ABC Kaitlyn Bristowe opened up about a "dark time" in her life.
A “Dancing With the Stars” champ is opening up about her past addiction. In an interview with Amanda Hirsch on the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast, Kaitlyn Bristowe talked a bit about a time in her life when she was addicted to Valium.
Bristowe recalled working in Vancouver and dating a hockey player whom she “moved” all over the place for. “Lost myself, got addicted to Valium,” Bristowe said, adding that she was in her mid-20s at the time.
“Twenty-seven was, like, a really dark time for me,” she continued. The Mirrorball Trophy winner said that she decided to get herself on the right path with one goal: Being happy. She said she did “so much therapy” just before getting a call to appear on “The Bachelor.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Kaitlyn Bristowe’s Addiction Stemmed From a Bad Break-Up
Bristowe explained that she went through a really bad break-up that essentially sent her into a deep depression.
“I was so broken when that relationship ended ‘cuz I thought that’s who I was going to marry,” Bristowe said. “I had no job, no money, no education, no plan, no hopes for my future,” she continued. It was during this process when Bristowe realized that she needed to restart. She recalled living with her parents in Germany and being on “anti-depressants and Valium to get by.”
This isn’t the first time that Bristowe has opened up about the dark time in her life. In 2020, she detailed the experience in a YouTube video.
“When I say I lost myself, that is an understatement. I think I had out-of-body experiences in Germany. Where I was a child and I was screaming and kicking on the floor, bawling my eyes out. It was like I was looking down on myself, going, ‘Why are you behaving this way? This is not who you are, get up off the floor.’ And I couldn’t,” she explained. “I was just a shell of myself.”
She said that Valium made her feel “numb.”
“I didn’t feel anything. I got to sleep, I got to not feel my feelings, and that felt great to me,” she said, before adding that she had weighed just 93 pounds at the time.
Kaitlyn Bristowe’s Family Helped Her Overcome Addiction
During her interview on “Not Skinny But Not Fat,” Bristowe said that her family was instrumental in helping her get to the other side. She said her parents told her that she was a “shell” of herself when her relationship was ending. She said her family was on board to help her get out of the hole that she was in.
From there, Bristowe went on Chris Soules’ season of “The Bachelor” before getting an opportunity to become “The Bachelorette.” Bristowe got engaged to Shawn Booth on the finale of her season of the franchise, but the two split in 2018.
“As crushing as that breakup was, the bounce back was easier for me because of how driven and self-aware and how much work I had put into myself through therapy, through life experiences, through finding my way after a past heartbreak,” she said in her YouTube video. “I think I was just in a position to be like, I’m going to be okay just because I’m me.”
Bristowe is engaged to Jason Tartick of Bachelor Nation fame. The pair live in Nashville with their two adopted Golden Retrievers, Ramen and Pinot.
Bristowe still struggles with anxiety and frequently talks about it on social media. In January 2023, she went on a week-long therapy retreat. “I want to know even deeper who I am. And I want to know why I am the way I am,” she told Tartick on the January 5, 2023, episode of her “Off the Vine” podcast.
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