Amanda Batula, initially fully committed to her husband Kyle Cooke’s company Loverboy, decided to take a step back from her role as the creative and branding director to focus on their marriage. Despite reducing her involvement, Batula remains connected to Loverboy but has shifted her focus towards finding personal fulfillment and improving her relationship with Cooke.
Amanda Batula took a step back from her intensive role at Loverboy, the company founded by her husband Kyle Cooke, to prioritize their marriage after recognizing the negative impact their work dynamic had on their relationship.
Amanda Batula was totally on board with Kyle Cooke’s business venture, Loverboy, right from the get-go. But, five years down the line, she noticed a toll on their marriage. “I’ve taken a slight step back for the sake of our relationship,” Batula, aged 32, spilled the beans to Us Weekly. She was talking about her gig as the creative and branding director at Loverboy.
The Summer House celeb tied the knot with Cooke, who’s 42, back in September 2021. Initially, she jumped on the Loverboy wagon part-time in 2018. Then, she ditched her job to dive full-time into supporting Cooke’s dream. “I think that we were at a place where I would be frustrated about something happening on my end, and he would take it very personally,” she shared. And vice versa. It was a bit of a mess for their relationship, to be honest.
Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula, a picture of them pops up. It’s from Jordan Strauss/Bravo, capturing a moment between them. Despite the ups and downs, Batula is “still very much involved” with Loverboy. Just not in the “everyday capacity” as before. “I think we needed a little bit of that separation for now,” she admitted. It’s been a positive shift for them, especially since juggling relationship and work issues was a lot.
During Summer House’s season 8, filmed in the summer of 2023, their relationship showed some strain. A lot of it boiled down to finding the right work-life balance. “In the beginning, I was very hesitant to quit my job and work full time for Loverboy. But that’s what Kyle wanted,” Batula reflected during a March episode. She hinted at some regrets, saying, “Maybe we were wrong.”
Batula expressed a desire to step back from the company in a season preview. “I’ve been supporting you and your business for five years. It’s time that I find something that gives me drive,” she confronted Cooke on a boat. Cooke, the founder of Loverboy, seemed taken aback, needing her support still.
“Honestly, I kind of just did it after BravoCon [in November 2023]. I was like, ‘I need some downtime,’” Batula told Us. She never fully dived back into work after that. She attended meetings and did her jobs but started stepping back gradually. Cooke noticed her absence in meetings, and she was like, “Nope.”
Batula’s decision was two-pronged: she wanted to chase her own passions and mend her relationship with Cooke. “I don’t want us to end up resenting each other because of a job. You know what I mean?” she explained to Us. She’s someone who works to live, not the other way around. She feared their joint venture might drive them apart.
This shift to a limited role at Loverboy seems to have done their relationship some good. “[Now] we can focus on our relationship and then hopefully maybe get back to a place where I’m more involved again,” Batula hoped. Around the same time, Cooke’s BFF Carl Radke also returned to Loverboy in a limited role. Radke, 39, had previously announced in February 2023 that he was an investor but had stepped away from working directly with Cooke.
At BravoCon in November 2023, Cooke unveiled Loverboy’s new nonalcoholic line. Radke, who is sober, was instrumental in its launch. Summer House airs on Bravo Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET, with Christina Garibaldi bringing in the reports.
