Heavy/Peaock Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula of "Summer House."
“Summer House” fans think producers tried to pull a fast one on them with a scene filmed away from the usual Hamptons party house.
In the season 8 episode “From Loverboy to Flowerboy,” Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula went on a house-hunting expedition after Batula revealed she was tired of the Manhattan apartment they’ve lived in for six years.
The couple toured a 1,600 square foot, $1.4 million home in “the ‘burbs,” and fans were led to believe the house was located in the New Jersey suburbs.
“I never saw myself living in New Jersey,” Cooke told their realtor after they toured the house.
But after the episode aired, eagle-eyed fans found the house on Zillow and uncovered that it was actually a Hamptons rental house.
Amanda Batula Responded to Fans Who Figured Out the House Wasn’t in New Jersey
Peacock“Summer House” scene.
Batula has been talking about moving to New Jersey a lot this season on “Summer House.” In the season 8 episode “The Camptons,” the Hillsborough, NJ, native told her husband she wanted to look at homes in her home state. “I do want to start looking for a little spot,” she said. “You know I’ve been wanting to move out of the apartment forever … I really want somewhere to be able to escape to. Somewhere in New Jersey to, like, have all the natural light and the outdoor space.”
Later in the conversation, Cooke noted that his wife was “really pushing Jersey hard.”
“My dad’s dying for grandkids,” Batula shared in a confessional. “My mom is so good with children. So, when we have kids, New Jersey it is. They would be over all the time helping. We go over to my parents’ house, and Kyle’s getting hors d’oeuvres and Aperol spritz just, like, handed to him. I’m like, ‘You don’t want to live near my parents?'”
Based on Batula’s insistence on New Jersey and Cooke’s comment to the realtor, it’s no wonder fans felt they were led to believe the house they toured was located in a pricey Jersey suburb.
But in April 2024, the @brandsbybravo Instagram account unearthed the real estate listing, and it turns out the property was actually a $29,666 per month rental house located in Southampton, NY, not far from where “Summer House” films.
“Can’t fool us summer house! No house in North Jerz looking like that! It’s a rental in the Hamptons,” came the caption.
Some fans agreed that production edited the scene to make it seem as though the couple looked at a home in New Jersey.
“What a weird lie?? There are surely beautiful houses in North Jersey that they could have looked at,” one commenter wrote.
“There are tons of homes in NJ that look like this…not sure why lie about location,” another agreed.
After another fan speculated the couple probably just looked at a convenient house during “Summer House” filming, another replied, “Agree that’s what happened but when we discover the lies, it makes you feel like what else are they lying about, we are watching a reality show we don’t want to see bull [expletive].”
Batula chimed in to set the record straight. “We weren’t trying to pretend it was NJ,” she wrote in the comment section. “We were very vocal about looking at houses in the Hamptons as an escape from the city and something we could rent out during the summer. But the price tag quickly crushed all my hopes and dreams. Sorry to anyone who felt tricked!”
Kyle & Amanda Gave an Update on Their House Hunting
PeacockKyle Cooke, Amanda Batula.
Cooke and Batula, who married in September 2021, have been butting heads more than ever during season 8 of the Bravo reality show.
On the “Summer House Aftershow” on April 4, Batula addressed her challenges with Cooke and the fact that he’s “terrified” about their future together. She also shared that she wants to move to the suburbs so she can feel “ready” to get pregnant.
“Part of the reason I want to move to the suburbs [is] to really feel like, you know, let’s like ready for a kid,” she said. “The city doesn’t make me feel ready for a kid.”
“I can’t wait to have like a yard and a home. I want to sit on my front porch and just like drink my coffee and watch the sunset,” Batula added. “Like, a part of me wants a farm and just like chickens and goats. And Kyle’s not there at all. I need like a change of scenery.”
Elsewhere on the “Aftershow,” Cooke said he’s afraid of feeling stuck in the suburbs. “The thing that scares me the most is like if we prematurely jump out to the ‘burbs I just feel like I’m going to be trapped,” he said. “Like, if I work a lot I need a social outlet. And I would feel completely cut off from like society.”
Cooke also shared that he and his wife do not function as a “partnership.” He admitted he’s afraid a lot of the homeowner responsibilities will fall on him.
“I want to think about like quality of life,” he explained. “I want to think about what’s the town like, you know is there a downtown? Or is it just a freaking sprawling McMansionville? That’s, like, the stuff nightmares are made of from my perspective.”
The two have made a compromise since filming the house hunting scene last July. Batula said they would start by getting a new apartment “in a different neighborhood that has outdoor space and is more family-oriented.”
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