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.’”
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:
