Jesse Solomon Is Still Adjusting To All This

Jesse Solomon is a self-proclaimed freak. He calls himself this as we’re talking about his feet, which, along with his hands, have played a surprisingly salient role in Summer House Season 9. There was the 9 p.m. manicure appointment, the toe-sucking incident, and the toe separators, the latter of which he’s explaining to me at lunch.

“People probably think I’m a freak, and I am,” he says with a laugh. “But I care about my foot health. I have flat feet, and the toe spreaders get the natural alignment back. I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to wear them at the house, but that’s me.” I ask if he has plans to utilize this attention for a brand deal. “I don’t think the toe spreader companies have big ad budgets, but I might be able to get some free spreaders,” he says. “I don’t know. I think brands are a little scared of me right now.”

Despite having a hard few weeks, Solomon is his famously jovial self as we sit at a round booth at Hillstone in the Flatiron district in Manhattan, ordering a rack of ribs (for him) and a veggie burger (for me) along with an assortment of appetizers he recommends from here (spinach artichoke dip, grilled artichokes with remoulade, and sashimi). “The human brain is not meant to see a ton of negative stuff about yourself on the internet. But at the same time, it’s what I signed up for, and part of the job,” he says. “But it’s not something I’ve experienced before. I’d be kind of like a psychopath if I was like, ‘I don’t care at all.’”

In his sophomore season on the Bravo show, Solomon is experiencing his first real taste of fan backlash. The 31-year-old former private investment executive embarked on an ill-fated showmance with first-year castmate Lexi Wood, which has played out for 14 episodes like a car crash in slow motion. First, there was Solomon drunkenly flirting with Ciara Miller at a house party. Then there was the aforementioned toe-sucking (“toegate” to the Bravo fan base) with newbie Imrul Hassan and two unnamed women after a night out. Finally, there was the drama building between Solomon and the girls in the house, especially Miller, as his situationship got messier and more precarious.

I tried to have conversations with her since the show ended, and she refused.

As it’s all aired — including Wood breaking things off with Solomon in Episode 14 — the 27-year-old model has made it publicly clear where she stands with her ex. On the Viall Files podcast on May 7, Wood alleged that Solomon was purposely manipulative, acted like two different people on- and off-camera, and misrepresented their relationship to stir up drama. On the show, she’s accused him of isolating her from the other women.

Solomon, for his part, hasn’t spoken much about Wood or her allegations. When I ask how he feels about how everything’s being portrayed, he sighs. “I feel misunderstood a bit because the girl I dated was going on all these podcasts and accusing me of this terrible stuff that I did off-camera. That’s hard to defend because there’s no evidence of it. I don’t like when people attack my character and call me a liar, because I’ve always tried to be a good person. My family, friends, and people around me know that I have good intentions. So, yeah, it just hurts.”

An on-camera relationship is a new experience for Solomon, who joined Season 8 of the Hamptons-based series after getting a LinkedIn DM from producers two weeks before filming began. He was living in Murray Hill, Manhattan, working in private investing, and dating casually. “By 25, I had an office, an assistant, and a corporate card, and I was traveling the world. I was like, ‘This is the greatest job ever.’” He was also five years out from his second battle with testicular cancer. The restaurant where we’re having lunch holds significance for him — it’s the spot where he and his parents celebrated his cancer-free scan two summers ago. (He also uses this moment to tell me the tattoo he’d get if he ever decided to get inked: ballpark peanuts, with the shell cracked open and one nut removed. He asks if I’d want to get one to match.)

Cancer changed his POV on what matters. “I became extremely grateful for my family, and I think it brought us closer together,” he says. “Same thing with your friends — you know who's there for you, and who's just a party friend.” He’s no longer worried about shoulds or what ifs. “I don't have FOMO ever because I'm just happy to be alive.”

I take accountability for the things that I f*cked up in the relationship, and flirting with Ciara was one of them.

In the short time before agreeing to join Summer House, Solomon marathoned Season 7 to figure out what he was in for. When I mention that Wood says she didn’t watch the show before appearing on it, he raises an eyebrow and looks at me pointedly as if to say, “And you believe her?” “You can add that I made a face when you said that,” he says. “I’m not going to call her a liar because I think that’s a very rude thing to do, but... suspicious.”

He got fired from his job four months before the show started airing, and was panicking until he realized his growing platform could be an outlet to pay his rent. “Now I’m able to do a lot more creative, fun things rather than raising money [through investing],” he says. His latest venture is original music, a passion project he’s been hoping to pursue since he studied vocal jazz in college at the University of Miami. “This is what makes me happy. It’s a long shot that I could become super successful as a mainstream artist, but there’s a chance. I might as well try.”

Though the show has given him this opportunity, the online scrutiny has been a lot to adjust to. Solomon wishes he and Wood could have talked things out privately. “I tried to have conversations with her since the show ended, and she refused. She’s like, ‘I’m not talking to you.’ OK, so you have to go talk to the media about it? I really do want her to be happy, and I’ll be curious to see who she ends up with. But it’s hard not to say how I feel.”

One thing he strongly rejects is Wood’s assertion that he isolated her from forming friendships with the other women. “She didn’t create relationships with the girls in the house, and she used me as the scapegoat. It wasn’t my fault. I wanted nothing but the best for her, and for her to have a good experience in the house. She knows that, and then she’s using it against me,” he says. “Listen, I’m not dumb, but I’m not some mastermind manipulator.” He’ll own that he acted poorly, but not with intentional malice. “I take accountability for the things that I f*cked up in the relationship, and flirting with Ciara was one of them. Getting my toes sucked was another one. Beyond that, I am not a liar.”

As for his friendship with Miller, he says they’re doing fine. Solomon jokes that Miller has been “coming at me for years,” but he appreciates that she doesn’t let him get away with bullsh*t. “She’s taught me a lot about myself. I say whatever comes to mind, but sometimes you need to have a filter. Sometimes your actions have consequences. I had a bit of growing up to do, and she holds me accountable. I respect that and appreciate it.”

Would they ever cross the line into anything romantic? “No. We’ve had plenty of opportunities to hook up, and we never have,” he says. “She’s smoking hot, and I think we’re attracted to each other in a platonic way. We just know that we’re not a fit. She says she doesn’t want to date Bravo guys, and I don’t want to not be able to give her what she deserves. We’re just friends.” In very Jesse Solomon fashion, he still grins when I mention people speculating about them. “Our babies would be cute.”

For the most part, though, he’s out of the comments section. “It’s good for my mental health,” he says. “I’m not an athlete. I’m not anybody who did anything to achieve fame. I just agreed to put my personal life on public display, so how can I get upset when people have an opinion about it? I just try to dissociate from the haters. They don’t think of me as a person — I’m a character on a TV show to them.”

The negativity that bothers him the most has to do with his music: “Every time I post anything, all the comments are super negative, and just really hurtful sh*t, too.” But Solomon has no plans to stop releasing songs — he’s even talking with a talent agency about going on tour. “I want to be a touring musician. I want to put out albums and have recognizable music. I don’t know if it’s touring arenas or just bigger rooms, but I like entertaining people, and I like singing, and that’s the goal.” Andy Cohen even suggested a name: Jesse Solomon Chasing The Dream Tour. “He's like, ‘Everybody likes somebody who's chasing the dream. Can't hate on you for trying to do what you want to do.’”

I’m not going to go around trumpeting that I’m a good guy. I hope people see that.

He’s also still happy being a professional Hamptons party boy on Summer House, and he’s open to another romance in Season 10. “I’m not going to let this experience scare me off of dating. If there’s somebody I like, I’m going to pursue them, whether they’re in the house or not,” he says. But he’ll be doing a few things differently. “The next girl I date, I’ll definitely try to build a bigger foundation. I see the value in moving slowly — never saw that before. The girls [in the house] told me, and I just didn’t listen. Sometimes you need to learn these lessons for yourself by doing things and f*cking it up.”

Solomon tells me this is the last interview he’s hoping to do about Summer House this season. He’s trying to take the high road and ride out the criticism quietly — advice he got from Paige DeSorbo. “People are coming to their own conclusions, so I’m not going to go around trumpeting that I’m a good guy. I hope people see that,” he says.

You’ll catch him in the comments and DMs again soon, though — he’s already dipping his perfectly-spaced toes back in. As we walk through Madison Square Park after lunch, Solomon tells me a girl took a picture of him on his way here. She posted it on Instagram stories and tagged him, but never approached him IRL. He saw the tag and responded, “Say hi, you freak.” It takes one to know one, as they say.