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Summer House star Ciara Miller opened up about her now-infamous paparazzi photo of her crying outside of an Hermès boutique in New York City while sitting on the ground.
The photo was taken right after she read West Wilson and Amanda Batula‘s statement confirming their romance.
Hunter Harris talked to Ciara for Glamour‘s latest cover story, where she opened up about the picture of her.
“I was supposed to be meeting my friend at Pastis, and it’s 12:45, and I’m like, ‘I cannot be sitting at this lunch while I’m reading this f**king statement.’ I’m like, ‘I’ll lose my f**king mind.'”
She noted her manager was “down the street” and ended up coming to meet up with her.
“Honestly, I was on the phone with Paige [DeSorbo] for a while, and I was like, ‘I don’t even know what the f**k to do,'” she continued, adding she told Paige she was out in public at the time.
Ciara claimed she was going to “go home,” but then the “photo was snapped faster than I could even make it home.”
“But I was like, How chic of it to be Hermès in between Hermès and Bruno Cucinelli,” she elaborated. “I didn’t mean for it to be right outside of Hermès. But chic nonetheless, I have to say.”
Ciara was also asked by Hunter if she feels like the cast is now taking sides.
“I think some people are clearly, yes,” she stated. “But at the same time, I feel like we have also so many new dynamics in the group, and I’m not expecting anyone to take sides. I don’t even… I’m not expecting anyone to take sides.”
“And, honestly, I’m not asking that of anyone,” she continued. “But I think they really know me, and they know how I move, and so I think that that is maybe more of the barometer of maybe why.”
While Ciara admitted she wasn’t sure if she was “even saying this right,” she added that her castmates “just watched this whole story unfold in person,” so, at this point in time, “everyone feels a little bamboozled.”
“Not that I’m telling anyone to take sides,” she said. “But if they’re taking a side, it’s probably because they’re also very confused, and I feel like they were led astray.”
Ciara also spoke to if there’s specific questions she wants answered on the upcoming reunion or if she wants to be understood.
“Probably specific,” she stated. “I think both, a mixture of both. Listen, I feel like there’s been a lot of lying on both sides between Amanda and West. They’ve both lied publicly to my face, to everyone else’s face, so it’s like, ‘Why?’
“So I think that there definitely needs to be specific questions answered. And to be understood depends by who.”
Amanda and West officially confirmed they were in a relationship on March 31.
“We’ve seen the growing online speculation, so while this is still very new, we wanted to provide some clarity,” they said at the time on social media. “It was never our intention to purposefully hide anything. Given the complicated 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.”
“We’ve shown up for each other as friends over the years, through all the highs and lows, and what’s developed recently was the last thing that either of us expected,” they continued. “Our connection grew out of a genuine, long-standing friendship, which made it especially important for us to approach this with care.”
Amanda and West added they kept their relationship private as their “feelings evolved,” as they wanted to “take time to understand exactly what [they] were feeling.”
“We also recognize that this has had an impact beyond just us and never wanted our actions to cause any hurt or be perceived as careless,” they shared. “We truly appreciate the understanding and respect as we navigate this.”