Katie DeLuca Arundel says she learned about Amanda Batula and West Wilson’s relationship only when everyone else did, then pressed Batula about it at her apartment the day before the March 31 statement came out. On Aug. 12, Arundel said Batula lied to her after she had already texted asking what was going on.
The comments turn a public relationship reveal into a private split between longtime friends. Arundel said she and Batula have known each other since third grade, and she said the relationship itself was not the surprise so much as the secrecy around it. She said Batula and Wilson had been hanging out as friends before the announcement, which made the lack of candor harder to take.
Arundel said she had already raised concerns about Wilson in private, including warning Batula not to go to Italy with him. “I don't think you should go to Italy with this man. He might drop you like a hot cake. Do you really want to give up everything? What are you doing?” she said she told her. Arundel also said that after Batula filmed one-on-one with Lindsay Hubbard, she later got updates from Hubbard about Wilson’s timing with Meija Moreno, which added to her concern.
That is where the story gets sharper than a simple friendship disagreement. Arundel did not say she was cutting Batula off. She said the opposite, insisting that she will always support her and that two things can be true: a friend can disagree with someone’s choices and still love them. But she also said Batula made a mistake and that the middle ground has been lost in how people talk about the relationship.
For Arundel, the dispute is less about whether Batula can date who she wants than whether a longtime friend should have been left to find out in pieces. She said she confronted Batula directly, that the talk happened in private, and that the hardest part is knowing the person she has known since third grade now sits behind a public announcement that did not match what she had been told. What remains unanswered is how much Batula kept back before March 31, and why Arundel says she had to learn the details from everyone else.
