Kyle Cooke and Carl Radke are back and better than ever. With the drama of Summer House Season 7 long behind them — and Radke officially rejoining the Loverboy team part-time — these New York City natives are just where they want to be when it comes to their friendship. However, that doesn’t mean their summer was completely void of turmoil. Ahead of the new season of Summer House, the duo sat down with Decider to dish on all things Season 8 — including the Lindsay Hubbard of it all.

The clear elephant in the room when it comes to the upcoming installment of Summer House, which was filmed in 2023, is the shocking split between Radke and Hubbard, who were set to tie the knot in November of that year. Despite Hubbard’s claims that she was blindsided by Radke’s decision to call off the wedding, he insists that their breakup was not “out of nowhere.” In fact, he teases some “conflict” between him and his ex-fiancée that started during the “first week” of filming.

Aside from Radke, Hubbard also had some residual tension with Danielle Olivera following their fallout in Season 7. According to Cooke, Olivera didn’t even want to film with Hubbard going into the 2023 shared house — which made it even more “surprising” when they mended their friendship later on. He tells us, “For them to do that 180 over the course of effectively, like, a month, I think just proves that, OK, there’s a true friendship there.”

From Radke and Hubbard’s bombshell breakup conversation to Cooke’s iconic mullet, we got the low-down on everything going on in the Hamptons in Season 8. Keep reading for the full interview.

DECIDER: I am so happy to see you guys here together. How are you doing? How is your friendship?

Carl: We’re great. 

Kyle: It’s good. Carl’s back on the payroll as of December. Hot damn. 

Carl: Yeah, it feels good.

Now that Carl is back at Loverboy, do either of you find that  your work dynamic has shifted since his split with Lindsay?

Kyle: Yeah, I want to remind everyone. Like, during the pandemic, our business was taking off. It was extremely stressful. And we only had, like, 10 to 12 employees. And so there’s a lot of responsibility, a lot of pressure, a lot of weight on everyone’s shoulders. And back then I wasn’t really socializing. I kind of cut off all my friends because I was just working, working, working. And so Carl kind of got stuck in that mix where we were once like only friends – it almost sounds like OnlyFans. 

Carl: OnlyFriends. I kind of like it.

Kyle: Yeah, it’s a paywall subscription [laughs]. But I think that now I’ve been able to, like, take a step back and realize, yeah, I mean, I don’t blame him for him wanting to remove himself from the day-to-day, particularly with us not having a non-alcohol option. 

And now that we’re back, having gone through it all, I think we understand, like, he’s going to be part-time. He can have the freedom to do other things to further his career. And, you know, you can kind of pursue your own interests. So I feel like we found the perfect happy medium. And it just took going through something to get there. 

Carl, given your breakup, it must have been nerve-racking to attend BravoCon. What was your strategy going in? How do you think the weekend went?

Carl:  My strategy for going into BravoCon – I was very nervous, obviously very anxious. Kyle actually pushed me really hard the week prior to go to the Winter House premiere party, because prior to that, I really hadn’t been in much of the Bravo environments or seen other friends. 

Kyle: He had hardly been in public.

Carl: I was very sad and depressed, trying to figure out what was going on and how to move forward. But BravoCon actually was a – I texted my parents after just saying, like, I was blown away by the response and reception, not only from some of my castmates, but also the fans and other people at Bravo. 

I had what felt like to me [like] I was walking into kind of like a gauntlet of people that hated me or were really angry, but it was the complete opposite. I’m sure there was some negativity, but I didn’t experience anything whatsoever. The amount of folks that connected with [me], whether it’s sobriety or losing a sibling or anything like that, I mean, it was amazing how many people came up to me. So I had a very positive experience. It’s exhausting. It’s a great time, but it went way better than I ever could have imagined. 

We get a first glimpse at this breakup conversation between you and Lindsay in the trailer. What can you tell us about what led to that conversation?

Carl: I think you’ll see over the course of the summer. Listen, we started out this summer, the first week, and we were there in some conflict. So it wasn’t just like at the end of the summer, all of a sudden, out of nowhere. You will see these ups and downs and the ruptures that had gone on. And I think you’ll see both of us wrestling with these issues and trying to figure out how to move forward to resolve them. 

But I can’t really give away too much because I think it’s just important for everybody to watch the season fully and let it play out. And until then, I mean, it’s hard because even rewatching that part of the trailer back – I almost didn’t remember some of it because it’s so intense. Your body kind of protects itself and you don’t remember every word. But watching it back was very surreal. And seeing her in the bedroom was just a very strange feeling, watching that back. 

But I’m glad it’s out and the Band-Aid is ripped off. And now, one day at a time, just keep moving forward.

Based on what you saw in the summer, Kyle, did you think they would go through with the wedding?

Kyle: There were a lot of red flags. But, I’ll say this: I know both of them really wanted it. I know both of them loved each other. I know that the relationship was built on a really strong friendship where they supported one another. So despite all the red flags, I was still trying to still be that supportive friend that they could lean on. 

It’s almost harder to rise up and cancel a wedding and postpone or end an engagement or a relationship than it is to get down on one knee. But I just got a lot of respect for Carl. And at the end of the day, I feel for both of them. There’s a lot of hurt. There’s broken hearts, etc. I mean, the poor guy was in tears on his birthday because he was alone. So it’s not like this is what either one of them wanted. So it’s tough. 

Were either of you shocked to see Danielle mend her friendship with Lindsay when the wedding got called off? Or were they already repairing things in the summer?

Carl: I think obviously since the reunion last year, I was always trying to promote them getting back together. Actually, funny enough, right after the reunion, Andy [Cohen] even made a comment to me, like, “Can you try and help this along?” Because I think a lot of us in the house wanted Danielle and Lindsay to resolve because they do have that friendship that we all know and love. So they were working on it even after the reunion and going into the summer. So I think they were able to kind of get back to some level of where they were. But I’m not sure where they have been in the last few months as far as their friendship, but I’m happy that they have [made up]. 

Kyle: I was worried because going into the summer, I think it was Danielle who said, like – I don’t think she wanted to film with Lindsay. And for them to do that like 180 over the course of effectively like a month, I think just proves that, OK, there’s a true friendship there. They forgive, they forget. It’s like water under the bridge. And how quickly they came back to one another? That was actually kind of surprising because like I said, it was on the opposite end of that spectrum, like, a month prior.

Kyle, your mullet may be the most impactful mullet on pop culture since Billy Ray Cyrus. What advice would you have for Bravo viewers who might be inspired to grow and style their own?

Kyle: Life’s too short to always have great hair, so take a chance. Put yourself out there. Embrace the puke emojis when you give a mullet update. I don’t take myself very seriously and if this mullet doesn’t prove it, then I don’t know what will. 

Carl: I just want to add really quickly [that] we were at an event in Connecticut last Friday night, and this guy comes up and he goes, “Hey, I’m Kyle Cook.” And his name is Kyle Cook – no “e”. He turns around, he’s got a mullet. And his Instagram handle is @itskylecook and he’s @imkylecooke.

Kyle: It was mental. I’m like, “You’re joking.” He’s like, “Here’s my ID.”

Carl: There’s another Kyle Cooke out there with a mullet. It’s made an impact on pop culture.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Summer House Season 8 premieres on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.