Carl Radke is one of the few current Summer House cast members who has been a part of the show since the beginning. He joined the house alongside Kyle Cooke and Lindsay Hubbard, who have also been on the show since season 1. Carl was a bit of a player in the house during the earlier seasons, but he was still one of the most beloved cast members as well. The viewers enjoyed his charismatic, out-going, and lovable personality. Carl quickly became a fan-favorite.
The Bravo reality series aired its first season in 2017, and the show centered around a group of nine friends who share a house for the summer. The house took place in Montauk, an affluent city just outside of New York City. Carl and the rest of his friends would head down to the house for the weekend for the summer after a long week of working. They used this time in the summer house to let loose and have some fun before heading into another work week. Now that five seasons have passed, only Carl and few others are still standing in the Summer House.
Since filming Summer House season 5, 36-year-old Carl Radke has been keeping his mind busy by hanging out with friends and family, as well as keeping his sobriety in check. According to his recent posts on Instagram (as seen below), Carl has been promoting the season 5 reunion, which has now concluded. He also created a shirt to honor his brother's memory. In September 2020, Carl's brother Curtis passed away after a long battle with addiction and mental illness. Carl mimicked the DARE shirt with his own "'Summer spin on it," and he pledged that 100% of the proceeds would be donated to Shatterproof, a non-profit organization committed to changing the stigma around addiction. After his brother's passing, Carl made the conscious decision to become sober.
Since leaving the house last year, Carl has been working on his sobriety. During the recent reunion episodes of Summer House, he told host Andy Cohen that he is 92 days sober. After a rough summer and winter, Carl is now in the best place he's ever been. He started to go down a dark path a few months following his brother's passing, which began to scare the people closest to him. For instance, his friend and co-star Kyle Cooke was there for Carl during his darkest time. "He came over to my apartment, and he told me he loved me," Carl said at the reunion. "When you lose your brother and you don’t have that, like, male influence that you wanted for so long, Kyle’s been my brother, man." Carl's sobriety is more important to him than ever now that he's lost his brother.
2020 was a rough year for everyone, and it hit Carl pretty hard due to the loss of his brother. Losing someone is difficult enough, but having to lose them while filming a TV show is even more challenging. However, Carl was able to cope with the pain of losing his brother and is now a better person for it. Not only is he working with charities that want to end the stigma around addiction, but he has also made the conscious decision to get sober himself. Hopefully, he will returns for Summer House season 6 so that fans can get to know the new fully-sober Carl.
Sources: Carl Radke on Instagram