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Cottage ended its tenth season with explosive, messy drama.
It drew many eyes to the Bravo series. It caused quite a bit of condemnation controversial couple who betrayed their friends and kept their entanglements secret as long as possible.
Actually, West Wilson got most of the blame.
Is Amanda Batula the victim of a manipulative love bomber? Not really.
Is she the victim here?
In the bitter aftermath of Cottage Season 10, Batula turned to Lindsay Hubbard – one of the friends who still talks to her – for comfort.
“I’ve made some bad decisions, but … I was in a relationship like that,” Batula insisted.
The relationship in question was her marriage to Kyle Cooke. Incidentally, the two only broke up in January.
“I just wasn’t me anymore,” Batula protested. “And when I went out (with West), I just felt … fun again.”
Feigning introspection, she claimed, “I think maybe I confused going out with West and falling in love with myself again.”
Batula went on to claim the west texted and “stalked” her to hang out.
She says that she most refused … until her separation from Cooke, that is. Then she went out with him instead of staying home.
Hubbard was super sympathetic and believed that West was manipulating Batula when she was at a low point.
Batula expressed feelings of being overwhelmed and overpowered because West seemed to care about her, bombarding her with attention when she felt “unlovable.”
Some on the internet have sided with Batula and believe that West love bombed her. But is that really what happened?
Ciara Miller is the ACTUAL victim here
Look, there are certainly reasons to believe that Batula was not a good place, mentally or emotionally.
After all, she and Cooke apparently did not have sex during their marriage. They got married for yearby the way.
But the amount of sympathy channeled by viewers in Batula’s direction is way out of proportion. Especially when compared to how some have chosen to see Ciara Miller.
Ciara has been called “too harsh” and “mean” for confronting her former best friend on the reunion stage.
She showed passion and heartache and emotion. Batula cried too, but not over her fallen friendship.
On stage, Batula cried when she felt humiliated that Wilson was with Meija Moreno when the two first broke up. She even left the stage.
It was about her—her image, her feelings, her sense of worth.
Meanwhile, whenever anyone, from her co-stars to host Andy Cohen, tried to challenge her for being a bad friend, she would try to wriggle out of the conversation or change the subject or find more excuses.
Batula was not friendless when West beat her. She turned down partying with friends because she felt good about West and because that’s what she wanted to do.
Now she is, if not friendless, doing fewer sports than she did just a few months ago. Betraying your best friend for a man is just not a good look and it makes you the bad guy.
Yes, although the man you betrayed her for is even worse.
