The Bachelorette alum Kaitlyn Bristowe says she feels like ex-fiance Jason Tartick "didn't protect" her from online hate and scrutiny after they announced their split.
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"It was already my fault when we weren't posting enough and people were questioning everything. It was always like, 'God, you're ruining another good thing! This is what you do!'" Kaitlyn, 38, recalled.
Kaitlyn's podcast guest, Amanda Hirsch from the "Not Skinny But Not Fat" podcast, pointed out how trolls have accused Kaitlyn of not having kids when Jason wants to settle down and for being so caught up in her career -- and in drinking wine, for fun -- that she never planned her wedding.
"They're like, 'Poor Jason, Kaitlyn did this,'" Amanda noted.
And Kaitlyn agreed, saying, "I will hold myself accountable for certain things in the relationship... but they don't know anything."
Kaitlyn said the hate pointed in her direction has been "so much louder" than the kind words.
"I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn't know it was going to be THAT bad of what people were saying to me," Kaitlyn shared.
When asked if she wanted Jason to defend her publicly, Kaitlyn admitted, "Yeah, a little bit."
She explained, "We talked about protecting each other through it because, of course, when you go through breakups you want to have your side and someone to have their side. You want to justify it and say all these things, but we really agreed on protecting each other."
Kaitlyn therefore said when Jason had "leaned into that sad" late-August post about moving out of the Nashville home he and Kaitlyn had shared with their two dogs, she was annoyed.
In that Instagram video, Jason had a friend helping him move, and the former banker from Seattle noted how the process "physically and mentally" sucked. He also shared footage of his Golden Retrievers -- Ramen and Pinot -- looking sad while he put his belongings into a moving truck.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"I was like, 'Bro!'" Kaitlyn vented with a laugh. "He pulled at heartstrings and it didn't protect me because it made me look like I was taking the dogs away from him."
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Kaitlyn said that she ultimately confronted Jason about the post.
"The messages that I got after that were just [awful]. And he was like, 'Well, I didn't get one message about it.' And I was like, 'I did!'" Kaitlyn explained.
"And it just made me really sad because the dogs are literally our No. 1 priority through this. We are both obsessed with them, and we have made it very clear that we're going to be sharing them."
Kaitlyn confessed she's not sure how she and Jason are going to do that forever.
But Kaitlyn and Jason certainly have history together. They began dating in January 2019 and got engaged in May 2021.
Once Kaitlyn and Jason announced their breakup via a joint Instagram statement in early August, they both insisted they were going to remain friends and amicably co-parent their dogs.
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Kaitlyn recently revealed that she and Jason had failed to prioritize their relationship and that they weren't "choosing" each other on a daily basis.
Kaitlyn insisted no one was at fault or is to blame for the demise of their relationship, but she said social media -- and outside pressures to put on "a performative show" for their fans -- definitely "played a part" in their breakup. That's why she decided to take a hiatus from posting content for about two weeks.
Fans assumed Kaitlyn and Jason's romance was on the rocks when they weren't making any progress in terms of wedding planning.
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Breakup rumors then began to swirl in July because Kaitlyn and Jason hadn't posted anything about each other on Instagram for about a month.
And when Instagram users flooded Kaitlyn and Jason's comments with questions and concerns about the status of their relationship, neither Kaitlyn or Jason responded.
Kaitlyn fueled speculation her relationship was in trouble -- or over completely -- when she took to Instagram Stories on August 1 with an angry message.
"I cannot believe the audacity of people to expect things from me when I haven't even been able to process things for myself," Kaitlyn wrote, according to Us Weekly.
Needing to "process things" seemed to suggest she and Jason had split up and called off their engagement.
The Dancing with the Stars 29 winner continued, "Have a f-cking heart. You're scaring me with your comments and demands. I'm almost worried about YOU."
Kaitlyn quickly deleted the post, but screenshots of it still exist online and in her "Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe" podcast group on Facebook.
Kaitlyn subsequently uploaded a permanent post on Instagram featuring lyrics to her 2020 song "If I'm Being Honest," which suggested she wasn't ready to tell her story.
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While Kaitlyn and Jason breakup rumors were circulating, Kaitlyn's first fiance, her The Bachelorette 11 winner Shawn Booth, announced he's going to be a dad with a woman named Audrey "Dre" Joseph, who had taken professional and promotional photos of him and is a member at his gym.
Kaitlyn and Shawn were together for about three years and announced their split in November 2018.
Jason, who initially 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.
Jason moved from his place in Washington to live with Kaitlyn in Nashville in June 2019, and then the couple adopted their two dogs together and got engaged in Spring 2021.
In June 2022, Kaitlyn told Us that she and Jason planned to start trying for a baby right after their wedding. (But now that Kaitlyn and Jason are over, she confessed that she's "terrified" to have kids).
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
