Heavy A DWTS champ is talking about the pressure she felt surrounding her split.
On the August 8, 2023, episode of her “Off the Vine” podcast, “Dancing With the Stars” champ Kaitlyn Bristowe opened up a bit about the end of her relationship with Jason Tartick.
Although Bristowe didn’t dive deep into the reasons why she and Tartick ended their engagement, she did speak about the pressure that she felt when it came to fans asking questions and wanting answers from her before she felt that she was ready to speak out.
“I’m going through a breakup with someone I was engaged to,” Bristowe told her podcast guest, marriage and family therapist Jenny Wise Black.
“Now I’ve gotten to this point where something like going through a breakup. It’s a loss, it’s grief, you’re going through, like, the thought of losing somebody, all of these big emotions, and now these people are on the other end of this phone expecting you to share it with them while you’re going through it,” she added. She called the split “painful.”
The former couple got engaged in May 2021 but had never set an official wedding date.
Here’s what you need to know:
Kaitlyn Bristowe & Jason Tartick Announced Their Split in a Joint Instagram Post
After weeks of speculation surrounding their relationship, Bristowe and Tartick confirmed that they ended their engagement in a candid Instagram caption uploaded to both of their Instagram accounts on August 6, 2023.
“After sharing the news with family and close friends first, and taking the time to properly process it ourselves, we are saddened with heavy hearts to share that we have decided to end our engagement,” their joint statement read, in part.
On her podcast, Bristowe shared that she has been having anxiety over the whole thing.
“They think, ‘You’re hiding something from us, why wouldn’t you be honest? I thought you were an open book, I thought you were this. Just tell us already that you guys are broken up,'” she said, adding, “And I’m holding so much responsibility because I see them as this community that I’ve built for myself. And it is affecting my mental health so much.”
Moreover, Bristowe said that she could see what was going on from two sides. The first, she describes as being a bit more rational, and giving herself a moment to breathe and process. The other, however, really caused a lot of anxiety.
“My other side goes, ‘Oh, my gosh, they hate me. I’m going to lose all the support, and people are judging me. And they think it’s just all me and it’s my fault,'” she explained, adding, “My brain is, like, ‘Here’s the logic of everything,’ and then here’s the emotion. And I am finding myself in the middle of that.”
Kaitlyn Bristowe Is Taking a Break From Social Media
After making a life-changing decision with Tartick, the former “Bachelorette” star has decided to take a break from social media for a while.
After the breakup announcement was made, Bristowe posted a photo of herself crying on her Instagram Stories. “See you soon. Bye for now,” she captioned the post.
Meanwhile, her aforementioned podcast episode was titled, “BRB, Healing From Social Media with Jenny Wise Black.” During the conversation that Bristowe had with Black, she said that she “would love to go dark” on social media. For the time being, she has.
Bristowe hasn’t uploaded any posts to Instagram since she and Tartick announced their split. She has also changed her Instagram bio to read, “BRB. Healing.”
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