Cassie Randolph is providing additional details and clarification on her past relationship with Caelan Tiongson and their participation in Young Once, a currently-airing online reality series that was filmed last summer.
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Cassie, a 23-year-old speech-language pathology assistant from Huntington Beach, CA, insisted on Instagram she was not dating Caelan shortly before appearing on The Bachelor and she did not dump him in order to pursue a relationship with The Bachelor's Season 23 star Colton Underwood.
"I'm getting a lot of questions about my ex and a docuseries we filmed before Bachelor. While I don't feel it is necessary that I share all the details, a lot of people are curious and the worst thing is false rumors. I didn't want to address this without his permission, but he posted about it today so I think it's good if I do too," Cassie wrote on Instagram.
"Caelan and I dated all through college and in 2015 we filmed Young Once. A while after our breakup we put our past behind us and became friends again. We share a lot of mutual friends and he is close to my family. We both dated other people and had moved on."
Some viewers have been confused about Cassie's pre-The Bachelor relationship status because while The Bachelor is currently airing on ABC, Season 2 of the Young Once series also premiered this week and is chronicling bits and pieces of her former on-again, off-again relationship with Caelan.
Cassie met Caelan while they attended Biola University, a conservative private schools where alcohol, drugs and sex are all off-limits.
Cassie said she broke up with Caelan shortly before her graduation from the university in 2016 -- but it didn't exactly mark the end of their relationship.
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"While we were never officially a couple again, there was a time last spring that we considered getting back together, but that didn't work out. I was open to staying friends, but he understandably thought this was too hard," Cassie explained in her Wednesday Instagram post.
"Just because we didn't work out doesn't mean we now hate each other and don't care about the other. It just wasn't right for us."
Just like Caelan had revealed earlier that day, Cassie confirmed she was the person in their relationship to decide they simply couldn't be together again -- a permanent decision she claimed was "extra hard" for him to handle.
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"Relationships are complicated and navigating isn't usually straight forward. We were on and off for so long that turning it off for good was a difficult decision as I truly didn't want to regret giving up if we were meant to be. But certain things were unhealthy and it became clear we were supposed to move on," Cassie explained.
"Over the summer, unexpectedly and out of the blue, we were contacted by [Young Once production] and learned they were considering a [Season 2] -- a follow up on some of the original cast. This again put Caelan and I directly back in each other's lives as our social circle overlaps."
While Cassie and Caelan did film scenes for Young Once together in Summer 2018, she said their romance never took off again.
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"One of the storylines highlighted is our drawn out/complex relationship and the challenges of us staying friends post breakup and whether it is possible or not," Cassie shared.
"We filmed for several weeks prior to Caelan heading to Asia to play pro basketball and before I found out that I was cast for Bachelor. The timing of everything was completely chance. I care very much about Caelan and I want nothing but the best for him and his life."
Young Once's second season reportedly concluded filming about two weeks before Season 23 of The Bachelor began filming in September.
The blonde beauty concluded in her post, "Meanwhile I am back to real life, focusing on grad school, working and trying to remain grounded as I balance this new intense scrutiny of my life."
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"My ex and I have been broken up since before I graduated from Biola in 2016. I will say that yes, there was a time that we rekindled our friendship to see if we should get back together, but we never did. There were some unhealthy aspects to our relationship, which is why we never got back together," Cassie disclosed.
"We attempted several times to be friends, and it was just too hard -- as is typical of many breakups with a lot of history. I think Caelan is a great guy and we respect each other, but it just didn't work out for us."
"He remains friends with my family and we have many friends in common, so it wasn't like most breakups where you can just disappear from each others lives."
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She also insisted, "That said, The Bachelor and my ex have nothing to do with one another."
Caelan had nothing but positive things to say about Cassie in his own post on social media. Their stories also line up pretty well.
"[Our relationship] dragged out much too long anyways. This is because I persistently pursued a reunion and she knowingly kept the door open at times because of indecisiveness, neither of which matters because it has been over for good since before she went on The Bachelor," Caelan wrote on Instagram hours before Cassie released her lengthy statement.
"However, it can be said without a doubt that her and I were not a good fit for each other... The reality of the situation is Cassie is a great girl."
Cassie is currently one of 12 women remaining in the quest for Colton's heart and final rose on The Bachelor's 23rd season, which premiered in January.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
