Taking the next step. Days after Kaitlyn Bristowe revealed that she and Jason Tartick haven’t defined their relationship, despite going on multiple dates recently, the former Bachelorette admitted that she considers the Buffalo native her boyfriend.
“We both feel like we’re established and where we wanna be in our lives and we have, like, the self love and respect to actually, like, be in a mature, healthy relationship,” Bristowe, 33, said on the Wednesday, January 16, episode of her “Off the Vine” podcast.
As soon as the Canadian native used the word relationship, her friend and manager Clio de la Llave quipped, “Ooh, do you call him your boyfriend?” to which Bristowe shyly replied, “It’s actually so strange to go from being engaged to thinking of someone as your boyfriend because I feel like that’s taking a step backwards — it’s not. It’s not. If anything, it’s taking a step forward because you’re just growing and evolving as a person.”
She continued, “So, yeah … I mean … I would be upset if he was dating anyone else and I think he would be upset if I was dating anyone else.”
Bristowe, who announced her split from fiancé Shawn Booth in November 2018, also confessed that she didn’t expect to fall for Tartick, 30. “I never thought I would hang out with somebody from The Bachelor franchise!” Bristowe said. “I feel bad for saying that … I was like, ‘You know what? I’ll just be a little more private, low-key. Whatever.’ But you can’t help who you like. … You can’t fight chemistry. You can’t fight a good guy.”
As for his best qualities? “He’s just a gentleman. … He just seems to enjoy all the same things as me,” she gushed. “I think the first thing that attracted me to him was that he just seems like a dying breed. They don’t make ‘em like him anymore. He’s a gentleman. He sees everybody as equal. … He has the same morals and values as me.”
The pair went public with the new romance earlier this month when they met up in Denver and went on a dance-filled date that they documented on Instagram. The following day, the duo held hands while hanging out with fellow Bachelor Nation star Blake Horstmann.
