Kyle Cooke Admitted Amanda Batula ‘Almost Didn’t Come’ to the ‘In the City’ Premiere

Kyle Cooke recently faced online criticism for taking a photo with Amanda Batula at the premiere of In the City. Cooke and Batula ended their marriage in 2025, and she recently went public with her relationship with co-star West Wilson. The new relationship has caused a great deal of backlash because of Batula’s friendship with Ciara Miller. Miller and Wilson were formerly involved. Cooke defended himself against the criticism, noting that he had to talk Batula into attending. 

Kyle Cooke said Amanda Batula almost skipped the ‘In the City’ premiere

At the Monday premiere of In the City, Cooke and Batula took a photo together. Some Summer House fans criticized him for this. 

“You guys, yes, Amanda and I took a picture together,” Cooke said in an Instagram Story. “I was just happy that she showed up.”

Cooke said that amid the backlash to her romance with Wilson, Batula wanted to avoid the event.

“She almost didn’t come to a show that she participated in,” Cooke said. “Shoot me.”

While Cooke said that he is not happy with Wilson, he wanted to be civil with his estranged wife, particularly after he convinced her to come. 

“With all due respect, we’re all adults here and we all showed up to a premiere party,” he said. “And, yes, Amanda did not want to come, and I convinced her to come and we took a photo together.”

Kyle Cooke told fans to be less hard on Amanda Batula

When news of Wilson and Batula’s relationship broke, most of the Summer House cast turned against them. Cooke said that while he wasn’t happy to hear the news, he doesn’t want people to bully her on social media.

“I’m obviously frustrated,” Cooke said in a TikTok video. “I’m obviously disappointed in her, but just hearing her and how unwell she is — [having] dark thoughts — I just ask people to maybe let off the gas a little bit with the cyberbullying and hate.”

‘In the City’ will show the fallout of the relationship

In the City is a Summer House spinoff set in New York City. While the show wrapped filming before Wilson and Batula announced their relationship, they resumed filming to cover the news.

“In the City, which launches in a couple of weeks — you’ll see in the first episode we have a new scene that we shot with a couple of the cast members,” Frances Berwick, NBCUniversal’s Chairman, Bravo & Peacock Unscripted, recently told The Ankler. “So, we did pick it up there, but we just didn’t feel like that was the right thing to do on Summer House.”

Berwick said that the decision to delve into the relationship on In the City came out of concern for “the emotional well-being of the cast members.” She added that they didn’t “think that was right” to show the fallout on Summer House.

“We did take a beat before we covered that,” she said. “And that was obviously in the reunion last week; as everyone now knows, we taped the reunion last week.”

Andy Cohen has said that this season’s Summer House reunion is one of the most emotionally intense that they’ve ever had.