Summer House star Lindsay Hubbard has finally opened up about her “humiliating” breakup with Carl Radke after he called off their engagement on camera.
In a new interview with Us Weekly, the 37-year-old publicist didn’t hold back speaking about her breakup with the 38-year-old TV personality. Back in September, the Bravo co-stars - who have appeared on seven seasons of Summer House since it first premiered in 2017 - announced they had split just two months before their wedding.
According to Page Six, their breakup was reportedly filmed and will likely be included in the upcoming eighth season of Summer House.
Now, Hubbard has revealed that, although she was “blindsided” by Radke calling off the wedding, she’s currently in the process of healing from the breakup. “I was completely blindsided,” she told the outlet. “He blew up my entire life. I was crying, I was angry, and I had to find closure on my own. Now I’m at a place where I feel really good about moving on.”
The reality TV star explained that there were no red flags prior to Radke ending their engagement, and claimed he never gave her a concrete reason for calling off the nuptials. “Every couple has normal arguments, but nothing that would’ve been so drastic as to break up,” Hubbard said. “It was literally the last two weeks of summer that his demeanour and tone changed. There was a lot of combativeness and aggression on his end, and I was very confused.”
The former couple spent the summer planning their lavish wedding - which was meant to take place on 17 November in Mexico - while filming for Summer House. Hubbard noted that the planning process was “high-stress”, but claimed that “people got in [Radke’s] ear” about their relationship.
However, she maintained that perhaps the most “humiliating” part about the breakup was that it happened on camera. “It was absolutely humiliating. It would’ve been one thing if this conversation happened over the summer during the normal filming schedule,” she said. “But for [Carl] to call up producers and then set up cameras and manipulate me into sitting down [so he could break up with me] after we’d already wrapped is scary. The whole world found out within 30 minutes of me.”
Hubbard and Radke sparked up a close friendship on the first season of the Bravo reality series Summer House, which follows a group of young, hard-working New York City dwellers as they head to The Hamptons and share a house together on the weekends between Memorial Day and Labour Day. In season four, Hubbard and Radke decided to take their friendship to the next level and gave romance a try, before ultimately realising they’re better off as friends.
That is, until they began dating again by the end of the sixth season. While filming Summer House in August 2022, Radke proposed to Hubbard on camera and surprised her with an impromptu engagement party surrounded by friends and family.
However, their romance received much criticism from their fellow castmates, as many expressed concern that Hubbard and Radke were moving too quickly in their relationship. While her Summer House co-stars may have believed they were moving too fast, Hubbard explained it was her close friendship with Radke that was the foundation of their romance.
“When you create a friendship that we had over eight years, you know this person; you know their quirks, flaws and boundaries. You bypass that getting-to-know-you phase,” she said. But for Hubbard, the “hardest part” of their breakup was that she feels she “lost my best friend than my fiancé.”
Another concern her Summer House co-stars expressed was that Radke had recently suffered the heartbreaking loss of his older brother Curtis - who battled with mental health and addiction - in 2020. The event inspired Radke to stop drinking, and he celebrated two years of sobriety earlier this year. When asked whether Radke’s sobriety had impacted his decision to call off the engagement, Hubbard simply replied: “No, not at all.”
While Hubbard’s co-stars often questioned her and Radke’s romance, she maintained that they were just as shocked as her by how the breakup unfolded. “No one saw it coming, not one person. There were no red flags,” she said. “Two weeks before he called it off, I was at my bridal shower and he showed up. One week before, I was at my dress fitting and he was fitting for his suits with all of his groomsmen. It had nothing to do with wedding planning. There was no cheating.”
Despite their initial hesitation about the relationship, the former PR executive explained how her girlfriends - including co-stars Danielle Olivera, Amanda Batula, Paige DeSorbo, and Ciara Miller - supported her in the wake of the split.
“I have the most amazing group of girlfriends who rallied around me. We talked, we cried,” Hubbard said. “And women are detectives, right? So we sat for the first week just, like, psychologically dissecting every bit and piece of this entire breakup.”
Hubbard’s relationship with Radke put a strain on her friendship with best friend Olivera, who also expressed concerns that they were moving too quickly. Now, the reality TV star admitted she’s glad to be “rebuilding” her friendship with Olivera and other women in the cast. “Whenever something happened with Carl, they were right there to validate me and give advice. It became a story about sisterhood,” she said.”
As for Summer House star Kyle Cooke, who’s been a mainstay on the Bravo series since season one, getting their friendship back on solid ground may take some more time. “Kyle has always had it out for me,” Hubbard claimed. “He thinks that I’m some master manipulator who controls the universe and he’s good friends with Carl. I think part of him wants to give Carl an ally, and part of him just always thinks I’m the one who’s in the wrong. I’m used to it at this point.”
Following reports that Radke had called off their engagement, he sent a letter to family and friends announcing that he and Hubbard will be cancelling their upcoming nuptials too. In the letter, which was obtained by People, Radke apologised for any inconveniences that calling things off just two months before the wedding may have caused.
“Words cannot possibly express how difficult the last two weeks have been for Lindsay and I,” he wrote. “We are so incredibly sorry to all of our guests for the confusion and lack of communication. We were left trying to figure out how this all exactly happened before we could even have the opportunity to determine the path forward amongst ourselves.”
Radke wrote that they were “not moving forward with the wedding” and he was “crushed with how all this transpired,” adding: “I graciously ask for some patience and grace to heal and recover while we navigate this extremely difficult time.”
He acknowledged that guests had already committed “money and time” to the nuptials and he would “do what I can to help with any costs associated with changing plans.” Radke suggested alternative plans to his guests, such as still going to Mexico for a vacation or cancelling their reservations.
“I’m sorry again this has become such a mess," he wrote. "Thanks for your unconditional love and support during this tough time. Will be in touch with further updates. With love, Carl.”
When asked by Us Weekly how Hubbard has managed the finances and “logistics” of cancelling the wedding, she explained how that responsibility falls on Radke alone. “Since Carl decided to call off the wedding, he can be responsible for sending the email [to the guests]. Why would it be on me? This was not my decision,” she replied.
As for what she decided to do with her engagement ring, Hubbard revealed that she gave it to her jeweller to sell because she needed to “make up for all the lost money on the wedding”. While she and Radke still share an apartment in Manhattan, the reality TV star also divulged that she’s the only person living in their home at the time.
Despite their dramatic breakup, Hubbard still expressed no regrets about her time spent with Radke. “I absolutely will never have regrets about being with him [and] loving somebody with everything that I have. Every experience, you learn and grow and navigate better the next time,” she said.
The Summer House star has often spoken on the series about her desire to start a family, and while her wedding is no more, Hubbard maintained that she “will never give up on love” - and that she’s grateful she decided to freeze her eggs.
When asked what her breakup with Radke has taught her about herself, Hubbard revealed that the process has helped her discover just how strong she actually is, saying: “If I can get through this, then everything else is peanuts to me.”
