Carl Radke Has Left Loverboy — and Kyle Cooke Has “Respect” for His Decision (EXCLUSIVE)

After three years of working at his best friend Kyle Cooke’s alcohol company, Loverboy, Carl Radke is moving on. 

Ahead of the Summer House Season 7 premiere, Carl confirmed in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that he had left his VP of sales position at Loverboy, though he was still a “proud” investor. 

“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,” he told the outlet. “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.”

During his tenure at the canned alcohol brand, Carl worked under his closest pal and Summer House castmate Kyle. In the Season 7 trailer, Kyle said it seemed like Carl had “checked out” from work ever since he started dating his now-fiancée, Lindsay Hubbard, and that Loverboy “won’t feel a f--king thing” if he left. 

In response, Carl said he felt like he had been “working [his] ass off” and that it was still “not good enough.” While Kyle and Carl’s changing work and friendship dynamic will be featured prominently on Season 7, both cast members have shared insight into where things stand between them now. 

Carl told ET, “Maybe there’s a world we can work together in the future,” and that he has mixed emotions about watching their work disagreement play out on the show. 

“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,” he said. 

Kyle spoke exclusively with The Daily Dish about Carl’s decision to step away from Loverboy and to share his perspective on where their friendship stands now. 

“I always knew it was going to be a possibility, particularly since he’s gotten sober, that he would struggle to kind of make it work,” Kyle explained (Carl celebrated two years of sobriety in January 2023). “From that perspective alone, I’m glad he stuck around for as long as he did.”

When Carl expressed that it was difficult to work for an alcohol brand, Kyle said he tried to give Carl “the flexibility to kind of redefine his responsibilities.”

“That’s where we started to flounder, if you will,” he added. “I think it's going to be a tough season for us to watch, as two friends, because I was frustrated, he was frustrated. I think he was feeling underappreciated, and I felt like I was giving him so much leeway. But, that's just the nature of a start-up. These are high-stress environments. It's not for everybody, and I have to respect Carl's decision to leave.”

"It kind of hurts, but things change," Kyle added about Carl's choice to step back. Now that the two are not working together on a day-to-day basis, however, they have an opportunity to focus on their personal relationship. 

"We [have] to put our friendship on the front burner and make that a priority because it definitely took a backseat. I'm guilty of that..." the Loverboy founder said, before adding that he would be interested in working with Carl again in the future. The two even got dinner to "catch up" ahead of the Season 7 premiere.

"Carl and I have so much love and respect for one another," he said. "When we would get together to try to hash things out, it was almost like we were tip-toeing around some of the sensitive topics."

He's hopeful that he'll remain on positive terms with Carl as the season airs and they have to address those "sensitive topics" head-on. 

"We've been through six seasons of it; it's just never been about our friendship," he concluded.

You can find out what happened between Kyle and Carl in the Hamptons by tuning in to Summer House Season 7. 

Watch Summer House on Bravo Mondays at 9/8c and next day on Peacock. Catch up on the Bravo app.