Kristen Doute and Brian Carter might be dunzo, but Vanderpump Rules fans haven’t seen the last of the Bravo star’s ex-boyfriend.
“We’re broken up, absolutely. Single, single, single,” the 36-year-old former SURver told Us Weekly exclusively. “We’re trying to be friends. He’s always going to be one of my best friends in my mind. I love him, I care about him, we have dogs together. But we tried to make it work and it’s not working, so it needs to be done.”
![Pump Rules Kristen Reveals Current Status With Carter](/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Pump-Rules-Kristen-Reveals-Current-Status-With-Carter-01.jpg?w=1000&quality=82&strip=all)
While Doute played coy about how their relationship drama will continue to play out season 8 of the Bravo series, she did admit that they debated giving it another shot toward the end of summer 2019.
“I started feeling like maybe we had another chance to date again and take it slow,” she explained. “I think that was from a lot of vulnerability and losing my two best friends. I had a lot of family stuff going on back home and it was such a complicated summer.”
Doute, who is referring to her falling out with Stassi Schroeder and Katie Maloney, added that the drama with the girls nearly brought her and Carter back together.
“The more that they rip on him, the more than I’m going to protect him,” she admitted to Us. “That kind of drove us closer together too. Once I wasn’t around Katie and Stassi anymore and I could really just decide, ‘Are we going to work or are we not?’ Then I had to do what was best for me.”
While she isn’t putting a label on any of her current relationships, the He’s Making You Crazy author is open to love.
![Pump Rules Kristen Reveals Current Status With Carter](/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Pump-Rules-Kristen-Reveals-Current-Status-With-Carter-02.jpg?w=1000&quality=82&strip=all)
“There was some friends with benefits along the way,” Doute told Us, noting she struggles with the idea of blind dates or meeting a stranger in a bar. “I did just start talking to someone. I don’t have a boyfriend.”
The James Mae designer added that the mystery man is one of Tom Schwartz’s best friends.
“That’s the scary part of dating — at one point are you just having fun and sleeping together and then you’re going out on dates and then you’re sleeping together on the reg,” she told Us. “And then you’re only kind of dating each other, but you don’t want to. So at one point do you just go, ‘Oh s—t.’”
Doute admitted that Maloney, 32, hasn’t asked her about her relationship with Schwartz’s friend, but she also doesn’t know if her former BFF is aware of their romance.
“I think she’s starting to figure it out. … She hasn’t asked me flat out,” Doute told Us. “I’m just having fun.”
Vanderpump Rules airs on Bravo Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.