podcast, We Should Talk, to talk about all things Loverboy, Summer House season 5 and what their plans — both personal and professional — are for the future.

Listen to Summer House stars Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula’s full episode of We Should Talk below, and keep reading for highlights from the interview:

Amanda Batula on her friendship with Paige DeSorbo: “Hannah, Paige and I were very close at one point. Giggly Squad formed, and it became this group chat between the three of us with them talking all the time and me being on the outside. But Paige and I were able to continue that really close friendship, which I thought was the same with Hannah, but maybe she didn’t interpret it that way. Paige and I just get along. We are the same person. I joke around about it all the time: We buy the same clothes, but we style them completely differently. We have so much in common. She gets my jokes. She’ll hear me say something, and she’ll be the only one that laughs at it. Hannah and Paige have their own dynamic, but Paige and I have a friendship that goes deeper and I think it’s very different. I don’t know where Paige and Hannah stand at this point, but I know that Paige will be in my life forever.”

Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula on the two main offerings of Loverboy reflecting their relationship:
Kyle: “Our sparkling hard teas are like me: colorful, playful, flirty…”
Amanda: “…You can chug ’em, you can drink them really fast.”
Kyle: “They’re also sold via different channels, but I’ll get to that. The spritz is more like Amanda…”
Amanda: “… Elegant, classy, we’ve got the gold foil on the branding. Minimal.”
Kyle: “On the business side, our sparkling hard teas are sold through retail, anywhere you’d find a White Claw or a Truly in the markets that we’re in. We have to go market at a time, because that’s how alcohol works. That’s one of the reasons why we launched the spritz. We wanted a premium canned cocktail. […] We’re allowed to sell it online to your doorstep in almost every single state.”
Amanda: “This is something we wanted to do something for everyone who couldn’t get the teas. We were like, ‘Instead of changing the alcohol base, let’s come up with a new product that is still Loverboy that we can give to everyone more immediately.”

Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula on their updated wedding plans:
Kyle: “We postponed our wedding until June of this year. A couple months ago, there were all sorts of talks about the vaccines not being anywhere near ready until the summer or maybe even the fall. We were literally in limbo. Will a June wedding that is at a venue with a minimum of 225 people inside happen? By New Jersey state law, because we were gonna get married in her home state, no.”
Amanda: “The event that we are doing with our family and friends is going to be postponed until September and we’re doing it in my parents’ backyard.”

Amanda Batula on successfully spearheading Loverboy merch: “People just love merch. If you are a fan or a band of a movie or a TV show, they love to wear anything that has [something they like]. We were. at the time, in the middle of the pandemic when sweats and tie-dye was very hot. We took advantage of that by coming out with our own comfy clothing that had our logo on it, and giving people something to buy to support the brand if they couldn’t purchase Loverboy. I wanted to design stuff that I wanted to wear. I started finding designs, getting inspiration and things that I was making for me to sell to other people. People were connecting to it, it took off and we kept going with it. It’s become it’s completely own business in and of itself.”

Watch In The Know’s full interview with Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula below, and tune into Summer House at 9 p.m. EST on Thursdays, only on Bravo:

If you enjoyed this story, check out In The Know’s recent interview with fellow Summer House star Lindsay Hubbard.

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