The Bachelorette alum Joe Amabile is breaking his silence on his split from Kendall Long and has revealed what he believes is the true reason behind their breakup.
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"We're digging into past relationships here. Let's do it!" Joe said during a recent episode of his Click Bait podcast, which is co-hosted by The Bachelorette star Tayshia Adams.
"You know, I never really talked about our breakup and our past relationship, and I don't want to get too deep into it."
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"Grocery Store Joe" from Chicago went on to disclose of his former Los Angeles-based girlfriend, "But Kendall had expressed to me that she would never want to live in Chicago. Like, she just wouldn't."
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"She loves L.A., she doesn't want to leave L.A., and that's her thing," Joe explained.
"I had a hard time with that because, you know, if I'm living there, I need there to be that compromise. That compromise needs to be open. And she did express at the beginning of our relationship she would never want to do it."
Joe admitted, "In my head, I thought maybe that would change as time moved on, but she just would never want to live in Chicago."
Joe apparently couldn't live with the fact Chicago would never be an option for the pair, especially since his family lives there and he had a stable job there before his original The Bachelorette stint.
"For me, there's a line there, where I'm just like, 'Well, if you're not willing, then I don't know. Because you never know what's going to happen in the future," Joe shared.
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"And the way I looked at it was, what am I doing in L.A. at the time? There was not really much for me to do there. I didn't want to be the guy that was on a reality show, just living off of, 'Oh, I was on The Bachelor a year ago! Look at me! Yay!' So I needed something else, and yeah."
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Joe first competed for Becca Kufrin's heart on The Bachelorette's fourteenth season and then met Kendall on Season 5 of Bachelor in Paradise in Summer 2018.
"If I was younger and really wanted to make a career in L.A., yeah, but I think it was just the fact that she would never want to live in Chicago," Joe elaborated.
Kendall and Joe officially got an apartment together in West Hollywood, CA, in April 2019.
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But the former Bachelor in Paradise couple announced their "amicable" decision to split back in January after more than one year of dating and even talking about an engagement.
Kendall and Joe said at the time they couldn't agree on a city in which to settle down, given neither Joe or Kendall wanted to live far from his or her family long-term.
It appeared Kendall and Joe really did stay friends, as they appeared to have a sushi date in Los Angeles in May.
Kendall also told Us Weekly in April, "Joe and I probably talk like once or twice a week if that. I think we've really made it a point to take the higher road with each other."
But around that same time, Kendall admitted on Instagram she "loved him enough to see a marriage and a future."
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In March, Kendall said she wanted to "get out there again" and date, but she didn't seem totally ready for a new relationship.
"I feel like if love comes my way, I won't push it away," she said. "But I'm also not desperate for it."
Kendall previously shared with Entertainment Tonight her split from Joe came as "a little bit of a surprise" given she had pictured them becoming husband and wife.
"I think ultimately Joe saw his happiness and work in Chicago, and I can't resent him because of that," Kendall shared with ET in March.
"And for me, I just never foresaw a future there, so, I think it became an ultimatum within itself where either I move to Chicago or we broke up. And I didn't really want to have a relationship like that."
Kendall also said she and Joe were broken up for "about a month" before they dropped the news and went public with their relationship status.
"And we were living together during that time too, which is a little awkward. But I feel like it helped us get everything out of the way so we had no questions and we just agreed mutually that it was best that we separated," Kendall explained, adding that Joe taught her what she does and does not want in her future husband.
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Fans were shocked when Kendall and Joe's breakup was announced because the pair had just teased they could be getting engaged soon in December 2019.
Kendall and Joe's relationship initially got off to a rocky start when Kendall blindsided and dumped Joe during the penultimate episode of Bachelor in Paradise's fifth season after he professed how he was falling in love with her.
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Kendall found herself making a stream of excuses on the beach in Mexico as to why their relationship wouldn't work, but Joe called her out for simply being unaware of her feelings for him or not reciprocating them at all.
Joe therefore left Paradise confused and heartbroken, while Kendall clearly felt there was more she could have said and the pair had unfinished business.
"I felt an immediate regret as soon as Joe walked away... I kept running away from the fact that I was falling for him," Kendall admitted to People in September 2018.
"I went into Paradise thinking you need to date, you need to be open-minded, you need to experience people... I also had so much fear about getting hurt... It freaked me out to think I would invest myself in him and then it would break apart after the romantic beach vacation was over."
However, Kendall flew straight to Chicago after the show wrapped to talk to Joe again in-person and apologize, and she expressed to him on-camera, "I am in love with you."
It took some time for Joe to trust Kendall again, but the couple ultimately reconciled and rekindled their romance in the real world. Joe, without a doubt, was in love with Kendall as well.
Joe subsequently competed on Season 27 of Dancing with the Stars in Fall 2018 in Los Angeles, and he was able to remain close to Kendall at the time given she lives there.
Their relationship blossomed from there until Joe apparently realized he didn't want to stay in California.
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