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Credit: Jocelyn Prescod/Bravo
Summer House stars Amanda Batula and West Wilson have broken their silence on the ongoing rumors about the nature of their relationship, confirming that they have, in fact, caught feelings for one another.
Months after she and Kyle Cooke, 43, confirmed they were parting ways after four years of marriage with a joint statement, Amanda, 34, and West, 31, shared a joint post of their own, admitting that while their romance is “very new” and began from a place of genuine friendship, it was also unexpected and not meant to hurt anyone.
“We’ve seen the growing online speculation, so while this is still very new, we wanted to provide some clarity. It was never our intention to purposefully hide anything. Given the complicated dynamics involved and the scrutiny that comes with being on a reality show, we needed a little space to process things privately before speaking on it,” the couple began on March 31.
“We’ve shown up for each other as friends over the years, through all the highs and lows, and what’s developed recently was the last thing that either of us expected. Our connection grew out of a genuine, long-standing friendship, which made it especially important for us to approach this with care,” they continued.
According to Amanda and West, they kept quiet about the relationship as their “feelings evolved” because they wanted to “take time to understand exactly what [they] were feeling.”
They then seemed to acknowledge that their romance grew behind the back of not only Amanda’s estranged husband, but also her best friend, Ciara Miller, 30, with whom West had his own romantic past.
“We also recognize that this has had an impact beyond just us and never wanted our actions to cause any hurt or be perceived as careless,” they explained, adding, “We truly appreciate the understanding and respect as we navigate this.”
Amanda and West’s statement comes just one week after West appeared on Watch What Happens Live, where he insisted that things between them were strictly platonic.
“She’s single now, and it’s happened already to other people that she’s hung out with,” West said of Amanda on the March 24 episode of WWHL. “We were just hanging out in New York. She’s single. I gotta show her the streets a little bit. But if it’s not clear, that’s a very important person to me, and I care about her a lot. That’s a friend.”
Summer House season 10 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.
