Summary
- Kyle Cooke feels personally hurt by Craig Conover's investment in a rival canned alcohol business, leading to tension in their friendship.
- Loverboy, Cooke's alcoholic beverage brand, has faced financial struggles and strained his marriage with Amanda Batula due to high debt.
- The drama surrounding Loverboy's financial issues, Cooke's friendship with Conover, and Batula's potential departure adds uncertainty to Cooke's future on Summer House.
On an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Summer House’s Kyle Cooke shared where he stood with friend and fellow Bravolebrity from Southern Charm, Craig Conover. A few days earlier, tabloids went wild when news came out that Conover invested in another canned alcohol business that rivaled Cooke’s Loverboy. With Conover and Cooke being friends — and Conover dating Cooke's castmate Paige Desorbo — wouldn’t this put a rift in their friendship?
Cooke and Conover have both spoken about the situation publicly since it seemed like a very calculated diss on Conover’s part. Follow along as we see what Cooke called Conover on WWHL and the highs and lows Loverboy has faced.
Kyle Cooke Is Hurt That Craig Conover Joined Forces With Loverboy's Competitor
A few days before Kyle Cooke’s WWHL appearance, Craig Conover shared that he was now the investor and the face of Spritz Society — a line of alcoholic spritzes. Bravo fans knew this could have been a point of contention between him and Kyle Cooke, since Cooke has his own alcoholic canned beverage line, Loverboy.
While on WWHL, Cohen asked Cooke about the situation and if there was a rift between him and Conover. Initially, Cooke shared the two were friends and there was no “bad blood.” As the episode continued, however, Cooke’s views on the situation changed.
“Look, I wish him the best, but the way he handled it, and we don’t have time to get into it, really rubbed me the wrong way, and I’m just trying to take the high road.”
Throwing even more daggers, Cooke continued saying, “[Conover] has a reputation of lying and he lied to me.”
Looking visibly shaken by the situation, Cohen pressed further. Cooke explained that the entire situation became shady because the founder of Society Spritz “milked information” from him about Loverboy to further his own alcoholic brand.
When Cooke confronted Conover over the new partnership, Conover explained he didn’t know Loverboy was a competitor. He thought Loverboy just focused on hard teas, not spritzes.
“He knows we don’t just do teas, he was there, he’s had all these products. So, don’t tell me you thought we were just a tea company.”
Cooke continued saying, “[Conover] was like, ‘I thought you just do sparkling hard teas.’ And I’m like, ‘What? If anything, the company you just ‘invested in’ took a page out of our book and launched a copycat a year and a half later.”
Conover hasn’t made a statement about Cooke’s interview but did say in an interview with Page Six that he would have “loved” to invest in Loverboy but “that wasn’t an option.”
With shade coming from both men, the Bravo-sphere is unsure when a resolution will occur between the two — especially after Cooke explains even more hardships for Loverboy on Summer House. With Summer House being a magnet for Bravo fans, there's a light through the tunnel for Loverboy from the Bravo crowd.
Kyle Cooke And The Highs And Lows Of Loverboy
In an interview with Boston, Cooke said the idea of Loverboy came from his love of Twisted Teas. Being a businessman, he found out how much sugar was in his beloved Twisted Tea and wanted to create specialized alcoholic teas without all the sugar. What soon followed was a line of spritzes.
Because of the popularity of the show, Loverboy became a success among the Bravo crowd, but the brand needed to find itself outside of Bravo, which proved challenging. According to Cooke's behavior on Summer House and in interviews, the alcoholic drink brand has had more lows than highs.
| Year | The Drama |
| 2018 | In 2018, Kyle Cooke created Loverboy with his wife, Amanda Baula's help. What started as a wonderful business venture became drama and angst in their relationship, as shared by US Magazine. Instead of focusing on the flaws in their relationship, Cooke and Batula buried themselves (and their money) into the business. |
| 2023 | Reality TV shared that Cooke once shared on Summer House that he was $4 million in debt from Loverboy. With a net worth of a little over $1 million, the businessman put hundreds of thousands of his own money into the company, and while it earned $16 million in 2022, the pressure of keeping that momentum was paralyzing. |
| 2024 | In season 8 of Summer House, Batula shared with Cooke that she wanted to leave Loverboy to start her own passion. After five years of following Cooke and helping him with Loverboy, it was time for her to find something she loved to do. The news broke Cooke and he begged her to stay with the brand. |
| 2024 | If the possibility of Batula leaving wasn't scary enough, Cooke told her that the timing wasn't right because the company was bleeding money. According to Bravo, Cooke shared, "Nick just filled me in that we lost $1.5 million the first six months of this year." |
Loverboy's financial issues could tank the brand, but it could also destroy the marriage between Cooke and Batula. The couple had ups and downs since the company's start because most of their day-to-day life consisted of Loverboy's business plan.
"If we can't turn a profit in August, then I'm starting to lose hope that we'll do it in the colder months. This is the first time I'm actually scared."
Between Cooke's rift with Conover, the ongoing issues in his marriage over Loverboy's success, and the financial hardships the beverage company has faced, it's unclear where Summer House will see Kyle Cooke in Season 9.
