Married at First Sight star Tristan Thompson says appearing on the show made him realize he needed to work on himself in preparation for his next serious relationship.
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After their relationship ended in divorce, Tristan moved on with girlfriend Rachel White, whom he introduced to MAFS viewers on Married at First Sight: Where Are They Now?, which aired on Lifetime late last month.
Tristan said on the reunion special there were things he "needed to fix" about himself after the show, and most of those things "were within," but now he's happily engaged to be married.
Tristan proposed marriage to Rachel in June 2019, only a month after they went Facebook official and six months after they first met. Tristan, who revealed in October 2019 he and Rachel had moved back to Dallas, set their wedding date for July 10, 2020.
During a recent Instagram Live session with fellow Married at First Sight alum Iris Caldwell, Tristan was asked to reveal how he worked on himself and what goals he had set for himself following his failed marriage to Mia.
"So a lot of people, they get really mad when they're single, right? They get frustrated and they're comparing to everybody else, as far as, like, 'Something is wrong with me,' you know, 'Why can't I be in a relationship?' Tristan told Iris in the Instagram Live session on May 7.
"So they spend time just thinking about themselves in the wrong way, like, feeling sorry for themselves instead of actually working on themselves."
"So that's what I said after, you know, post-show and everything. Still what I wanted in a partner stayed the same, right? But what I needed to change was brought to light."
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Tristan continued, "I was able to say, like, 'Okay, alright, I thought I was really strong with my faith. Maybe I could be a little bit stronger.' You know, I realized I don't fight fair. No matter how bad the situation may be, I still need to keep my temper under control."
Tristan said he learned it's never okay to lose your cool in a relationship.
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"You just never know. You never want to lose yourself because then that's how you just destroy your relationship," Tristan said. "So that's why I started really -- you work on yourself first and you prepare yourself for your person."
Tristan joked with Iris that he essentially dated himself in order to figure out how to create the best version of himself.
"You've got to date yourself! So I went in and was able to take myself out to the movies. I took myself out to read by myself, work out, and just be all by myself," Tristan shared.
"And I spent time with the family and said, 'Hey, you know, what do you guys see in me? What did you guys see in me?' And they said, 'Well, Tristan, we saw this.' So I had to get some feedback from the people I trusted."
Iris pointed out it's hard for someone to see the picture when he or she is in the frame.
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"If you take a step back or allow somebody else to look for you that you trust and will give you 100 percent honest feedback, then that's a huge deal when you're able to take that feedback and relate it [to your situation] and work on yourself," Iris explained.
Iris added that's exactly what personal growth is, and Tristan agreed, "Amen."
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"And then I can hear them from people that I trust, like, 'Go ahead and speak,' without me giving attitude or taking it to heart because you may not make the same mistakes."
Mia ultimately filed for divorce from Tristan in September 2018 in Dallas, citing insupportability as the grounds for the divorce.
In October of that year, Mia appeared to accuse Tristan of demoralizing her during the course of their relationship on social media.
Although she did not name Tristan directly, she led her followers to believe Tristan mentally abused her and is a "narcissist."
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Tristan and Mia's divorce was finalized in November 2018, but according to the divorce decree, the pair separated on May 5, 2018.
Given the couple's Married at First Sight wedding only occurred on March 25, 2018, the May 5 date would mean Mia and Tristan separated nearly two weeks before the show's eight-week experiment ended.
Mia and Tristan, however, presented themselves as wanting to stay together and make their marriage work on Season 7's "Decision Day," which took place at the conclusion of the eight-week period.
On the season's subsequent reunion show in which they had announced they were divorcing, Mia and Tristan insisted that while they had engaged in several fights during the filming period, they only split for good after "Decision Day" occurred.
The biggest hurdle the couple encountered on Married at First Sight was Mia initially lying to Tristan about her March 2018 arrest in which she had been detained in a Texas airport while traveling to Cancun, Mexico for their honeymoon and spent two days in custody.
An arrest warrant had been issued back in February 2018 by Mia's alleged ex-boyfriend, Jared Evans, who claimed she had stalked him on multiple occasions in the 13 months that followed their December 2016 breakup.
In addition, Jared also alleged Mia had also managed to make an unauthorized purchase of an Apple iPhone on his credit card a year after their split.
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Mia initially told Tristan the situation was a matter of identity theft and she had no relationship with her accuser, but she slowly came clean to her concerned husband off-camera, resulting in a lack of trust in their marriage.
In a pair of Instagram postings Mia made in October 2018, she claimed she was innocent and Evans' police report was false.
According to Mia's postings, she was the victim of a false police report in regards to her ex-boyfriend's stalking accusations, and he actually called and texted her thousands of times following their alleged break-up.
Tristan was previously bashed for seemingly kicking Mia out of his apartment during an altercation and handling the situation poorly.
In addition, Tristan was pushing Mia throughout the season to move from Dallas to Houston for his business, which became a point of contention between the two.
It's therefore a bit ironic Tristan ended up back in Dallas with Rachel.
As for Iris, she married Keith Manley on Season 9 of Married at First Sight, which aired last year, but Keith opted to divorce Iris against her wishes on "Decision Day."
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
