Kyle Cooke has spent his entire adult life building things, some that worked, some that nearly sank him. He is best known as one of the original cast members of Bravo’s Summer House, but the show has always been a backdrop to his actual ambition: turning himself into a beverage entrepreneur. Cooke put $100,000 of his own money into launching Loverboy in 2018, and by 2026 he was personally guaranteeing millions in loan debt to keep it alive. His run on The Traitors Season 1 was a brief, sharp detour, one where his read on another player’s lie became one of the game’s more consequential moments, even though it cost him his own spot in the process.
Before any of that, Cooke was a business-school kid with a string of ventures behind him, most of which never made it onto television.
Building a Résumé Before Reality TV
Cooke was born on August 4, 1982, in Baltimore, Maryland, and earned an MBA from Babson College in 2011. Before Summer House, he founded Nightjockey, a New York City company built around nightlife and restaurant management technology. He later worked at ZocDoc pursuing sales targets for the healthcare scheduling company, then moved to Dallas in 2014 to co-found and advise a business called Blown Away. None of it made him famous. Summer House did that, and he met co-star Amanda Batula around the time the show began filming.
Founding Loverboy
In 2018, Cooke put $100,000 of his own money into launching Loverboy, a canned hard tea and cocktail brand, while he was still filming Summer House full time. The brand grew fast by beverage-startup standards, expanding beyond hard tea into spritzes and canned cocktails, and at one point reached an estimated $16 million in annual sales working with more than 150 distributors across 44 states. Its valuation was pegged at roughly $38 million during that stretch, turning Cooke from a cable-TV personality with a side hustle into a genuine beverage-industry founder.
That growth came with debt attached to it. Cooke personally guaranteed a $4.2 million SBA loan to keep the company funded. He is five years into the loan’s 10-year term, having paid down about $1.3 million, with roughly $2.9 million left on a balance he alone is on the hook for. By 2025 and into 2026 he was speaking publicly about how precarious things had become: a single month where Loverboy lost $175,000, roughly $50,000 in monthly loan payments to cover, and a half-million-dollar personal check written just to make payroll. He has said he stopped taking a salary to stretch the company’s cash reserves.
Cooke got an unlikely financial lifeline in early 2026, when Summer House’s coverage of Batula’s real-life relationship with castmate West Wilson — a relationship the pair confirmed publicly in March 2026 — drove a wave of attention his way. Cooke has since described Loverboy as having been on the brink of financial disaster before that attention turned into a surge of orders, effectively turning his marriage’s collapse into free marketing for the business it nearly took down with it.
The storyline followed him past that initial wave. At the “In The City” reunion — a Summer House spinoff — that aired July 28, 2026, Batula told Cooke directly why she was staying with Wilson, saying he gave her something she felt had been missing in her marriage.
Catching a Lie on The Traitors
On The Traitors, Cooke was cast as a Faithful and quickly earned a reputation as one of the sharpest social read players in the house. After Ryan Lochte was murdered in Episode 5, Cooke picked apart a story Cody Calafiore told him, a lie that didn’t hold up and helped expose Calafiore as a Traitor. It was one of the game’s better pieces of detective work. It didn’t save him, though: Cooke was banished that same episode, finishing 13th of 20.
Marriage, Separation, and Life Now
Cooke married Batula in 2022 after the two became one of Summer House’s longest-running couples on camera. In January 2026, the couple announced they were separating after roughly four years of marriage, having never signed a prenuptial agreement, a detail that raised its own questions about the future of Loverboy given how tied Batula had been to the brand’s public image. Batula has since said she is no longer involved in Loverboy’s day-to-day operations and hasn’t actively worked there in some time, though she still appears in select creative projects, including the brand’s Flirty Shirley collaboration with Boys Lie.
Cooke’s own dating life has moved quickly since the split. He described himself as single in a June 10, 2026 interview with PEOPLE, saying he was “on his own” following the separation. Within weeks, Bravo-affiliated coverage began linking him to Salley Carson after a reported kiss between the two, though neither has made an on-record, exclusive-relationship confirmation as of this writing.
Between a marriage playing out on camera and a business he has personally bankrolled to keep afloat, Cooke has kept talking about both rather than going quiet, treating the mess as material the same way Summer House always has. His Season 1 Traitors run remains a small, sharp chapter in a career built mostly on turning personal chaos into a public brand, whether that brand is a canned cocktail or his own marriage.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much money has Kyle Cooke put into Loverboy?
Cooke started the company with $100,000 of his own money in 2018 and has personally guaranteed a $4.2 million SBA loan, at times writing checks of $500,000 or more of his own money to cover payroll.
Are Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula still married?
They announced their separation in January 2026 after roughly four years of marriage. They had no prenuptial agreement, raising questions about how their shared stake in Loverboy would be handled.
Did Kyle Cooke win The Traitors?
No. He played as a Faithful in Season 1, helped expose Cody Calafiore as a Traitor by catching him in a lie, and was banished that same episode, finishing 13th of 20.
Is Amanda Batula dating West Wilson?
Yes. Batula and Wilson confirmed their relationship publicly in March 2026. The story continued into the “In The City” reunion, which aired July 28, 2026, where Batula told Cooke directly that Wilson provided something she felt was missing in her marriage.
Is Kyle Cooke dating anyone after his split from Amanda Batula?
As of a June 2026 PEOPLE interview, Cooke described himself as single. More recent Bravo-affiliated coverage has linked him to Salley Carson following a reported kiss, though neither has publicly confirmed an exclusive relationship.
