Setting the record straight. After getting heat for controversial comments about cheating being a “deal-breaker” in his marriage with wife Jana Kramer, Mike Caussin clarified his earlier sentiment.
“For me, in that moment when we were doing the live podcast [and] we were interviewing this couple, honestly, I didn’t really have one — when [Jana] asked me, like, ‘What’s your deal breaker,’” the Washington Redskins player, 32, explained on the Monday, June 10, episode of the couple’s “Whine Down” podcast, after his original comments were made. (The athlete doesn’t have social media, so he was unaware of the backlash until Kramer informed him.) “The first thought that came to my mind was, ‘I don’t really have one. I don’t know.’ But, I was like, ‘I can’t give the audience that answer. Let me say something that can kind of strike up a conversation.’”
Kramer noted on Monday that her spouse succeeded in launching “a conversation” on that matter, to which the NFL player continued to disclose the reason for his controversial comment.
“I explained to Jana, I was like, ‘Look: The reason I said the infidelity piece or you cheating on me isn’t because if you did it, I wouldn’t try in our relationship,” he said. “Obviously, I would, with all the things and pain that I’ve put you through. There’s no way I would just walk out. My thing what I was telling Jana was, there’s nothing else I could foresee a reason being that I would question our relationship.”
Caussin added: “My definition in that moment of ‘deal breaker’ was a little different. I heard it as, ‘What would make me question our relationship?’ And that would be the only thing, literally, the only thing. I don’t know what else, because of all that work we do. I don’t know what else could honestly make me question our relationship. But because of all we’ve been through, it just makes me think, ‘OK, that would be the one thing.’ I’d be like, ‘Damn, this sucks but let’s figure this out. But I’ll still have those feelings of, ‘Can we make this work?’”
The tight end understood the criticism because he recognizes that cheating does qualify as a “deal breaker” for many people. However, he sees being unfaithful as “a little bit of [a] gray” area in his relationship with Kramer, whereas others might consider the act to be a black and white issue.
The “Beautiful Lies” songstress, 35, took to Instagram on Wednesday, June 12, to promote the new episode by noting Caussin’s initial statement “made sense to me with how he explained it this time around.” However, she initially claimed to be shocked by her husband’s sentiment.
“I am still scratching my head about that, too, because it feels very one-sided to me, and it honestly kind of hurts my feelings that he wouldn’t stand by me if I did that,” she exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this month. “And I think that’s what hurts me — knowing no matter the work we’ve done or not that you wouldn’t stand by me.”
Kramer and Caussin wed in 2015. The couple share daughter Jolie, 3, and son Jace, 6 months. They briefly split in 2016 after reports surfaced regarding the athlete’s extramarital affairs with multiple women.
The pair reconciled upon Caussin completing a 60-day treatment program. Although Caussin would later relapse from sex addiction in 2018, the couple continued to make it work. They celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary in May.
