While covering Bachelor Nation news on his podcast, Joe Amabile addressed ex-girlfriend Kendall Long’s engagement to Mitchell Sage.
“Most people know we dated for a little bit. I’m very happy for her. She seems like she’s happy,” Amabile, 36, said on the Thursday, December 1, episode of the “Click Bait” podcast. “It seems like they are each other’s person. So yeah, good for her.”
Long, 31, announced her engagement on Tuesday, November 29. “We’re engaged!! 💍✨ It’s always been a HECK YES with you Mitch,” she wrote via Instagram. “I love your brain, I love your family, I pretty much just love every single thing about you!”
Prior to his relationship with now-wife Serena Pitt, Amabile dated Long after meeting her on season 5 of BiP in the summer of 2018. Although the pair didn’t leave the show together, they later rekindled their romance and subsequently moved in together in Los Angeles. They announced their split in January 2020.
“If anyone knows me, I’m not the person that plans my wedding and I was literally doing that with Joe,” the creative director said on her “Down to Date” podcast in February 2020, one month after she and the grocery store owner called it quits. “But something weird about ending something with someone that you thought you were going to marry [is] you almost feel like you have such a better idea of what you’re looking for.”
The California native added that she “did not see” their breakup coming. “Every relationship has issues, but I feel like — with Joe and I — we were best friends. Everything was fun, we were getting a dog together. We had just moved in. … Ultimately what happened was that Joe felt like he would have a better [life] in Chicago.”
The split was amicable and the reality TV personalities continued to be part of each other’s lives for a while. “We remained close friends and we probably always will, I think,” Amabile exclusively told Us Weekly in May 2020, after he and his ex were caught Venmoing each other for sushi. “She’s from L.A. and I’m from Chicago, so it just became too big of a hurdle at this time in our lives, but we remain close. We still talk almost every day.”
The exes both returned to BiP for season 7 — a situation that Long knew would be difficult from the start. “I would not want to watch him fall in love with someone else. That would suck so much. I still have a tremendous amount of love for him,” she said during a May 2021 appearance on the “Almost Famous” podcast.
The “Down to Date” podcaster ended up leaving Paradise early after watching her former flame get closer with Pitt. However, she returned for the finale to get closure from Amabile, as he was preparing to pop the question.
“The timing, I would say, wasn’t the best. I was just really focused on Serena and getting to that moment,” the Bachelorette alum told Us in October 2021 of the tense moment. “I had a ring in my back pocket. So, it was more like, ‘OK, I get that you’re here, you know, I wish you the best, but it’s not the time. Now is not the time.’ But I hope she’s happy.”
Amabile and Pitt, 25, meanwhile, exchanged vows earlier this year after getting engaged on the BiP season 7 finale. “We decided to get married this morning at the New York courthouse,” the duo announced via YouTube on Thursday, October 27, adding that they will hold a full ceremony “next year around September” 2023.
