There’s nothing like a Vermont vacation to mend a broken heart.
Bravo stars stars Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula explained on the latest episode of Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast that Tom Schwartz joined “Winter House” Season 2 to flee his then-crumbling marriage to Katie Maloney.
“Schwartz was like, ‘Dude, we need an escape,’” Cooke, 40, says of his pal’s decision to travel cross country with fellow “Vanderpump Rules” OG Tom Sandoval.
“I think there were some rumors swirling at the time, but they wanted to come and just hang out, like, two buddies escaping, coming over to the East Coast,” Batula, 31, elaborates.
“And we just wanted to show them a good time. And that’s what we focused on with them. We didn’t even know what was going on. We just knew that they wanted to have fun. We know how to do that.”
In the trailer for the sophomore installment of the reality series, Schwartz admits that he couldn’t “imagine life” without estranged wife Maloney, 35, weeks before she made their breakup public.
The show — which convenes cast members from “Summer House,” “Pump Rules” and “Southern Charm” plus several new faces — was filmed this past February and March.
Maloney announced her split from Schwartz on March 15 and filed for divorce one week later.
“I don’t think we found out until we got back to New York,” Cooke recounts. “That’s when they both posted. I actually, the only way I knew how to handle it … I texted them both on the same thread. I was like, ‘I don’t know how else I would do this. I love both of you.’”
The Loverboy co-founder goes on to say that he “immediately cried” upon learning the news. “I was, like, bawling my eyes out,” he reveals. “I was like, ‘Oh my God.’”
Schwartz and Maloney began dating in September 2010 and tied the knot in front of Bravo cameras in August 2016. After realizing they didn’t have a valid marriage license, they got legally married in Las Vegas in July 2019. The exes settled their divorce last month.
While Schwartz and Maloney’s marriage is over, Cooke and Batula are still basking in the glow of their first wedding anniversary. The pair tied the knot on Sept. 25, 2021, following a three-year engagement.
“It’s been great,” Cooke says of the couple’s first year as husband and wife, while also acknowledging the setbacks they experienced before their nuptials, which aired on “Summer House” Season 6. .
“We’re just relishing in the fact that we are happily married now and no one’s questioning if we’re going to actually pull it off.”
Batula recently celebrated their milestone with a touching TikTok post, accompanied by Caroline Jones’ “So Many Skies,” a tender love song featuring Matthew Ramsey that has gone viral on the social media app this year.
“That’s a beautiful song. Kyle and I, we met, started dating, got engaged and got married all around the month of September,” she gushes. “I was going through photos of us and putting them with that song, it just all kind of came together.”
“Winter House” Season 2 premieres Thursday, Oct. 13, at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.