“Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard” star Jasmine Ellis Cooper kept her pregnancy hidden when cameras went up for Season 2 of the Bravo reality series last summer.
Speaking exclusively with Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast, the new mom — who welcomed son Silas “Si” Jr. with husband Silas Cooper in February — reveals that she initially concealed her exciting baby news because of lingering conflict with the majority of her castmates.
“OK, so don’t make me cry — but yes, it was different,” says Jasmine, who shot the show’s sophomore installment without her army officer spouse since he had been deployed in Eastern Europe during filming.
“I think because I knew a lot was going on amongst the friendships, I was like, ‘This has to be handled first and I have to feel comfortable in this house and exercise my agency before I share this huge moment,’” the reality star, 32, says. “It was priorities.”
Although rosé is known to flow when the “SHMV” crew congregates in Massachusetts’ luxe seaside enclave, Jasmine stuck to mocktails — which signaled to co-star and good pal Bria Fleming that the budding screenwriter had a bun in the oven.
“During filming, I felt like she was [expecting] and I think I said it at the dinner table. I was like, ‘I thought she was pregnant,’” recounts the fashion entrepreneur, whose friendship with Jasmine only strengthened in the time off from filming.
Although Fleming is close with Jasmine, she did not get a heads-up about her pregnancy — which was eventually revealed to the entire group during production.
“And it’s so funny … because at [my boyfriend] Simon [Marco]’s birthday, I’m ordering spicy margaritas but she’s ordering the virgin version of that. And I’m like, ‘No, you were drinking with me!’ And she’s like, ‘No, I wasn’t,’” Fleming says, recalling her reaction to Jasmine’s announcement.
“And I’m like, ‘Yes, you were. I saw you!’ She’s like, ‘No it was virgin.’ I’m like, ‘When did you have the time to order a mocktail?’”
Fleming applauds Jasmine for being “smooth” in her cover-up.
While those two remained tight between Seasons 1 and 2, Jasmine’s dynamic with her former Playboy Club co-worker Jordan Emanuel devolved. Emanuel, also 32, suggests that married life changed Jasmine in ways that weren’t conducive for their friendship to prosper.
“We spoke about several things over the course of the last year between the seasons that I feel like weren’t resonating,” the DJ tells us, describing her fallout with Jasmine.
“And there’s only so many things that can be said before you’re just like, ‘Alright, let me take a step back and hopefully some space will be the solution.’”
Emanuel acknowledges that it was “easier” to reconnect with Jasmine on this season of “SHMV” sans Silas, but wonders if their fractured friendship can ever be fully repaired.
“It was easier to get to the nitty-gritty of what we were trying to work on. It’s hard at the same time, though, because it’s like, ‘Is it only because he’s not here?’ So now what do I do?’” she says she asked herself. “So the issue is still about trust, so do I trust this now? Or are we just going to revert back? I don’t know.”
For now, though, Emanuel says she and Jasmine are in a “good space” — even if it isn’t permanent.
“I was at her baby shower,” the Bravo star says of the February celebration for Jasmine’s little one. “I think we’re fine. I think enough time has passed where that it’s like, OK, it feels authentic to us to where we are right now. Is it how it was before? No. I don’t know that it ever will be.”
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Jasmine, who connected most of the “SHMV” cast, felt she was excluded from gatherings by Emanuel and more of the friend group over the last year — including a 2023 trip to Jamaica attended by Emanuel, Preston Mitchum, Summer Marie Thomas and Shanice Henderson.
Mitchum, 38, for his part, tells “Virtual Reali-Tea” they meant no harm by excluding her.
“Some things are not necessarily about being excluded. It’s about sometimes, ‘What are we doing to exclude ourselves?’” the attorney says, explaining that the foursome had a “thoughtful conversation” about whether Jasmine should be invited.
Ultimately, they felt she needed “a break” from the group following the turmoil that underlined Season 1, which was filmed in the summer of 2022.
“It reminds me a lot of our friends who are parents who are like, ‘You know, I get so disappointed when I’m not invited anywhere, but I also don’t go when you invite me,’” he says with a laugh. “It’s the wanting to be invited.”
“Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard” Season 2 premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
