Kaitlyn Bristowe is opening up about the reason she and Jason Tartick called off their engagement, revealing the Bachelor Nation couple grew apart.
“I’ve never respected someone more through a breakup than I do with Jason,” Bristowe, 38, began on her “Off the Vine” podcast on Tuesday, August 15, telling her guest and BFF Lo VonRumpf that she knows people are sliding into his DMs “trying to create unnecessary sides” of Team Kaitlyn and Team Jason. “I think people assume if people break up, something bad happened. And I think that’s the hardest part of this whole breakup — nothing bad happened. It’s just been over time. We have both not made each other a priority. And this is what happens.”
The former Bachelorette noted that she and Tartick, 34, “don’t know what the future holds,” but the split was “the necessary move for us right now.” Bristowe then got emotional.
“We are both so sad. You think you’re going to spend your life with somebody. … I don’t want to sit here and cry,” she said. “We’re grieving a loss.”
After getting tissues, Bristowe revealed that Tartick “lives down the street” from her in Nashville.
“I’m going to see him because we’re going to share the dogs, but I can’t, like, be with him in the way that I’m used to,” she said. “And it’s probably so confusing for people, because they’re like, ‘Why aren’t you just together then?’ Like, if people can just trust in what we’re doing and where our hearts are, and be supportive. … Maybe in six months from now, we go, ‘Yeah, this was the right move.’ And maybe in six months, we go, ‘You know what, I want to choose you.’ But we haven’t been choosing each other.”
Bristowe concluded: “I do need to choose myself. And I want him to choose himself. And that’s what we’ve been doing anyways. The right person is going to choose each other — you’re gonna prioritize each other and we just haven’t been, so.”
Bristowe and Tartick announced their split on August 6 after she sparked speculation about their status when she ditched her engagement ring on a trip without the “Trading Secrets’ host.
“Our dogs Ramen & Pinot will continue to be cared for together as brothers. While their humans are no longer romantically involved, we will love and take care of them together,” their joint statement read in part. “Continuing our friendship is incredibly important to both of us. We feel grateful to be ending our engagement with love and respect for each other. It’s heartbreaking and sad to say goodbye, but our care and admiration for one another will never die.”
