Lexi Wood wants to clear a few things up. First of all, it’s kind of obvious if you’ve been following her on social media, but her Summer House romance with co-star Jesse Solomon is over. Trust her, it’s for the best.
“A lot happened in two months,” Wood, 27, tells me over coffee in New York of her brief yet intense fling with Solomon. “Like damn, that’s the worst relationship I’ve ever been in.”
When she decided to join the Bravo reality show for its ninth season, Wood wasn’t focused on finding a boyfriend. She was focused on deepening her friendships with her acquaintances and now co-stars and trying out a new platform for her already burgeoning career as a model and influencer.
But from nearly the first moment she stepped into the house, she and Solomon were instantly attracted to one another. For a while it seemed like we were watching a whirlwind, exciting romance play out.
Now, watching it back, Wood says she’s been stunned by some of the things Solomon said, both to the cameras and to the housemates. When she watches scenes where Solomon says things like claiming he felt pressured to introduce Wood to her parents before he was ready, it’s been a dizzying gut punch of realizing how he was speaking about her.
“It’s really disappointing,” she says. “It’s really disheartening to see someone that I really was being so pure with could make it so sour… I definitely feel, now, looking back, like I was very isolated.”
In response to Wood’s comments on their relationship in this article, Solomon tells Glamour that he respects her and wishes her “nothing but the best.”
“Our relationship meant a lot to me, and I’m grateful for everything it taught me,” he says. “Sometimes connections shift, especially in a setting like this where everything is under a microscope and conversations are happening through a game of telephone. As far as being called dishonest, I really do try to be transparent. I think there were just some miscommunications and heightened emotions, which is understandable given the environment.”
It’s been nearly a year since she filmed the season and Wood says she wants to share her truth about how the relationship felt to her in real time, and what she’s realized since the cameras stopped rolling. She chatted with Glamour about what she’s learned since watching the show, that infamous “toe-sucking” incident, and why she’s so grateful to the Bravo community.
Glamour: Your relationship with Jesse has been your main storyline this year on Summer House. Ultimately, why did it end?
Lexi Wood: It just got to a point where I was like, “there’s no way that I’m going to be able to be long distance with this person when I just don’t feel like I can trust him at all.”
His actions completely took the compatibility we had, and really made me realize that that’s not the one that I want to be pouring my heart into a long distance relationship with him and my time.
In the first episode of this season, it got hot and heavy between you and Jesse fast. Did the show accurately portray how your relationship developed? Was it really that quick?
Yes, until the very end of summer…It was even heavier than what the house saw. It was intense.
What was that like for you? Were you into it?
I am such a lover. I was like, oh my God, this is great. I love it when a guy is like, yeah, this is what I want. Watching back, I wish there was more honesty because I would have made different decisions and choices. I wish that I was able to have more knowledge so I could have the autonomy to make those decisions, whereas having a lack of knowledge, I’m just going by what I’m seeing.
The narrative on the show has been that Jesse was unsure about the speed with which your relationship was progressing, but you also expressed some doubt. Were you all in at the time?
I think in front of my face, Jesse was very different. Behind my back, he had a lot of things that he did not communicate to me. All I saw was him moving so fast, him going for it, him texting me, calling me, wanting to hang out. We would hang out six days a week and he would’ve hung out at seven if I wasn’t like, “I need a break. I need to sleep for a day.”
We would go for dinners, we would go for walks, we would hang out, watch movies, the regular couple stuff, talk about our future. But definitely my feelings were always trying to catch up. So he would set a bar and then I’d be like, okay, perfect. He’s setting the bar. Let me meet him there, and I’d meet him there, and then he’d set it higher and higher.
Your approach to your relationship with Jesse from the beginning was that you only wanted to move forward if you were seeing each other exclusively. Why was that important to you?
I am a relationship girl. A hundred percent. I feel like having strong boundaries as a woman is so important. That’s one thing that I’ve always been really strong about on my social media to instill confidence in young girls to say, no, this is my body, my choices, my heart, my everything. If you want access to that, here’s the boundaries that I’m laying down. You can accept it where you don’t have to, that’s totally fine. But I’m strong in my boundaries.
What are your boundaries?
I am always exclusive. Exclusive dating is really important. I think exclusivity for me is just protecting my emotional health, physical health, my mental health. I think making sure that you are equally filling each other’s cup is really important. Instead of filling 10 other cups, I just want to give it the best shot that we can…At the end of the day, we’re two human beings. We have to give it the best shot we can. If you are not on that page, that’s totally okay, but you have to communicate.
And you had that conversation with Jesse as well.
On our first date, I was like, “I’m a relationship girl. I am not hooking up with anyone that I’m not in that exclusivity with. Again, to protect my physical health, mental health, emotional health. That’s number one for me. If you’re not there, that’s totally fine.”
Jesse told the rest of the house you’d given him other boundaries as well, including not commenting on your female castmates’ Instagrams for fun, to “gas them up.” Was that accurate?
I think he never said it in front of my face because then I would’ve corrected him. But he would say it behind my back, which in turn did make me very isolated from everyone else because obviously they hear these things and they’re like, what the heck? But that’s not how the conversation went. The conversation was like… I still want you to be you and show your personality. But I think that there’s a more respectful way that you can do it by making every girl feel like they could have you. Instead, make them feel like you’re their best friend.
He kept saying, oh, they’re like my sisters. But they all think that you would date them. And Ciara said that she thinks that he would date her. So that’s where I was coming from, and clearly I was right because she felt like that too.
What about asking him to not follow girls on Instagram?
I got so many DMs at the start of summer like, he’s following all these girls, you need to watch your back. But at the time, he didn’t give me any reason to not trust him—until after the toe situation. I was like, “you what?” And then I looked and I was like, “Oh, he is following all these girls.”
They were like college girls… University of Alabama. I’m like, “you don’t know her.” I didn’t tell him to unfollow anyone. I never told him to unfollow exes. I never told him any of that. I just said, “stop following college girls. If you want to date me, stop doing that.”
Okay, so there’s been a lot said about the now-infamous incident, where Jesse hopped into bed with your castmate, Imrul, while he was having a threesome and “got his toe sucked.” Is there anything else you want to say about that?
Well, [it being] 37 minutes is crazy. If I knew that, I probably would’ve ended it right away. Let’s be honest, there was probably more than toe sucking.
It was also so severely downplayed to me that it honestly seemed like a joke…but entering a room where people are not clothed, where it’s clearly a sexual environment….If I had all of the knowledge, then I would’ve probably made a better decision again, even for my physical health, because that is something that is totally not okay.
What were you told about it at the time?
So I went home for the weekend to support my family, and Jesse was calling me. He called me [like] 38 times in 48 hours. I’m like, there’s no way this man could be doing anything crazy. I was feeling really good.
He calls me when he gets back to the city and he says his cousin’s friends stayed over, they liked him. He went into the room, stood in the doorway to see if they were okay or needed anything. I was like, “well, you shouldn’t enter that room. That was so weird.” Now I’m seeing well, that’s definitely not what happened.
So you didn’t think anything had actually happened sexually?
No. I thought that the door was open, and other housemates were in there. It was a joke. I thought our housemates were in the kitchen, and he was in there for maybe three minutes, put his foot on the bed was like, ha ha. That’s how it was kind of relayed. Now I watch it and that’s not what happened.
And you only learned the truth when the episode aired?
Yeah, I didn’t find out the details. On the after show, he said, “yeah, no, there was no way I was telling Lexi.” Which again sucks, because I definitely feel like that took away a lot of my autonomy, especially because we went exclusive right after that, and we were exclusive before that.
We have now watched up to episode 10 of this season. Do you think your relationship has been portrayed accurately so far?
I think it’s difficult because I think it was, but there was so much going on behind my back. He was waking up in my bed every day. I do feel like everyone knew how serious we were from day one. But obviously now watching that, seeing everything that he was saying behind my back. He was really good at manipulating everyone. So telling me things about [the housemates], telling them things about me, that’s, let’s be honest, probably aren’t true.
I think it’s difficult to watch, but I think we had more cute moments than have been shown. But I feel like there was so much drama behind the scenes that I was unaware of. Now, as much as it’s hard to watch, I also think it shows that instinct that I had that I feel like I almost ignored really was right. And that when it should always go with instinct no matter what the environment is or what the situation is.
What was your gut telling you?
I think my gut was definitely being like, this is weird. This seems not true…I think having everyone being so close and seeing everyone hoping for his attention sometimes made me be like, “you know what? Maybe I’m being too harsh… because everyone is kind of co-signing everything he’s doing. There’s no way it can be that bad.” I think his charisma definitely takes away from what the intention is, which I think is to potentially manipulate situations.
What was your relationship with specifically the girls from the house during the summer?
I think I now see where the disconnect was, I definitely felt alone all summer, and I was very isolated. But I think now watching back, I totally understand that they were being fed so many different stories, that of course they were also going to be hesitant toward me. I really hope that now that seeing and watching that they can see where I was coming from and that I actually had no idea. And hopefully those relationships… can move on to me having deeper, more solid friendships.
Gabby [Prescod] and Lindsay [Hubbard] were definitely who I bonded with most. I bonded with Gabby after kickball. She wasn’t in the house that much. And then Lindsay, I would say after me and her having those deep conversations at kickball, that’s when we really, I was like, “okay, you’re my girl.”
From your perspective, Jesse was behaving one way toward you about your relationship, but portraying it completely differently with the rest of the house. Why do you feel he was doing that?
I think the more Jesse talks, the more the camera is on him. So if he’s talking to me, the camera’s on him. If he’s talking shit about me, the camera’s on him. I know that Jesse was always talking about West getting so much attention last year. He would always be like, I didn’t get that much attention. I thought he meant more career-wise. I didn’t know he meant drama-wise.
How has the fan reaction been so far? Are people positive about your storyline on the show?
I’ve been so grateful for the Bravo community because I feel like they have been able to see things from all angles. There’s so many things where the Bravo audience is honestly taking me under their wing so much. I feel like I have a nice community, the girls that we just get each other. It’s been so amazing, connecting with them and hearing their stories.
Have you spoken with Jesse since the show started airing? What about your other housemates?
No. West has checked in on me. Carl [Radke] checked in on me. Lindsay’s checked in on me. Gabby’s checked in on me, and Imrul’s checked in on me.
You guys haven’t filmed the reunion yet. How do you feel about it?
I’m really looking forward to the reunion, to be able to hash some things out with Jesse. I think somebody that can blatantly lie when they’re being filmed is a very scary person and I’m not necessarily interested in anything with him.
Summer House is filled with exes—Carl and Lindsay, West and Ciara. Are you interested in coming back to the show if it means spending the summer with Jesse again?
That’s a hard question because I think the exes at the end of the day that are in the house also respect each other. And as much as it didn’t work out, they don’t want to necessarily be best friends, they can also respect that they live on the same roof.
What’s next for you professionally? What are you looking forward to?
I’m so excited for my collection to come out with Hanky Panky…I’m honestly so excited to shoot the campaign, and now that we’ve been working on it for almost two years, and all the designs are done, everything has a pretty little bow on it, some quite literally.
So I’m honestly just excited to have the rollout. I really put my heart into this entire campaign and the rollout plan. That’s my main focus, and honestly, just building my business with my mom and sister.
What do you want people watching the show to ultimately take away from your story?
I think vulnerability is a superpower. I came on the show knowing that I was going to show my heart. I didn’t come on thinking that I was going to get a boyfriend at all. I think that vulnerability is strength…I’ve gotten such a great response with people being like, thank you so much for sharing your story. Thank you so much for being so open. And I feel like having the opportunity to connect with people. I was so grateful.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The post Lexi Wood Is Ready To Unpack Her ‘Isolating’ Relationship With Jesse Solomon appeared first on Glamour.
