Married at First Sight alum Elizabeth Bice has broken her silence on her separation from husband Jamie Thompson.
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Jamie revealed on April 22 that he and Elizabeth, whom he wed on Season 9 of Married at First Sight, had already been living apart for a month. He claimed Elizabeth left him because their "fighting had gotten really bad" and he had said a lot of things he shouldn't have "out of anger and frustration."
But Elizabeth, for her part, hasn't mentioned Jamie or their split on social media -- until now.
Elizabeth conducted a Q&A session via Instagram Stories on Wednesday, May 24, and one of her followers asked, "What's going on with you and Jamie??!?"
Elizabeth replied to the fan, "I'm still not in the best place to talk about this."
"But I do want to let you know I see these questions," Elizabeth continued, presumably referencing her influx of questions about the status of her marriage to Jamie.
"I'm not ignoring them," she insisted. "[I'm] just not [quite] ready to open up. But I appreciate you supporting the journey."
Elizabeth went on to explain how she's currently in the "discovery era" of her life and that Colorado "may potentially just be a stop" for her and her dog.
When Jamie first announced he and Elizabeth had parted ways, he posted some of his wedding photos and wrote on Instagram, "Sometimes you have to take a step back to take a leap forward."
"A lot of you have been asking and I've been avoiding the questions... So, I just wanted to share that I'm taking some time away from my wife to focus on myself and my personal growth," he added.
Jamie said while time away from Beth was "not easy," he believed it was "necessary."
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"Taking this step may be difficult, but I know it's necessary for me to become the best version of myself," Jamie continued in his April post.
"I can't say what the future holds for Beth and I, but I know I will be a stronger version of myself regardless. #selfcare #mentalhealth #personaldevelopment #personalgrowth #takingtimeforme #marriedatfirstsight."
Jamie then revealed in a Q&A session of his own that Elizabeth had left him after a big fight. But he wasn't willing to accept all the blame for the falling out with his wife.
"I also haven't felt like I've had any reciprocation back of, like, how to fix this and how to move forward. So she's been gone for four weeks. I think at this point, it's better for me to focus on myself and trying to become a better version of myself, honestly. That's all I can say," Jamie explained.
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In terms of what happened or what went wrong, Jamie surprisingly disclosed, "Nothing. It's basically death by a thousand paper cuts, at this point."
"I think the winter was really hard on us here in Colorado and we weren't ready for all that," Jamie elaborated. "And being stuck inside with sub-freezing temperatures daily and snow on the ground for weeks at a time -- and we're both active... people."
"So I think we just pushed each other's buttons, honestly. And five months of doing that straight, here we are today," he said.
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"I wasn't getting any sense of desire to fix this. The only thing I was really hearing, coming from her side, was blame," Jamie claimed via Instagram Stories.
"And I'm not perfect, I make a lot of mistakes. I say things I shouldn't say and I get more angry than I should get sometimes, but I've got to go take care of myself now... I've got to control myself. It's like Mental Health 101 -- focus on yourself, love yourself first before you try to love somebody else. So that's where I'm at today."
Jamie admitted that he and Beth felt "pressure" to create "an image of happiness" on social media, even though their relationship had been struggling for months.
"To me, that's not real. We took a lot of heat coming off the show. We were our most authentic selves, our most raw selves on that show, and I just want to be honest... A lot of people are invested in our life, and I feel like I owe you guys an explanation," Jamie said.
When asked why he couldn't work on himself while continuing his marriage -- given the couple had made a vow to each other -- Jamie said he believes a healthy marriage is when "people grow and evolve together."
"I don't think being apart and growing and evolving is always the best solution. I don't know, it's just my opinion. Why would you need to be apart to work on yourself?" Jamie shared, seemingly criticizing Beth's need for some space.
"It almost seems like maybe you shouldn't be in the marriage at that point... If you get to a point where things aren't evolving or getting better, then that's where I'm at today. I've got to step away and take care of myself."
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Jamie went on to admit that he wasn't sure if Elizabeth was going to be angry at him for speaking about their separation publicly.
"I don't know. I'm really trying to do this in a tactful way. I don't want to say anything bad about her. I'm not here to bash Beth and drag her out behind the woodshed, so to speak, as we say in the South," Jamie noted.
Jamie said prior to his April 22 announcement, he and Beth had talked about potentially going public with the news of their breakup together.
"If we could've worked together to address this publicly, we probably could've worked together to work on our marriage," Jamie said.
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"I'm good on the dating streets. I think for me, right now, I just want to take some time to work on myself. Dating is not going to solve anything. Finding that perfect someone is not going to make life great all of a sudden," Jamie reasoned in his Q&A.
"It kind of sucks because I'm 39-years-old and I would like a family at some point, and I was hoping that was going to be possible with Beth. But I don't know after all this."
He concluded, "If I'm 45 having my first kid, or 50, you know, medicine is great these days. What are you going to do?"
Jamie said, for the time being, he and Elizabeth were both going to therapy and he was working on anger management.
Jamie acknowledged he and Elizabeth probably "should've been going to therapy" together and they swept a lot of fights under the rug.
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Jamie, however, insisted on Sunday, April 23 that he still loved Beth "a lot" and cared for her "tremendously."
"We just can't seem to get to the point where we can have enough healthy conversation to start discussing what this looks like going forward," Jamie said.
"Initially, I wanted her to be here and work on things together when she left. I thought this was going to be a three or four-day thing... It hurts. It's not what I want."
But Jamie said he recognized they both probably needed a little space.
"And now I'm like, 'How do you keep reaching somebody who doesn't want to be reached?' She just wants her own space, and honestly, I've got to do what's best for me and take my own space too," Jamie said.
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"I started putting my hobbies, my goals, my own personal stuff aside trying to focus on this relationship, and that's just a piece of advice -- don't lose yourself. Be true to yourself. Know yourself," Jamie told his followers.
He also said they got in "way over their heads" with moving around the country for Jamie's job -- including stops in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, North Carolina, and then Colorado.
"The desperation of a new life really hurt," Jamie recalled of trying to settle down in Colorado.
Jamie and Beth's split came as a surprise to fans given they had just celebrated their four-year anniversary in early April.
"I think we were both struggling to make each other happy... Why were we relying on each other to make our own selves happy vs. just being happy on our own?" Jamie noted.
Elizabeth and Jamie chose to stay together on Married at First Sight's ninth season, which was based in Charlotte, NC, and aired in 2019.
Back in May 2021, Elizabeth and Jamie talked about having kids together on a Married at First Sight: Countdown to Decision Day special that aired on Lifetime.
"Are we waiting? What are we doing, babe?" Jamie asked Beth on the show.
"Speaking of babies," Elizabeth began, "Jamie and I are actually thinking to start towards the end of the year now. So, like, it's in the conversation... I am going to be a cool mom!"
Elizabeth and Jamie hit it off right away when they met at the altar as strangers on Married at First Sight four years ago.
Elizabeth and Jamie were crazy about each other, as well as sexually attracted to one another, but their passion and tempers often resulted in explosive and volatile arguments.
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However, with the help of the Married at First Sight's experts, Elizabeth and Jamie managed to get through every rough patch and effectively communicate, resulting in what they thought would be a happy and lasting marriage.
Both spouses recognized by "Decision Day" that they didn't want to live without the other.
Married at First Sight is currently airing its sixteenth season Wednesday nights on Lifetime.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
