Amanda Batula and newcomer Ben Waddell raised eyebrows during the Summer House season 10 premiere while giving their housemates the skinny on their NSFW connection.
“We met at a wedding in Italy last year,” Ben, 38, told his new housemates of his relationship with Amanda, 34, and her then-husband Kyle Cooke, during the Tuesday, February 3, episode of the Bravo series. (Amanda and Kyle, 43, confirmed in January that they called it quits after four years of marriage, months after season 10 was filmed.)
Ben, who is from Australia, explained that it was “us two, basically,” referring to himself and Amanda as he let out a nervous laugh.
Amanda laughed too while grabbing something from the fridge, making it seem like something scandalous transpired between them in Europe. Kyle was also making a mischievous face next to Ben as he continued to explain their first encounter.
Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula’s marital issues will be front-and-center on Summer House season 10. “I wanted him to stop going out and partying, and he found a career [as a DJ] where he goes out late and parties,” Amanda, 34, says in a voiceover during the season 10 supertease, which dropped during Peacock’s “Reality […]
“We were up. Yeah, we stayed up,” Ben said, playing coy about what transpired during that first meeting. Amanda teased, “It was great.” Ben then confirmed, “We had a good time.”
West Wilson then asked what everyone in the kitchen was wondering: “Did you guys go to an orgy or something?”
Fellow season 10 newbie Bailey Taylor fired back, “It sounded like it.”
Amanda then broke her silence around the mystery of her and Ben’s meet-cute, telling the cameras, “Ben and I met at my best friend’s wedding in Italy while we were skinny-dipping.”
Ben Waddell. Courtesy of Ben Waddell/Instagram
She let out an awkward laugh during her confessional. “How do I explain this?” Amanda wondered before revealing, “We ended up, me, the bride and Ben skinny-dipping in the pool while Kyle was blasting a speaker walking around the outside of the pool.”
Amanda cheekily added, “We really got to know each at that point, fully nude.”
Back in the kitchen, Jesse Solomon was in total shock over the skinny-dipping confession. “You’ve seen Amanda’s boobs?” he asked in a bewildered tone. “I’ve never even seen them!”
Amanda jokingly replied, “It’s that European water,” as she smirked back at the group.
West, 31, shook his head in disbelief, while Jesse, 32, let out another laugh. Ben, meanwhile, smiled while at the end of the kitchen island.
While Kyle seemed totally fine with Amanda and Ben’s intimate backstory, the topic of his then-wife baring it all around another man appeared to trigger him later in the episode.
During the group’s first summer party — a “County Fair” theme hosted by West — on Independence Day ended with a bang and a fight between the married couple.
As the party came to an end, the majority of the shared house crew jumped into the pool after pieing each other in the face with desserts.
Ben Waddell, Amanda Batula. Eugene Gologursky/Bravo
Amanda joined them but not before stripping down to her bra, which was a nude color, and underwear.
“Wait! Amanda is naked,” West said as the bathing suit designer started to walk into the pool. “Your tits are so out, it’s kinda insane,” he said as Amanda approached the group in the deep end.
When Ben handed Amanda a towel on her way out of the water, Kyle, who was also in the pool in his red, white and blue trunks, noticed how little clothing his spouse was wearing.
“Amanda, you went naked?” Kyle asked, visibly upset.
“No, I have clothes on,” she explained.
Charles Sykes/Bravo; Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images; Jennifer Graylock/NBCUniversal Even West Wilson is curious about his Summer House costars Amanda Batula and Jesse Solomon’s flirty dynamic. “I did text Amanda and was like, ‘Is he clearing these with you before he posts them?’” West, 29, quipped during the Thursday, June 13, episode of “The Viall Files” podcast, […]
Kyle called Amanda’s actions “absurd,” while she was concerned as to whether he was “mad” at her for the incident.
“That would’ve been fun if you, like, told me you were getting skinny,” Kyle said before Amanda chimed in and reminded him they were “all in the pool together.”
Jesse tried to ease the tension, yelling, “Kyle, you could get naked too!”
Amanda was still processing Kyle’s previous comment, asking him, “I had to tell you?” and seemed visibly confused by what was transpiring.
Summer House star Kyle Cooke is speaking out following his split from wife Amanda Batula. “I think people will be surprised but also happy to see that Amanda and I are in a good spot,” Cooke, 43, told “Hollywood Raw” podcast host Adam Glyn in a video shared via TikTok on Thursday, January 22. “Obviously […]
“You were the one topless,” Kyle quipped. Amanda fired back, “I’m not topless.” Kyle, however, wasn’t listening and started off towards the house, saying under his breath, “Just unbelievable.”
In the preview for the rest of the season, Kyle and Amanda’s marital issues continue to be front and center — and Amanda’s connection with Ben doesn’t appear to be making things better.
In one clip from the trailer, Amanda is seen running her hands through Ben’s hair as they chat in her and Kyle’s room.
“Amanda can walk into a room and brighten it up with her smile,” Ben says in the video, which prompts Amanda to smile at him from across the group dining table.
Ben’s remark also causes Bailey to claim, “Ben wants to definitely sleep with you!”
Summer House airs on Bravo Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
