Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Emma Chance | TV | September 12, 2023
If you haven’t seen Summer House then I’m guessing you’re not a dedicated reality TV person and you should stop reading now. This particular show, which follows a handful of wealthy-ish 20- and 30-somethings summering in the Hamptons, is probably the rock bottom of what Bravo has to offer. Get out while you can.
Okay. So.
A couple of weeks ago (I actually looked back in the text thread with the one friend I text with about these things to confirm), August 31st to be precise, news broke that Carl Radke and Lindsay Hubbard, stars of Summer House who got engaged on the show, called off their wedding and broke up.
Radke and Hubbard debuted their relationship in season 7 this past spring (they had been just friends for the previous 6 seasons) and then, much to Hubbard’s best friend, Danielle’s, chagrin, got engaged on the beach in front of cameras. Suffice it to say, their relationship/engagement was not well received by their friends and castmates. Hubbard is kind of a villain, her friendship with Danielle was breaking down, Radke is recently sober so being engaged to a woman who loves to drink seemed tenuous, etc. But, they bucked the haters and soldiered on until they, well, didn’t.
Radke wrote a letter to family and friends, which has since been released to People, explaining it all.
“Words cannot possibly express how difficult the last two weeks have been for Lindsay and I. [sic] We are so incredibly sorry to all of our guests for the confusion and lack of communication.” Oh yeah, I guess the wedding guests had already booked their rooms? And those are maybe nonrefundable? But, he suggests they could still go to Mexico for a vacation anyway? Tragic.
“We were left trying to figure out how all this exactly happened before we could even have the opportunity to determine the path forward amongst ourselves. There have been a lot of false narratives and misunderstandings that have made this all the more painful but sadly at this time we are not moving forward with the wedding. The fact of the matter is Lindsay is devastated and I’m crushed with how all this transpired. I graciously ask for some patience and grace to heal and recover while we navigate this extremely difficult time.”
I’ve been waiting to cover this until either Radke or Hubbard officially addressed it, and I guess this is the best I’m gonna get. Since this letter broke, both of them have deleted most of the evidence of each other and their relationship from their Instagram accounts. Or, the really lovey stuff, at least. Ouch. That’s when you know it’s real.
What bothers me about this whole thing, though, is that this is basically what happened with Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval (minus the cheating) from Vanderpump Rules, as well as Kyle Richards and Mauricio Umansky of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: reality stars portray their relationship as a happy one when cameras are running, then something happens or they break up off camera, news of that breaks, and then the cameras pick up again. It’s confusing. Is it a strategy to get viewers? Or are they trying to hide their dirty laundry but end up getting caught anyway? I’m not one of those “You signed up for this” people—if you don’t want your divorce shown on camera, that’s your prerogative. But it seems to me like we’re really stretching the definition of reality when what happens on camera and what happens in real life are so muddled. To be clear, I mean that I don’t need actual “reality.” These are shows. I know they’re not completely real. But lately, it’s like, they are? And that’s getting weird. The line is fuzzy.
And, to be frank, I never saw the chemistry between Radke and Hubbard. I didn’t buy it. I guess they wouldn’t plan a whole wedding and invite their families to Mexico if they didn’t intend to actually marry each other, but I don’t know. Maybe it was a plan to capitalize on the success of Scanodval and it went too far. I guess we’ll have to tune in to find out. Eyeroll.
