Esko Eerikäinen and Suvi Hartlin comment on their relationship to Iltalehte.
Host Esko Eerikäinen wanted to take a stand on a long-standing phenomenon in which he has been linked to his current colleague. Mikko Huisko
Radio presenter Esko Eerikäinen opened his verbal coffin on social media and took a stand on the claims that he was his colleague Summer Hartlin in relation with.
Iltalehti caught up with both Radio Nova presenters, who refuted the relationship rumors spreading about them. Both Eerikäinen and Hartlin emphasize that they are friends, nothing more, although there have been various rumors in the air.
– People still wonder if a man and a woman can be friends. Maybe, Eerikäinen commented to Iltalehte.
According to Eerikäinen, relationship rumors related to them have been circulating since the first radio broadcast, but now after a couple of years they have started to get really frustrating.
– Suvi and I have been working together for two and a half years. People should respect it when we say we are friends, he stresses.
Hartlin has also had his share of rumors and he takes a stand on them on his own.
– We are friends.
– This has continued as long as the program with Esko has been made. Same thing every time, Hartlin commented in frustration.
Hartlin comments that guesswork and assumptions often go wrong. You never know what’s really going on in someone’s life and that’s why rumors are harmful.
Outdated attitudes
Eerikäinen criticizes the fact that if he spends his free time with a female person, the rumors immediately start to fly. Lately, relationship rumors have been especially related to Hartlin and former partner Martina Aitolehti, with whom Eerikäinen broke up 11 years ago.
– Inconceivable that in 2023 you have to explain that you are friends with a woman, Eerikäinen sighs.
At the same time, Hartlin is also frustrated.
– We are friends and we can spend free time together. If we stopped it, we would let the gossip affect our friendship, he insists.
Hartlin also comments on how easily a single man and woman are labeled as a couple based only on their gender. He has never had to justify his friendship with his female friends.
– If I spend time with a female friend, no one would write that we have a relationship. We live in such a heterocentric world that a man and a woman cannot be friends, but a same-sex couple is not even thought of, he states.
Both of them hope that people wouldn’t believe everything that is on the internet. At the same time, both are of the opinion that relationship rumors should be enough.
They are just friends and colleagues.
Eerikäinen adds that he is single and that he will tell you if his relationship status changes. You don’t have to guess it online. Inka Soveri