Nobody Does A Petty Rebound Properly Anymore

“Um, what the hell?” has been the general mood among reality-TV fans over the last few weeks. Between a pause on filming for The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and online rumors swirling in the Summer House fandom, there’s plenty of drama happening off camera and on social media lately. And while reality show lovers are used to chaotic storylines, an unexpected trend has been popping up in these spheres — people are rebounding with their best friend’s exes.

In the world of SLOMW, cast member Miranda Hope’s ex-husband, Chase McWhorter, is once again at the center of a love triangle — or, at this point, maybe it’s more of a love pentagon — with Miranda’s friends. On Summer House, whispers of an alleged hookup between Amanda Batula and West Wilson, her best friend Ciara Miller’s ex, gained traction online over the past few weeks. The two finally released a joint statement to their Instagram stories March 31 confirming their romantic involvement.

Viewers are fixated not because of the romantic chaos (that would be par for the course in these fandoms) but rather because the drama involves people betraying their best friends. These aren’t just playful, f*ck-around-and-find-out flings but are serious violations of girl code. The women who were close confidants during their prior relationship issues are the same ones getting stabbed in the back. Where’s the decorum?

Below, a TL;DR of the current reality-TV rebounds, including all of the timelines and red threads you need to connect. Plus, advice for anyone who wants to rebound the right way — aka without burning down your closest friendships along the way. The current drama raises the question why are people hooking up with their bestie’s ex when they could be doing the more powerfully petty thing: getting with their ex’s best friend instead? Read on to hear from someone who did it that way — and doesn’t regret a thing.

The Not-So-Secret Rebounds Of SLOMW

Miranda and Chase were married for seven years and separated in 2024 in the wake of the #MomTok swinging scandal. Since then, Chase has been romantically linked to cast members Layla Taylor and Taylor Frankie Paul, so this isn’t the first time people in Miranda’s inner circle got involved with her ex.

Most recently, after Jessi Draper’s husband, Jordan Ngatikaura, filed for divorce March 19, @DeuxMoi reported a rumor that Jessi had been seen kissing Chase at a party. Miranda seemingly confirmed it in a March 27 TikTok with the caption: “GRWM while I process my friend group being a waiting room for my ex-husband.”

Soon after, Miranda released a statement to Entertainment Tonight confirming the kiss, saying, “Today, at the same time a rumor started spreading online that something was going on with Chase and Jessi, I received apology flowers from Jessi.” She posted a photo of the bouquet to her Instagram story. At least the orange roses are cute!

Summer House’s Rumored Scandoval

If that’s not enough, in the Bravo realm of Summer House, a similar situation is making the rounds. Amanda announced her separation from Kyle Cooke in January; West broke up with Ciara in 2023 but, as Season 10 is currently revealing, may possibly have reconciled last summer. In recent weeks, fans have spotted Amanda and West together in public on multiple occasions. Various cast members alluded to the drama on social media, and on March 31, the pair finally confirmed the rumors were true.

“Given the complicated relationship dynamics involved and the scrutiny that comes with being on a reality show, we needed a little space to process things privately before speaking on it,” they wrote.

They added, “What’s developed recently was the last thing either of us expected. Our connection grew out of a genuine, long-standing friendship, which made it especially important for us to approach this with care.”

Keep It Petty, Not Problematic

It’s a lot to unpack, but above all, it’s clear that the art of the petty rebound has been completely lost. Hooking up with your best friend’s ex is deranged behavior. If you’ve already spent a whole brunch listening to her complain that he leaves his socks next to the hamper instead of in it, the last thing you should want is to cozy up to him.

A post-breakup fling has plenty of benefits. In the wake of a breakup, it can give you some short-term validation, closure, and a confidence boost. Maybe you want to have a “villain era” or want to make your sh*tty ex feel jealous — go for it! But you don’t need to hurt a friend in the process.

Rather than hurting your ride-or-die and confidant, if you’re going to be messy, why not be caught smooching that guy you told your ex not to worry about? Or his brother, like Elena in The Vampire Diaries. Or his roommate, like our foremother Rachel Green. There are ways to be messy and carefree without impacting longstanding female friendships.

Imagine if Amanda was seen canoodling with a headlining DJ, like John Summit. Or if Jessi popped out with Harry Jowsey after admitting on Call Her Daddy that her husband was jealous of the Too Hot to Handle star sliding into her DMs to wish her a happy birthday? That’d be iconic.

A Chaotically Careful Approach

For Leah*, 29, hooking up with her ex-fiancé’s best friend two weeks after calling off her engagement was, sure, a little messy but, in retrospect, completely worth it. She met Jake*, through her boyfriend at the time, Andrew*. While there were never any boundaries crossed during her relationship, Leah recalls being checked out of her engagement for about nine months before it officially ended due to them having different goals for the future and a lack of physical connection.

“When I started to mentally leave my relationship, I always just kind of noticed that Jake was always that true, solid friendship to me,” she says. “​​I’m a yapper, so I need somebody who’s just going to sit there and listen to me, and that was him.”

Leah recalls that once Andrew proposed, he would invite Jake over less often — maybe because he noticed some subtle vibes between the two, but more likely because they had just been drifting apart as their life stages diverged. After her split from Andrew, she reached out to Jake. She had always thought there was maybe something there that neither acted on during her relationship, and Leah wanted a “dopamine rush” after life as she knew it had seemingly fallen apart. The two hung out, he admitted to harboring a crush on her, and they ended up sleeping together. They’ve been casually seeing each other for seven months since.

Finding yourself is honestly about doing some *ssh*le-ish things.

“Maybe that’s me just being really f*cking terrible, but finding yourself is honestly about doing some *ssh*le-ish things and then being like, ‘Oh, OK, I regretted this one, but I don’t feel that bad about that one,’” Leah says. “Then you find out what your values are.”

Word got back to Andrew, and it caused a rift in his friendship with Jake that officially ended it — thankfully, though, Leah wasn’t dragged into that friend drama, and as a normal person, she doesn’t have to answer to any fan reactions to her somewhat messy choices.

As a reality-TV fan herself, she can totally see why these rebound situations cause backlash. “With women’s friendships, there’s a lot of weight to them. You know each other’s secrets; you’ve been through there for all the good, the bad, the ugly,” she says.

Perhaps that’s why these rumors are causing such an uproar. In order to come to terms with them, viewers have to consider that the friendships they’ve fallen in love with might not be rooted in as much loyalty as they’d assumed. I guess we’ll all just have to patiently wait for cameras to pick up again to see how it all plays out.

*Name has been changed