Amanda Batula revealed her plans to move to the suburbs — with or without her husband, Kyle Cooke — in the latest episode of Summer House.
“It would be an investment property,” Amanda, 32, told her pals of her and Kyle’s future New Jersey house during the Thursday, April 4, episode of the Bravo series. “We’ll still keep the apartment. But this would be somewhere I can get out of the city.”
Amanda explained that Kyle, 42, is “not ready to leave the city yet,” but she has every intention of moving to the suburbs as soon as possible.
“Sometimes I just need to remove myself from New York,” Amanda said. “So having somewhere I could go for a week or two or a month at a time and it not be at my parents’ [house].”
Paige DeSorbo was shocked by the length of time Amanda was willing to spend away from her husband, replying, “A month at a time?” Ciara Miller, who is also a close friend of Amanda, said under her breath, “He’s not going with her?”
Amanda blocked out the noise, declaring, “I need a change of scenery. [I’m] even over the apartment. We have no outdoor space. I need something else.”
Kyle wasn’t on board with the idea, muttering, “I love our apartment though.” Amanda, however, stuck to her guns, noting that New York City isn’t somewhere she wants to raise kids.
“As we’re thinking about a family … I don’t want to get pregnant with all that riffraff. I think I’d be too stressed out,” Amanda told the group during their Italian dinner in the Hamptons.
Kyle explained that he thought they’d move out of the city “the second they want a playdate in a yard,” but that didn’t fly with his wife.
“You’re not the one day-to-day with the kids, so …” Amanda quipped, before Paige, 31, tried to lighten the mood. “We don’t even know if you’re their daddy,” Paige joked.
When asked point blank whether he’s “willing to compromise” for Amanda, Kyle told their friends, “We’re trying to think through it.”
Danielle Olivera wasn’t buying his answer, replying, “That’s a no in my book.” Kyle just rolled his eyes in response.
Elsewhere in the episode, Kyle and Amanda toured a home outside the city that was listed for $1.4 million. Amanda was instantly “sold” on the house, but Kyle admitted, “I just never saw myself living in New Jersey,” which is where Amanda is from.
Kyle also expressed concerns about what a move would do to their dynamic. “Change is exciting. Change is fun,” he said in a confessional. “I think moving provides short-term relief from our current situation, which is a little bit of a broken record.”
He worried, “But when we’re cut off from New York, then some of the current challenges in our relationship will rear its head.” Kyle confessed, “We’re not a highly functioning, well-oiled machine right now.”
Kyle and Amanda tied the knot in September 2021. They have since butted heads on when to start a family and uproot their lives from NYC to a “house with a yard” in the suburbs.
Since filming season 8 in summer 2023, Kyle and Amanda have eased off the gas when it comes to a possible move.
“Our whole life is still here in the city. So we looked at … maybe we continue to rent [and] we buy a vacation home or a second home,” Kyle exclusively told Us Weekly in February of the couple’s current plan. “We were trying to think outside the box because change is exciting and we’ve been in the same apartment for five years or whatever it is, six years now.”
He revealed: “We’re just trying to find our way and navigating all that with the show and an insanely stressful business that I’m running. It’s a lot. I feel like dogs inadvertently kind of slowed down our baby making. … So we’re just taking it one day at a time.”
