I think I speak for every Summer House fan when I say watching Lindsay and Carl’s breakup was low-key traumatic. That’s why as the season 8 reunion finally approached, the mere mention of those two sitting across from each other on a couch had me biting my nails in nervous anticipation. Little did I know, there was another couple on the outs that I should have been worried about, and I’m not talking about the obvious trainwreck that is Amanda and Kyle. Part 1 of the reunion had me shook because of West and Ciara’s relationship status (obvi using the term loosely). Even though I knew Ciara crying in the trailer for the reunion couldn’t be good, I secretly suspected/hoped it was a misleading distraction by the editors. Boy, was I wrong. One thing I wasn’t wrong about was my growing opinion over the final weeks of the season that the “New Number One Guy in the Group,” according to the NYT, was a little too good to be true (for starters, a man who has a signature squint and pose is instant grounds for ick in my book, but I digress). Let’s unpack all the surprisingly brutal details on West and Ciara’s relationship update from the reunion.
Do West and Ciara still talk?
That’s a hard no with a fuck in front of it if you ask Ciara. The way West gagged as she walked into the room looking hotter than Hades without giving him a wayward glance already let me know shit had gone way left. Then when Ciara said she “got got” by West, I was disappointed but not surprised. She was clearly very deeply hurt, while West was more visibly apathetic to the situation. But once Andy probed for the gory details of their situationship’s demise, I was surprised, aghast, and dare I say horrified (yes I dare because I’m very dramatic!!).
Why did West and Ciara break up?
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The short answer is that West liked the lights, camera, and action more than being with Ciara. Yikes, let that sink in. The long version we got from both sides and their friends at the reunion is that after the show wrapped West and Ciara continued to see each other every week all the way up to December. In that time, they stayed with West’s parents at their farm in Missouri, visited West’s brother in Chicago, and went to a wedding together — all while never becoming boyfriend and girlfriend. At this point, my jaw was on the floor. Ciara… the one who was so clear about protecting her energy and requiring commitment to match their constant cuddle time… somehow let West con her into being in a committed relationship without the actual commitment! I’m sorry, but is he THAT funny?
By early December they had a dinner where West told Ciara he could not or rather would not be able to be her boyfriend and he wanted to cut it off now before it got any messier (lol the boy math here is out of control). West wanted to be able to start his Bravolebrity career, with a heavily female audience, sans girlfriend who could make things complicated. I mean, simply how could he host a watch party with 40 fans at City Winery when he had a needy girlfriend waiting at home?! Even more shockingly, before the season aired, West was seeing that all of his press was already tied to his potential romance with Ciara. He didn’t love the idea of debuting in the Bravoverse “as Ciara’s puppet” which he acknowledged may have been a smidge narcissistic. But as Paige said, standing in Ciara’s shadow would be a very lucky place for any man to live, no?
Because he broke up with her once the show stopped filming, Ciara feels their entire romance was insincere “to a point.” She thinks it was easy and helpful for him to fall under her wing, and spend time with her in the house as the new guy. But as soon as it came time to prove his feelings were real he went onto the next bar while she went home crying. West was extremely worried because his parents warned him he may come off looking like an “asshole” now. His admitting to lying to Paige on the boat that he wasn’t sleeping with other women all summer def didn’t help that cause (his defense was that he hadn’t had that conversation with Ciara yet). West was so concerned about maintaining a certain image with the fandom he may have self-fulfilled his own insecure prophecy of not being the favorite.
Did West and Ciara have sex?
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I genuinely hate to put her on blast like this, but it was a big point of contention on the show, so much so that Andy had to address it at the reunion. Yes, Ciara and West, finally hooked up. Now that Ciara feels West never wanted a true relationship with her, she said he got “everything he wanted,” despite her making her intentional “old-school” dating style crystal clear from day one.
