Kyle Cook and Ex Amanda Batula Smile and Laugh Together Days After His Bombshell PEOPLE Interview About Their Split

NEED TO KNOW

• Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula were seen laughing and smiling in New York City on June 11 in photos obtained by PEOPLE

• The sighting, which was captured after they filmed the In the City reunion, came just days after Cooke sat down exclusively with PEOPLE to debrief the Summer House season 10 reunion and his split from Batula after four years of marriage

• Cooke said that his priority is still to “somehow, some way have an amicable split” and that he still has “a lot of love” for Batula

Things certainly appear to be cordial between Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula.

On Thursday, June 11, the exes were seen in New York City exiting a studio after filming the reunion for In the City, Bravo’s new Summer House spinoff series, in photos obtained by PEOPLE. Both Cooke, 43, and Batula, 34, were smiling and seemed to be laughing in the photos, and Cooke had his arm slightly wrapped around his estranged wife’s back.

The photos were taken just days after Cooke sat down with PEOPLE exclusively for his first interview following the explosive Summer House season 10 reunion, where Batula and West Wilson were put on the spot by their castmates over their controversial relationship, which they confirmed on March 31.

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Cooke told PEOPLE that Batula’s relationship with Wilson still “doesn’t feel real” sometimes, “until I see them together.”

“I considered West a really good friend, and this is just not something I can fathom doing to anybody that’s close to me. We’re a close-knit family, it’s like he’s banging his sister.”

Cooke and Batula announced their separation after four years of marriage in January, two months after Batula moved out of their shared apartment.

“When she finally did move out, we were creating separation, to make an effort with one another. So the idea was, we go to couples therapy and we go on a date every single week,” Cooke said. “Well, none of that happened. We weren’t really putting in any more effort or work into the marriage.”

Cooke’s priority is still to “somehow, some way have an amicable split,” as the photos depict. “There’s still a lot of love there, still a lot of regrets. I think the part that hurts is when she talks about our marriage and our relationship like there were no good times.”

He also said that Batula “would have been well served being single and working on herself and going to therapy” instead of jumping into a new relationship with Wilson, 31.

“I think that was one of my biggest issues over the last couple of years is: there’s talking about mental health and depression, then there’s like doing something about it. I think she was probably lonely for a long time, because I was lonely for a long time, and I think that West immediately filled a void.”

Batula was adamant during the season 10 reunion that there was no overlap between her marriage to Cooke and her romance with Wilson, and insisted that “everything that was happening was PG” between them when they were initially denying speculation in February. “This is not the craziest thing that’s ever happened in the whole entire world,” she told her castmates. “You guys are acting like I had an affair.”

In April, she released a statement on her Instagram Stories letting fans know that she was “truly sorry to everyone I’ve disappointed and hurt,” but she was “going to try to start living life with some sense of normalcy.”

“If you see me out or posting online, please know that this still weighs very heavily on me. I’m not ignoring what’s happened or what’s unfolded,” she said at the time.

New episodes of In the City air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.

Read the original article on People