Amanda Stanton was embarrassed that she failed at having the picture-perfect family two years ago following her split from ex-husband Nick Buonfiglio. But the newly engaged Bachelor in Paradise star, 27, wants single moms everywhere to know that they should never give up on love.
In a new blog post titled “A Message to the Single [Mommies],” the reality star talks candidly about her failed marriage and ex-husband, who sought solace on Tinder, and her new life with fiancé Josh Murray.
“I became a single mother when Kinsley was barely 2 and Charlie was a newborn,” Stanton shares. “My parents moved halfway across the country to St. Louis six months prior, I was trying to lose the 40 pounds I gained during pregnancy, still breast-feeding and throwing a pity party for myself while living in a family friend’s house in Malibu. Meanwhile, their father was dating multiple girls he was meeting on Tinder, became a regular at the local bars and was going on trips to Vegas with his friends every other weekend. I remember thinking it was so unfair that he could just break up our family and then go back to living his life the way he did pre-children while my world completely revolved around them.”
Stanton, who competed for Ben Higgins’ heart during season 20 of The Bachelor, finalized her divorce from Buonfiglio this past June. Together they share daughters Kinsley, 4, and Charlie, 2. (Click here for Us Weekly's exclusive interview with Buonfiglio, who tells his own side of the story.)
The recently engaged aesthetician continued in her blog post that following her split from Buongiflio “finding someone new was the last thing on my mind.”
“Two months after we moved out, I still hadn’t filed for divorce yet because it was too much of a mission to go to the courthouse with the babies. I had my hands FULL (& that’s an understatement),” she added. “I actually remember getting a text from my (probably drunk) ex that read: ‘You can’t divorce me … you’ll be 25 & divorced with two kids … no one will ever want you!’ (HA! How do you feel about that now, buddy?!)”
Although she was “overwhelmed and extremely angry” while blaming herself “for not giving my kids the life I had always dreamed of giving them,” she realized that some things were out of her control.
“I decided instead of being embarrassed of my failed marriage and ashamed of being a single mother, I was going to OWN it,” she shares in her post. “Being the best mother you can be and giving your kids the BEST life possible has nothing to do with your relationship status and you don’t have to be happily married to have a ‘picture-perfect family.’”
Stanton added that she went on The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise hopeful to find someone “not to complete me, but to add more love and happiness to mine and the girls’ lives.”
“I found that with Josh!” she concluded, gushing about her husband-to-be. “I feel like the absolute luckiest girl in the world to have met someone like him (even in the craziest of ways). He truly loves Kinsley and Charlie like they’re his own and they adore him right back. … I didn’t think men like Josh even existed, but I’m telling you first hand that they do! Never settle and be patient because your ‘Josh’ is out there somewhere!”
Us Weekly reached out to Nick Buonfiglio, who declined to comment.
