Once someone signs up to be a reality star, their family and their personal lives are often exposed. Now that Summer House is back for Season 5 on Bravo, naturally, viewers have had questions about Carl Radke’s brother Curtis, who died in August 2020.
While the Bravo series was on hiatus, news broke that Cark’s brother Curtis Radke passed away at the age of 40 due to a drug overdose.
According to his brother, Curtis suffered much of his life with addiction and he had been in and out of treatment centers for years.
Curtis Radke suffered mental health issues
In a post commemorating his brother back in September 2020, Carl opened up about his brother’s death, telling Summer House fans, “A couple of weeks ago, my brother Curtis passed away after a life-long battle with mental illness and addiction.”
He continued, “Losing my big brother is something I never could have imagined, and the sense of loss is even greater.”
Earlier this month, he spoke about Curtis again, this time in an interview with Today.
Recalling his brother, Carl said, “Loving someone with an addiction is extremely tough. For a long time, I felt a lot of fear and shame about my brother because of the stigma that remains around mental health and addiction.”
The last time that Carl had seen his brother in person was at his grandfather’s funeral in 2017. Carl said that he told his brother that he loved him. “I had no idea that it would be the last time we spoke.”
Carls own addiction issues trying to break the cycle
Carl himself has become sober; he has been working with a therapist. In the new season of Summer House, we all get to see a sober Carl who has undergone huge emotional growth.
“It’s kind of interesting. I was trying not to be like him and I ended up turning into him,” Carl said when speaking about his own addiction issues, specifically with alcohol.
Carl spoke openly on Summer House about how close he had become with his brother during the COVID-19 pandemic. He stated: “My brother was in a good place’ before his fatal overdose.”
While Carl was not close to his brother, he has demonstrated how much he loves his family on Summer House.
Known as a mama’s boy, Carl is very close to his mother. Not only does Carl love her, but so does the rest of the cast on Summer House, in addition to the viewers.
Fortunately, Carl has received huge amounts of support from cast members, strangers, and many other Bravo reality stars. We will all need to keep watching to see how Carl handles his new sobriety in a house filled with friends and partying.
Summer House airs Thursdays at 9/8c on Bravo.