The Bachelorette alum Kaitlyn Bristowe has revealed that she believes her ex-fiance Shawn Booth used her for professional gain towards the end of their relationship.
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"It was getting down to the end where we both just didn't see it going anywhere," Kaitlyn recalled of November 2018 breakup with Shawn. "But it felt like he was hanging on until his gym opened. And that's where I felt used professionally."
Shawn and Kaitlyn, who is now happily engaged to Jason -- who found fame when he competed for Becca Kufrin's heart on The Bachelorette's fourteenth season -- called it quits more than three years after Shawn proposed marriage on her The Bachelorette finale, which aired in 2015 on ABC.
"This is all just from my point of view and from how I felt and things that I saw," Kaitlyn told Jason.
"It doesn't mean they're right or wrong, but would you or would you not agree that when couples come off the show -- whether it was a Bachelor and the woman who picked, or the Bachelorette and the guy she picked -- that that is a really hard foundation to start on and a power struggle?"
Jason replied, "Oh, I think it is the hardest in all dimensions -- personally, professionally [and] financially -- it is close to impossible."
Kaitlyn therefore continued, "So I think men sometimes get emasculated by the Bachelorette coming off [the show]."
Jason chimed in and said he "100 percent" agreed with Kaitlyn's take on that.
"With all these opportunities, they're like, 'We want Kaitlyn there and, well, Shawn can come too!' Or maybe not. Maybe it's just Kaitlyn, or it's the two of us together, but it was always if I was there, then he was invited," Kaitlyn recalled.
"And I think that on top of already feeling emasculated on the show where you're not The One [right off the bat] and there's other relationships building and you thought it was you the whole time and then you realize it wasn't -- how does a relationship even work after that? I don't know. It's hard."
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RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWBack in November 2021, Shawn said of his relationship with Kaitlyn on the "Austin AF" podcast, "I don't know if it was true, true love. I guess it wasn't because we'd still be together if it was."
Shawn explained at the time, "Of course, you're thinking it's love. But you're put in a situation where you're completely secluded from the world. You can't talk to your friends, you can't talk to your family," according to Us Weekly.
"You can't watch TV. You don't have the Internet. I mean, you're there for 12 weeks, you're trying to, like, just figure out your emotions and your feelings. And you have this person that you're kind of going through the process with."
When Kaitlyn announced her split from Shawn, she claimed they had "important fundamental values" that didn't line up.
But Shawn reportedly thought it was "disrespectful" that Kaitlyn moved on with Jason in early 2019.
Jason asked Kaitlyn out on their first date in January 2019. Jason moved from his place in Seattle to live with Kaitlyn in Nashville in June 2019, and the couple has since adopted two dogs together.
"Everybody deals with breakups in a different way. That was her way of dealing with a breakup -- getting right into it and wanting to share it with the world," Shawn said.
"We weren't together she was able to do whatever she wanted to do. So it didn't really matter how I felt. The biggest takeaway I took from that was, 'Okay, this is, like, a good move that we ended.' Let's rip off the band-aid completely."
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Kaitlyn accepted a marriage proposal from Jason in May 2021, but Kaitlyn has explained in the media how they've been distracted when it comes to wedding planning and are in no rush to exchange vows.
In December 2021, Kaitlyn candidly discussed Shawn's "bitter" comments about their broken engagement, including how he didn't think they had found "true love."
Kaitlyn told Us at the time how she didn't listen to Shawn's interview but she was still hurt by what she heard or read about it.
"People told me about it, but it actually just made me a little sad because he had every opportunity to just be happy for me and be happy at where he's at in life. And he just still seems a little bitter," Kaitlyn shared.
"And I was just confused by that because it's been three years and I thought maybe he would just, you know, we'd want each other to be happy."
She added, "It made me sad that he said he didn't think it was real love or we'd still be together. Obviously, his experience was different than mine."
Kaitlyn said in March 2019 how she "wasn't feeling loved" and felt "alone" in her relationship with Shawn for over a year.
She even confessed to having put on an "act" for her social-media followers before the breakup.
Kaitlyn concluded of Shawn in late 2021, "I genuinely hope he's just happy in what he's doing. Because at this point, I mean, that would be weird if I felt any other way."
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
