“Summer House” star Carl Radke left Kyle Cooke’s Loverboy after three years.
“I’m beyond proud of what I’ve done for that company, but for me day to day — I’m doing other things now which is great,” Radke, 38, told Entertainment Tonight on Friday.
“I’m fully supportive of the company, I still get texts and emails about Loverboy, I pass them to the right person, but I think it was best I moved on.”
The former VP of Sales emphasized that he’s still “proud” to remain an investor in the sparkling hard teas and canned cocktail brand.
“Maybe there’s a world we can work together in the future,” he said of Cooke, 40. “Kyle and I just got dinner together the other night, you know? We’re friends. It’s gonna be hard to relive all of it but I think both of us are very supportive of the journey.”
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Radke was most likely referring to the work tension that plays out on the upcoming season of the hit Bravo show.
At one point in the season, the trailer shows Cooke screaming that Radke could “walk away from the company right now and the company won’t feel a f–king thing.”
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“I was pretty surprised,” Radke admitted. “I really feel like I’ve worked incredibly hard, from morning to night, not only being on the computer and the phone but being out in the public promoting events, parties.”
The Bravolebrity emphasized that growing the business was a “group effort” between Cooke and his wife and Creative Director, Amanda Batula, but he still found the former’s comments “sad” and “a cop out.”
“I didn’t really fully open up to him about some of my frustrations until probably a little bit past when he was kind of going, ‘What the heck’s going on?’” he admitted.
“So there’s a little bit of that, but listen — I love Kyle. We’re friends. It’s gonna be hard to watch, no doubt, but I’m optimistic about the future. I mean, I think [we’re still] figuring out the friend aspect.”
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As for why Radke decided to step down from the brand, he explained that he was questioning if it was “the best fit” for him as he recently celebrated being sober for the last two years.
“When we’re standing in bars and traveling all around, and doing all this stuff, and I’m looking at it, I’m like, this doesn’t align necessarily authentic with me,” Radke said. “It’s challenging, the environment.”
The reality TV star explained that he always wanted to “support” Cooke and “believed in his vision,” but it’s time for him to “reconsider” his professional career — which he now sees as something in film production, non-alcoholic beverages and maybe even a podcast with his fiancée, Lindsay Hubbard.
Meanwhile, Cooke recently told Page Six that despite their ups and downs on the upcoming season, they’re on a “good” friendship level, while Batula added the two, “definitely go through it this summer.”
Reps for Loverboy didn’t immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.