Kaitlyn Bristowe reflected on the aftermath of her breakup from ex-fiancé Jason Tartick, whom she feels “didn’t protect” her from fan backlash.
“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,” the former Bachelor star, 38, explained during her “Off the Vine” podcast Tuesday, September 19. “To justify it and say all these things. We really agreed on protecting each other.”
After emphasizing the protection that she and Jason, 34, agreed upon, Kaitlyn recalled the Instagram video he posted in August. The clip in question featured the Bachelorette alum packing up his belongings while his and Kaitlyn’s dogs watched.
“This has been another reminder to me that it’s OK to show weakness, it’s OK to ask for help and that the support from family/friends is truly unbreakable when they know you really need to lean in,” Jason wrote in his caption, referring to a friend who took a flight to help him move out. “[I] promise sad posts will be behind me shortly, it just felt too meaningful not to share. Thank you for everyone who has given respect and grace over the last month.”
Though Jason was only thanking his friend for helping out, Kaitlyn took the video as a slight dig, noting that it made her “really sad.”
“When he was, kind of, leaning into that sad — I was like, ‘Bro.’ It didn’t protect me because it made me look like I was taking the dogs away from him,” she explained during her recent podcast episode. “The messages I got after that were just … and he was like, ‘Well I didn’t get one message about it.’ … I didn’t know it was going to be that bad of what people were saying to me.”
Earlier in the summer, Kaitlyn received countless comments and messages from Bachelor Nation fans demanding to answer whether or not she was still engaged to Jason. After the couple confirmed they broke up in August, social media users noticed that Jason seemed to take the split pretty hard.
“What I’ve just realized is that there’s no timeline on handling grief,” he said during an episode of his “Trading Secrets” podcast. “And there’s times where you have these just tidal waves of depression, but then there are these times where like you feel lifted and you feel good again.”