Jana Kramer and Ex-Husband Johnathon Schaech Reunite to Hash Out Divorce, Wedding Photo Drama and More

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Jana Kramer and Ex-Husband Johnathon Schaech Reunite to Hash Out Divorce, Wedding Photo Drama and More

In another life. Jana Kramer and Johnathon Schaech’s relationship has been unconventional from the start, but the former couple’s friendship has faced a series of ups and downs long after their brief marriage. The One Tree Hill alum met the That Thing You Do! star, who is 14 years his junior, on the set of the 2008 horror movie Prom Night. “Johnathon was the killer in Prom Night. Spoiler alert, if you haven't seen it,” Kramer, who played a friend of Brittany Snow in the movie, began during the Monday, April 18, episode of her "Whine Down” podcast. “And I just remember going like, ‘Oh, my God, that's the hot guy from That Thing You Do!’” While Schaech noted that he wasn’t interested in Kramer when they met as he was still recovering from his divorce from Christina Applegate, the “Why Ya Wanna” singer wasn’t taking no for an answer. “We met on that movie, but you were just kind of getting out of a previous marriage, so I was very much, like, wanting to chase you,” Kramer said. “And you're, like, ‘I’m never getting married.’ And I'm just like, ‘Oh, no, but choose me, like, love me.’” “You would stand outside my door and just constantly knock on the door,” he added. “[I was] like, ‘Guys, this girl’s crazy. … I feel so bad for her. She's so lovely and wonderful and she doesn't know that about herself.’” [jwplayer ib1pvzpM-zhNYySv2] The pair eventually started dating and “broke up a gazillion times,” per Schaech, before they walked down the aisle in 2010. During Monday’s podcast, Kramer claimed he called her “Christina every two days” throughout their relationship. “Once or twice when we were fighting, I might have got upset and said Christina,” the actor responded. “I was trying to fill that void of my broken heart that I had. So I would accidentally call you by that name when we really would get angry at one another. And you'd be like, ‘See!’ … That was the one thing that I really wanted to tell you — I tried to make you something that you weren’t. I wasn't healed. I hadn't taken time to heal myself from that broken heart. And I just wanted you to shine and not me to shine at the same time. And I was so happy that I was able to do something with you that brought all these qualities that you had. But I forgot about me and that's not fair to you.” Following his brief marriage to Kramer, Schaech met now-wife Julie Solomon and welcomed son Camden and daughter Lillian. While the former couple didn’t end their relationship on good terms, Kramer reached out to apologize for her role in their quick marriage after meeting Mike Caussin. At the time, Schaech declined to make amends. He was the one to contact the country singer, however, when news broke in 2016 that Caussin was in rehab after confessing to having multiple affairs. “You said, ‘I heard you got Dancing with the Stars, I'm really sorry about your husband cheating on you. I know you have a beautiful baby, and if you need anything, I'm here for you and my wife,’” Kramer recalled of his email, referring to daughter Jolie. “And I just remember being so thankful in that moment. Because I was going to L.A. with my 4-month-old daughter, my ex was in rehab. … And so he's like, ‘If you need any baby stuff,’ and I'm like, ‘I don't know how long I'm gonna be on Dancing With the Stars, [but] I would love a crib, so Jolie doesn't have to be in a pack and play.’ … So my tour manager got in contact with his wife, Julie, and [I] pretty much haven't left Julie's side since then. She's the coolest chick in America. She's so much fun. And you guys became family.” Things took a turn, however, when Schaech tweeted a throwback from his and Kramer’s nuptials in 2021. Scroll through for more takeaways from their reunion and where they stand today:

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How Johnathon Feels About Their Wedding

Kramer filed for divorce 12 days after exchanging vows with Schaech. After she referred to their 2010 wedding as simply a “party,” however, he disagreed.

“Jana, you're an incredible human being. I wanted that to be part of my life. I thought that you would heal me and make my life better. And I thought I had to marry you to get that. So it wasn't just a party to me,” he told her on Monday. “It was much deeper for me. But, you know, I think that we weren't ready. … I wanted the best in our marriage, I really wanted to make it work.”

Kramer subsequently apologized, noting that she would have been a “disaster” as a wife at the time. “I definitely feel bad about anybody that I hurt along the way, including you and your family,” she said.

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Johnathon Never Recovered From Christina Applegate Divorce

“After my first marriage, I just never healed. I was supposed to be OK,” he said of his 2007 split from Applegate. “I never healed and trauma’s a time traveler. … So when we don't address it, it comes and gets us in the end. And so my marriage was connected to my career, everything about my work. It was, you know, Christina is an actress. We were in the limelight. I loved her so much. I still love her so much. I don't think Julie will ever be offended that I would ever say that. I loved her and I loved you. … But I just never I'd never healed from Christina and I finally was starting to realize how broken my heart was.”

Schaech added that he’s “lucky to be alive” after not taking care of himself, telling Kramer that it wasn’t until five years ago that he really started to heal from childhood trauma, being molested in 1992 and the divorce.

“Almost five years ago — July 7 — [is] when I decided that I would never hate myself again [and] I gave up shaming myself,” he said.

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How Johnathon and Julie Helped Jana and Mike

After helping Kramer when she moved to L.A. while Caussin was in rehab, Schaech and Solomon continued to see her when she reunited with the former NFL player. (Kramer and Caussin, who welcomed their second child, son Jace, in 2018, split for good in 2021 after he was allegedly unfaithful again.)

“I remember one of our sessions — when Mike and I got into a fight, like, Julie picked him up,” Kramer said. “He was walking and she was like, ‘Why don't you call an Uber?’ And he's like, ‘I can’t, I have a flip phone.’ ….  [Then] Jolie became best friends with Camden, your son. We lived less than a mile apart from each other. We would have dinners, you would help me with auditions. You were in the hospital with me when Jace was six weeks old getting a spinal tap because Mike had to stay with Julie and Julie couldn't come.”

The couples even moved to Nashville at the same time, continuing their friendships.

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The Tweet

Kramer and Schaech stopped talking in 2021 after he shared their wedding photo via Twitter, writing, “I had to explain this photo to my son today. I told him I’ve been married three times. But I got it right when I married his mother. @kramergirl and I lasted a week. We weren’t meant but for this photo and friendship.”

On Monday, Schaech explained that he “puts all my thoughts and my feelings” on Twitter, comparing the platform to texting. “I didn't think anything would ever come of it. I thought that, maybe, one day you and I would actually have a conversation about what that was all about,” he said. “I included you because it's not, like, every day you see that and have that experience. [It’s] something we're really going to have to talk to our children about. Not only you, but I’ll have to talk to Camden and Lily about Christina.”

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Where Johnathon and Jana Stand Today

When Kramer asked whether they should unblock each other on Instagram at the end of the episode, she and Schaech both laughed.

After he signed off the podcast, Kramer reflected on their conversation, telling her cohost that he went deeper into their past than she was expecting. “I think there was hurt in that, like, you know, his parents were there and his grandparents,” she said of their nuptials. “And so I think it was so much beyond the pettiness of the Twitter and the whole, ‘Well, I didn’t like that he posted our wedding photo, and why would he do that?’ It was still the hurt of the, like, the way back past. …  He's got his family and friends here and we'll never be that unit — I don't think — that we were in L.A. because we didn't have [anyone else]. We just had each other, all of us. But at least now … I can go to their house and it’s not, like, going to be any kind of awkward situation. I respect him, I respect his, you know, I love his family. I love his heart and what he does and I'm glad that the air I feel, like, [is] cleared.”