Bachelor in Paradise alum Kylee Russell has revealed the timeline in which Aven Jones had cheated on her and how she found out about his infidelity.
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But on Saturday, December 9, Kylee took to Instagram Stories to announce that her relationship with Aven was already over due to "multiple infidelities." She thanked God for not allowing her to "live another day in the dark," and she asked fans for privacy because this was "real life" to her.
"My life was in shambles starting on December 9... That's when things started going downhill and my life definitely took a turn that I was not expecting whatsoever," Kylee recalled during the Tuesday, January 23 episode of "The Viall Files" podcast, which is hosted by The Bachelor's Season 21 star Nick Viall.
Kylee added, "To be so blindsided and be so wrecked the way I was... and in such a public platform, it felt like my life was over in that moment."
Aven broke his silence on the couple's breakup on Sunday, December 10.
In an Instagram Stories statement of his own, Aven admitted that he was definitely the one to blame for the demise of his post-Bachelor in Paradise relationship with Kylee.
"After careful thought and consideration into writing this, I want to first and foremost apologize to Kylee, my family and my friends for my actions," Aven began.
"I have made major mistakes in the relationship and hurt someone who was very close to me. At this time, I am in an extremely, extremely low place trying to work on myself. I am doing my best to find healing, find myself and be a better person."
Kylee shared with Nick that after Paradise ended, she was a little afraid of trying to make a long-distance relationship work with Aven, given she lives in North Carolina and he currently resides in San Diego, and so she immediately flew to San Diego to see him in July 2023.
"We were fresh off the beach. We were excited and we had such a great week together. We got to finally experience life in a relationship in normalcy... It completely debunked all of my worries. We had a great weekend and I said, 'Okay, I can see a future with this man,'" Kylee shared.
"And then we made it a point where we saw each other at least once per month, every month, for six months."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOWAven apparently visited Kylee in August and met her family, and then they spent 14 days together in September. In November, Kylee went back to San Diego, and she said they did a great job of making an effort to see each other.
When Bachelor in Paradise began airing on ABC in September, Kylee said she and Aven were going "really strong" and they were "committed" to each other. Kylee, who had strong family ties in Charlotte, said she was even considering making a big sacrifice by taking the steps to move to San Diego permanently.
"I didn't see a switch-up or a change, but while the season was airing, I will say that we did have some arguments. But I think that just comes with watching everything play back," Kylee said.
Aven, for example, allegedly accused Kylee of having downplayed her connection with Will Urena on Bachelor in Paradise. Kylee thought Aven's anger about the situation was "silly" because she didn't even know if he was going to show up to Mexico when she was dating on the beach.
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And Kylee suggested there were things about Aven she wished she could change, such as how he's "really set in his ways" and doesn't deter from what he wants to do.
Aven allegedly told Kylee that he'd never move for her and she'd have to move to San Diego if she wanted their relationship to work out.
But Kylee said Aven had expressed his love to her for the first time in November, which took their relationship to new heights.
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Kylee said she first caught wind Aven might've been cheating on her when they participated in a photo shoot together in Charlotte, NC, a week before Bachelor in Paradise's finale episode aired.
"We were so excited about posting our pictures. That was our coming out to the world... The finale episode aired on a Thursday and we posted the picture on a Friday. I was in Charlotte, he was in California. And honestly, I had an hour of bliss," Kylee shared.
But Kylee admitted she decided to hurt her own feelings by checking her "hidden requests," where typically a lot of the haters are on social media.
"I don't know what I saw originally, but it said, 'Hey girl,'" Kylee said, hinting how a message like that is typically from a girl who's about to drop a bombshell.
"I was at my favorite restaurant, Outback, [with my mother and grandmother], and this was a nightmare."
Kylee said the message read, "Hey girl, I just want to let you know Aven cheated on you on July 22 in Santa Monica. I'm just finding out now he wasn't single."
Kylee pointed out how this woman had the dates correct.
"I will say I was so blindsided that I was like, 'There's no way this is true. She's literally just doing this for clout,'" Kylee admitted, adding how she thought Aven would never risk ruining his reputation and public image with a cheating scandal.
"[I] wholeheartedly [thought that]. I was that blindsided. Yes, Aven and I did have problems in our relationship -- everyone does. But when it came to ever thinking he would cheat on me, absolutely not. I truly felt as though he loved me."
But Kylee said the girl who messaged her wasn't the one who had allegedly slept with Aven.
"The girl who messaged me is not even the girl that he hooked up with. It was so far removed. It was, like, a friend of a friend's roommate. It wasn't the girl. I still, to this day, have never heard from the girl in Santa Monica," Kylee explained.
Kylee said she tried to get to the bottom of things and went on a search to find evidence before blasting Aven and potentially destroying their trust.
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"We kept going back and forth. I could tell she was withholding information... [On July 22], I was in Miami with [Charity Lawson], [Kat Izzo], [Mercedes Northup] and [Jess Girod]. And I look back and there was a selfie of [Aven] on a train from San Diego to Santa Monica for [a friend's birthday]. I was like, 'This could really be true.'"
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Kylee said she was texting and FaceTiming with Aven during her entire stay in Miami.
"He was giving me a play by play of all the places that he went to that night, which ended up being a disservice [to him] because the girl was giving me a [similar] play by play, and the receipts were matching up," Kylee said.
"I was like, 'Oh, this is so true!' She said he hooked up with someone... and so I said, 'Do you have any full-blown evidence that he stayed the night with her?' And she said, 'Yes, I have a picture of him in her bed the next morning.' The girl took a picture."
Kylee added, "It was Aven. I have a picture of him in this outfit, and that's the shirt he wore out that night."
Kylee obtained possession of the photo, which featured Aven in bed with his clothes on and the woman's hand on his back.
"That's when my heart sank and I was having an out-of-body experience," Kylee admitted. "I'm like, 'I never saw this coming -- ever, in my life.'"
Kylee said the proof had "slapped [her] in the face" and she couldn't possibly deny or convince herself that it didn't happen.
"I was having a panic attack on the side of my street [after dining out]," Kylee said. "[When she sent me that photo], I just collapsed. Everything went numb."
Kylee said she called Aven and confronted him, revealing that she had a photo of him in another woman's bed from the morning after his night out in Santa Monica.
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"And so I give him credit for that. He didn't try to deny it. He was like, 'Kylee, I don't even know what I should say for myself. There is nothing to say and there's no excuse for my actions. All I can do is say how profusely sorry I am."
Kylee said she believes Aven and this woman had sex, and, to make matters worse, it was "just a random girl" from a bar. Kylee said Aven wasn't a drunk mess and his "actions were intentional," which was really "heartbreaking" for her.
"There was a lot of screaming on the phone and a lot of crying on both of our ends. I was just like, 'You literally just let me go public with you. I have people calling me [and congratulating me]... Our Instagram post just blew up, and here I am dealing with all of this. Why did you not think you were going to get caught?'" Kylee said.
Kylee told Aven that he had humiliated her and she was "in actual disbelief."
"I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, that it happened in early July," Kylee confessed, adding how she was jumping through mental hoops trying to forgive him.
Kylee said she and Aven were supposed to take a trip to the Dominican Republic with her family only days later, on Wednesday, December 13.
Kylee shared how she initially thought she could work through this with Aven and be able to trust him again.
Kylee recalled asking Aven how they should handle the family trip, but her texts went unanswered for a while. Kylee couldn't believe she was the one being ghosted when she was about to forgive her boyfriend for his mistakes.
Hours later, Kylee received a "book-long" text message from Aven while she was driving.
"This is the point where I've never felt more broken before in my life," Kylee confessed.
"I might get a little emotional talking about it. At this point, it just seemed like the end... [He wrote to me], 'Kylee, I need you to listen to me and read this. There is something else you need to know, and I'm doing this knowing that you'll be ending things with me.'"
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Aven apparently told Kylee he had "f-cked up" and hurt her by cheating on her a total of three times.
He allegedly continued, "I am worthless and I feel totally, totally worthless right now. I stepped out on our relationship, and I don't know what to do. I don't deserve to be painted in any good light. I don't deserve you. I don't deserve anyone."
Aven told Kylee that she deserved to know and he needed to rebuild himself.
"I pretended to be someone I'm not for the past few months," Aven allegedly continued, "and it's a problem. My feelings for you have grown so, so strong, and I just completely ruined it all. I ruined such a good thing, the best thing."
Aven claimed he has "serious issues" that need to be addressed and he lost "the best thing" in his life because he was being a "selfish and inconsiderate prick" who was "not taking the relationship seriously."
Aven told Kylee that he owned up to his mistakes with his mother, and she was also beyond upset with him.
Aven called himself "a horrible person" and claimed he was "shutting down" on her and had "ruined everything."
Aven also allegedly confessed that he hadn't taken their relationship seriously from the beginning.
"As this relationship has gotten to this point, I've grown deeper and deeper in love with you. At the beginning I wasn't taking this seriously at all," he wrote, per Kylee.
"I wasn't putting in any effort. I didn't think we were going to get to such a good point and that is not fair. You deserve someone who is going to love you and give you everything, and I have not done that. I am the worst person on earth... [It was] a ridiculously disrespectful mistake."
Kylee vented about how Aven was the first man she "ever truly loved."
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Six months removed from her heartache, Kylee said "thank God" she did not get engaged to Aven on the show and "everything works out for a reason."
Prior to meeting on Bachelor in Paradise, Kylee competed for Zach Shallcross on The Bachelor's 27th season.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
