The Bachelorette alum Jason Tartick has admitted he had a "tough week" after announcing his split from TikTok star Kat Stickler.
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Jason shared during a recent episode of his "Trading Secrets" podcast that the "past week's been tough."
"I mean, there's just no way to kind of beat around the bush," Jason said. "Tough week. Breakups suck. If you're in a situation where you're not feeling okay, just know that's okay."
After parting ways from Kat, Jason said that, despite being emotional, he had a speaking engagement that he ultimately "powered through."
Jason noted that the speech went well, adding, "Weirdly enough... I felt like it was one of the better speeches I ever gave, and it was what I was dreading the most. I didn't feel like I was in a headspace to do it."
Jason has endured two difficult breakups in the last year-and-a-half. He and Season 11 The Bachelorette star Kaitlyn Bristowe announced their split after several years together in August 2023.
Jason therefore decided to give some advice to people who are working through heartbreak.
"If anyone's not feeling okay now, I guess some productive ideas -- some that have helped me -- is really leaning in," Jason explained.
"I think leaning into the people that matter most to you, mom, dad, for me, brother too, best friends."
The Bachelorette 14 alum insisted that it's important to take care of oneself physically and mentally after a split.
"Some other things I've been doing is meditation. I got away from that for a while, but this week just really sitting in, avoiding distractions," Jason shared.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWJason also pointed out how "small things" like "focusing on hydration" can help.
"[I've] been doing sauna. I've been reading instead of watching TV and even focusing on diet and all those little things," Jason shared.
"Those little baby steps truly can help you get grounded and centered again."
When Jason took to Instagram Stories on October 12 to announce that he and Kat had called it quits on their relationship, he wrote in his statement, "I am sad to share that Kat and I are no longer together. It's fair to say that I love hard with all my heart and fall fast. Sometimes in life, that works out and other times it doesn't. This time it didn't."
The Bachelorette 14 alum continued, "Kat has brought me so much happiness and light, she brought out parts of me I never knew existed. I will forever be grateful for her and of course, sweet MK."
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Jason was referring to Kat's five-year-old daughter, Mary Katherine "MK" Stickler, whom she welcomed with ex-husband Mike Stickler.
"This chapter closes amicably, and another opens. I'll be rooting for her happiness and I am also rooting for mine," he concluded.
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"So with two back-to-back hurricanes, I obviously didn't think it was the right time to talk about my personal life. But a lot of you have already guessed and, yes, Jason and I have broken up," Kat said.
Kat verified her breakup with Jason was "amicable" and that "it just didn't work" with the former New York banker.
"I don't want to talk about it," Kat admitted. "I understand that with posting a relationship online you also have to show this side, the aftermath -- Woohoo, so fun I love this."
Kat went on to share with her followers, "But I just wanted to tell you guys and it's not love wasted. I feel like sometimes its so easy to think that when a relationship ends that the love is wasted."
The aspiring comedian insisted "love is never wasted," and she wrapped up her video by noting, "So, that's all I have to say."
Rumors of Jason and Kat's relationship first sparked in March when the pair had been spotted out to dinner in Chicago, IL, following the taping of a "Trading Secrets" podcast episode, which has since been released.
Jason acknowledged the online "chit-chat" he was hearing about his love life during a March interview with People.
At the time, Jason said his new book, Talk Money To Me, was his main "focus," largely in part due to his highly publicized and scrutinized breakup with Kaitlyn, who is rumored to have been dating The Bachelorette alum Zac Clark since January.
"I think due to such a public breakup, even when I think about the idea of talking openly about my dating life, I get like, 'Oh, That scares me,'" Jason admitted.
"The whole idea of dating is relatively new to me, [because] really, there's been some gaps of course, 100%. But from 2017, when I started talking to The Bachelor franchise, and in between there, there was a few months, and now I've been single for about 9 months... And it's all still pretty new to me."
But Jason gushed of Kat at the time, "Kat is an amazing person. She's lovely and a great mother, and she's a hilarious content creator. I only have incredible things to say about her."
The Bachelorette 14 alum and Kat made several public appearances together in April and May before confirming their relationship via Instagram on June 12.
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Jason and Kat went Instagram official nearly a year after Jason and Kaitlyn's breakup made headlines. Jason claimed at the time he wanted to keep his new romance pretty private.
After Jason and Kat -- who was married from 2019 to 2021 -- officially went public with their relationship, Kaitlyn expressed how she was feeling via Instagram Stories.
"People make me f-cking sick," Kaitlyn wrote in a since-deleted post on June 13, according to Us Weekly.
The former The Bachelorette star added, "IF YOU ONLY KNEW."
Kaitlyn later followed that up with a third post via Instagram Stories in which she continued, "What people will do for attention is making me want to exit the Internet forever."
While it's unclear whether Kaitlyn was feeling "sick" because of Jason and Kat's public romance or due to hurtful social-media comments thrown her way, the former Dancing with the Stars winner set her post to "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived," which appeared to be slamming Jason.
The song "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" is about a deceitful former partner with a questionable moral code.
But The Bachelorette alum first commented on Jason and Kat's Instagram-official announcement by writing on a Facebook group designed to support her "Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe" podcast.
One Facebook user reportedly wrote, "We need to let go of the narrative that KB is hurt/saddened by Jason's relationship. She has very clearly moved on. And truthfully, based on some of her cryptic comments, there's no love lost on her part."
Kaitlyn -- who had admitted last year she was "disappointed" in how Jason handled the aftermath of their breakup -- replied, "It's more of some held on anger and resentment that I'm working through!!! Not hurt."
Jason, a Buffalo native who had competed for Becca Kufrin's heart on The Bachelorette's fourteenth season in 2018, asked Kaitlyn out on their first date in January 2019, and their romance moved quickly.
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Jason ultimately moved himself out of Kaitlyn's Nashville home into his new place after their breakup last summer. (Kaitlyn also subsequently moved into a new house for a fresh start after her back-to-back broken engagements to The Bachelorette 11 winner Shawn Booth and then Jason).
Kaitlyn was then photographed with Zac on New Year's Eve this year, and she has since received a lot of backlash considering she had hosted two The Bachelorette seasons with Zac's ex-fiancee Tayshia Adams.
Kaitlyn, however, denied speculation that she had cheated on Jason with Zac.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
