Growth and change are a part of life. If you’re lucky enough to move in an upwards motion, you might be on the right track. No one knows more about making changes than Summer House star Carl Radke.
Carl’s journey wasn’t easy by a long shot. He was fortunate in that watching the show provided insight on how being a boy toy probably wasn’t the road to salvation. Filming Summer House is a master class in pre-alcoholism for someone with no experience in substance abuse. For Carl it was a direct line to multiple black outs.
Fans of the show watched Carl fail at relationships but win at imbibing as much booze as he could. Carl toyed with the idea of getting sober but wasn’t particularly thrilled with the commitment. Then something horrible happened in his family. When Carl’s brother passed away, he firmed up his relationship with sobriety and started living a different life entirely.
After struggling with finding gainful employment, Carl found a home at best friend’s Kyle Cooke’s company, Loverboy. As you might expect, maintaining a sober lifestyle whilst working for an alcohol brand can come with its own share of challenges. After Carl made the decision to leave Loverboy, creative director and co-star Amanda Batula said she knew it was coming.
Amanda spoke with Page Six about Loverboy’s loss and Carl’s hopeful gains. “It’s a bummer. “We love Carl. He’s been a part of the business with us from the beginning, and when he decided to become sober — which was obviously for the best — we always knew that there was a chance that he would end up parting ways,” she said.
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Amanda acknowledged “working with an alcohol company” and “being around people” who are drinking after becoming sober is probably not the best combination. “We’re so grateful that he stuck it out for as long as he had. You move on in life, you move on from jobs. I’m just really happy that we’re able to keep that friendship there, because that’s the most important thing, and we’re there to support him.” One might also take into consideration that participating in this show probably isn’t the safest space for someone dealing with alcohol issues.
Amanda also shared that “the door is always open” for Carl to return. She admits his departure is “bittersweet.” She continued, “I feel like we talk about this as if it’s a breakup, and it’s like you know, he just left his job. The relationship and the friendships are still there.”
Despite Amanda’s declaration that it’s all fine and dandy in friendship land, the Summer House trailer seems to contradict those words. It showed Kyle yelling at Carl that he could “walk away from the company right now and the company won’t feel a f–king thing.” Of course that could be the result of Kyle feeling cranky about his new bad hairstyle.
Stay tuned to see what becomes of Carl navigating a job change and engagement with Lindsay Hubbard. Relationships will be challenged and Craig Conover will probably annoy you. And we’ll all be watching to see the evolution of Kyle’s mullet.
TELL US- DO YOU THINK IT WAS A GOOD IDEA FOR CARL TO LEAVE LOVERBOY? DO YOU THINK CARL LEFT BECAUSE OF A SOBER LIFESTYLE OR BECAUSE OF FRICTION WITH KYLE? DO YOU THINK CARL WILL RETURN TO SUMMER HOUSE NEXT SEASON?
[Photo Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo]
