Breaking it down. Jana Kramer detailed her split from ex-husband Mike Caussin on an episode of Red Table Talk centered on the topic of “toxic forgiveness.”
The “Why You Wanna” songstress, 38, opened up about her decision to file for divorce from the former NFL player, 35, during the Wednesday, October 19, episode of Jada Pinkett Smith‘s Facebook Watch series. The One Tree Hill alum had previously forgiven him for cheating on her during their marriage, but she finally lost her patience in 2021.
“Every time he did cheat and I would find out, there would be something different he would say that I would hold on to,” Kramer explained when asked why she continued to believe his behavior would change. “Like, ‘I’m gonna get baptized,’ or, ‘I’m gonna go to therapy every week.'”
When the “Whine Down” podcast host “caught him again” in April 2021, she decided to file for divorce. “He’s like, ‘Now I know I’ll never do it again,’ and I’m like, ‘You know what? For that person, she’s gonna be real lucky that you won’t,'” the Michigan native recalled. “And that’s when I left.”
The former couple — who share daughter Jolie, 6, and son Jace, 3 — tied the knot in May 2015. In 2016, Us Weekly broke the news that Caussin had cheated on his wife with multiple women and sought treatment for sex addiction. The duo briefly separated before renewing their vows in 2017. In September 2020, they published a book about their relationship titled The Good Fight: Wanting to Leave, Choosing to Stay, and the Powerful Practice for Loving Faithfully.
Though Kramer said she told her husband at the time that she’d forgiven him for his infidelity, she realizes now that she hadn’t actually moved past the incident. “I didn’t forgive him,” she told Pinkett Smith, 51. “I said I trusted him — I didn’t trust him. I was still always, like, looking and trying to find things. And I was waiting for the next shoe to drop.”
The One Brick founder explained that she stayed in the relationship so long because she didn’t want her kids to have to go back and forth between their parents’ homes. “I came from a broken family, and my whole thing was I do not want my children to grow up in a broken house,” Kramer said. “I hated Christmas because I had to separate Christmas and that was stressful.”
The Prom Night actress admitted that it could take a while for her to fully heal from the split, but she’s already feeling better about certain things. Kramer noted that she used to avoid driving a certain route because she didn’t want to see a hotel where she knew Caussin had carried on some of his alleged affairs, but she’s now able to see the building without getting upset.
“I avoided it, but then that made it even worse in my chest,” she explained. “So, then I was like, ‘I’m not gonna change my route anymore.’ And over time the intensity [diminished] and I was like, ‘There’s the Aloft? OK, cool.'”
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Keep scrolling for more revelations from Kramer’s interview.
