Before Michael Allio and Danielle Maltby went their separate ways, they tried hard to salvage the relationship.
“We did go to couples therapy to see if we could find common ground in the relationship and, sadly, we couldn’t do that,” Allio, 39, revealed during a lengthy Instagram Story Q&A on Friday, September 22. “She wanted me to wait [to announce the breakup] and I felt, like, because I was the one that broke it off with her I should be respectful of that. So, I kind of waited for her lead and when she started taking down posts on Instagram, I kind of followed suit.”
Maltby, 37, sparked split speculation earlier this month when she started deleting photos of the pair from her Instagram page. Weeks later, Allio confirmed their separation during the Thursday, September 21, episode of Jason Tartick’s “Trading Secrets” podcast.
“We broke up, it was [the] last week in June and it’s just coming up now because we wanted to take our time with this,” Allio added on Friday.
Allio’s Instagram remarks came hours after Maltby addressed the breakup for the first time, in which she claimed the decision was “not mutual” after there was “some perception of incompatibilities.”
Maltby then went on her “Wo Med” podcast, which also dropped on Friday, and alleged that the split occurred shortly after he supported her egg-freezing procedure.
“Dani did not know that I was going to [confirm the breakup] on Jason’s podcast and there’s a reason why. We broke up 13 weeks ago and over the span of that 13 weeks, we spoke multiple times about how we want to roll this out,” Allio, who shared 6-year-old son James with late wife Laura Ritter-Allio, noted in his Friday social media upload. “I suggested doing a mutual breakup post, but she did not want to do that mainly because this breakup was not mutual. She told me, ‘Go out there, say what you want to say, do what you want to do. I’ll follow suit.’”
According to Allio, Maltby even asked him to refrain from calling or speaking to her since it would make healing “that much more difficult.”
In addition to going to couples therapy with Maltby, Allio further noted via his Stories that he’s individually worked with a therapist “for a very, very long time.”
“It is helping, but I do think people are very quick to assume that if I’m dating somebody and it doesn’t end in marriage that it must be because I’m not over my dead wife,” he said on Friday. “It is so rude, so arrogant and so disrespectful; have some class, people. There’s more to it than just grief. Dani and my relationship had nothing to do with grief. I welcomed her into my life. I feel more ready now than I ever have been and sometimes, at the end of the day, you’re just not compatible.”
He continued: “[If] there’s something that you’re looking for that doesn’t exist in that other person and it doesn’t mean you try to change that person and turn them into this perfect version for you because that’s wrong too.”
Allio and Maltby met on the Bachelor in Paradise beach during season 8, opting to continue dating in the real world after filming ended. The nurse moved to Allio’s native Cleveland — where he lives with James — earlier this year in pursuit of their relationship.
