The Bachelorette co-host Kaitlyn Bristowe has revealed what Tayshia Adams was feeling and going through backstage before Tayshia announced on The Men Tell All she and fiance Zac Clark had broken up.
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"I'm so proud of her for being so professional and being able to show up and put a smile on her face and do a great job hosting while going through it."
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After Tayshia's representative announced in late November the Season 16 The Bachelorette star and Zac had decided to part ways, Tayshia first publicly mentioned her broken engagement and called herself "heartbroken" while co-hosting The Men Tell All.
According to Reality Steve spoiler blogger Steve Carbone, The Men Tell All special filmed on November 22, the same day Tayshia's publicist issued the statement about Tayshia and Zac's breakup.
"I know she was just really struggling that day because the news had broke, and she was really upset," Kaitlyn noted.
Tayshia and Zac got engaged when her The Bachelorette season wrapped filming in August 2020, and they broke up nearly one year after their engagement aired on ABC in December 2020.
On the two-hour The Men Tell All episode for Michelle Young's season of The Bachelorette, Kaitlyn -- who starred on Season 11 of The Bachelorette -- pointed out how Tayshia wasn't wearing her engagement ring.
Tayshia, quiet and hesitant, then revealed, "Umm, all in all, all I have to say is that I am heartbroken. But we tried really hard and I love him very much. And I'm not sure what the future hold."
Tayshia, trying to hold back tears, acknowledged her situation was "really tough," before walking off the stage in attempt to compose herself for interviews with Michelle's cast of Season 18 The Bachelorette suitors.
However, Tayshia did not reveal any specifics on why her relationship with Zac failed and whether the breakup was mutual.
"I saw her in the trailer so upset, she was having anxiety," Kaitlyn elaborated on Tayshia's emotional state at The Men Tell All.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"And I was like, 'You don't have to address this if you don't want to. But I think if you want to have your own voice and be able to, like, just share how you're feeling, it's up to you.'"
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The former Dancing with the Stars champion elaborated, "I mean, at the end of the day, as long as she was -- now, I say comfortable, she wasn't comfortable with it -- but she wanted to address it. And so we had to put it in there somewhere."
Kaitlyn reiterated how she was proud of Tayshia for handling everything "like a true professional."
Kaitlyn also said she and Tayshia "didn't want to ignore it during the show," even though it was difficult to plan a scene ahead of time that would come across sincere to viewers and not forced or fake.
"It's hard to put something in there that will feel, you know, staged or scripted because you want to work it in there and make sure that she has a voice and that she's able to talk about it [and] not just pretend it didn't happen or just go through the whole show when she was clearly, like, struggling that day," Kaitlyn explained.
"So I was really proud of her, and it was just tough to work in because I wanted to put Tayshia's feelings first."
Kaitlyn had been through a similar situation before, so she could definitely feel for Tayshia.
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Kaitlyn, however, is currently happily engaged to The Bachelorette 14 alum Jason Tartick, with whom she is now planning a 2022 wedding.
"With Tayshia, I'm like, 'I hate that I can understand what you're going through because it's so hard,'" Kaitlyn said.
"Everyone has a different opinion and a voice and something to say and people don't fully know what really happened. And it's just so hard on your heart to go through that because you want to grieve this person that you've lost and you have all these different voices coming at you."
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Kaitlyn apparently advised Tayshia to "take it one day at a time."
"You can't let the outside voices dictate how you feel and you can't let that have more power than you," Kaitlyn reasoned, "so allow yourself to feel sad and know in your heart that you did everything that you could to make that work and that you have to now go through the stages of, like, grieving a loss."
Tayshia explained in early December why she didn't say more about her split from Zac while confirming the breakup news on The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All broadcast.
"I really said all I had to say on that stage," Tayshia told The Bachelorette 14 star Becca Kufrin on the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast at the time.
"I don't really have anything to add to it just because I'm still going through it all."
Tayshia added, "And yeah, I spoke my peace. And one day, when I feel like I have more to say, I'm sure we can talk about it all... I am definitely hanging in there."
Tayshia called that day of filming The Men Tell All "really tough" for her because the news of her breakup with Zac had just broken to the world.
"It was just very heavy, but I had a job to do at the same time," Tayshia explained.
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A source previously told Us that Tayshia and Zac "couldn't fully commit to each other" because of their busy schedules.
"They eventually realized it wasn't going to work and their relationship ran its course," the source explained.
"Zac is very into his Release Recovery Foundation work and Tayshia has her own thing going on. With her schedule, they have been spending a lot of time apart."
Rumors Tayshia and Zac had ended their engagement and decided to part ways first broke in mid-November.
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An insider told Life & Style at the time that Tayshia and Zac were "on a break" after Tayshia had been spotted multiple times without her engagement ring earlier in the month.
"They're definitely taking some time apart to figure things out," the source explained about the couple. "It doesn't look good."
Tayshia's representative confirmed to People several days later, "Tayshia Adams and Zac Clark are no longer a couple."
The couple's relationship apparently fell apart pretty recently given Tayshia and Zac had put on a united front and seemed to be thriving as a couple in early November.
On November 7, Tayshia and Zac participated in the New York City Marathon together, and Zac gushed about his fiancee the following day on Instagram.
Not only did Zac call the world "a better place" with Tayshia in it, but he also wrote, "The untold story about @tayshia is one of humility and courage. She would never tell the world how truly inspiring her performance was yesterday at the @nycmarathon but I will."
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Zac claimed Tayshia "is allergic to excuses" and "could have bailed at anytime in the past four months" but chose to stick with her training.
"Her PR team would have handled it, but that is just not who she is. She said she was going to do something and she did it. No one will remember her 'time' but the fact that she went out and ran... this race in 4 hours and 40 minutes is heroic and shows the power of believing in yourself," Zac gushed.
"I will be forever grateful to have had a front row seat to her performance yesterday."
And ahead of the big race, Zac told People that he was excited things were about to calm down for Tayshia and himself.
"We're really looking forward to kicking back after we get done and really spending some time here in New York," Zac said.
"With our schedules and how everything's worked out, we're just super excited to take advantage of what's here and eat some good food and explore a little bit and make sure that she really feels like she knows New York."
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Tayshia and Zac also celebrated their first anniversary on August 1.
"At approximately this time 365 days ago, I met you!" Tayshia captioned an Instagram post celebrating the couple's first anniversary on August 1.
"It's been a wild ride so far with our lives going a million miles an hour but how lucky are we to have had an amazing week together at the place where it all started AND we were to able to renew our wishes a year later?! WILD Happy to have you by my side, Clarky. 143, #happydaythatimetyou."
Speculation that Tayshia and Zac had broken up also surfaced in March when Tayshia was similarly seen without her engagement ring on, however she subsequently denied the couple had split.
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She added, "I was in [Los Angeles] for a hot minute and was able to finally drop off my ring and get it sized."
Tayshia reportedly followed up her video with a post on her Instagram Story that read, "Not gonna lie, I don't like getting DMs putting this weird energy into the universe lol. I love that there's so much love & support around our relationship but please don't put unnecessary rumors/pressure on us."
Around that same time, Zac had to reassure fans that his mother accidentally stopped following Tayshia on Instagram and there wasn't a falling out or intentional slight on his mom's part.
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Following their televised engagement, Tayshia and Zac enjoyed the holidays in 2020 together and then Tayshia decided to move to New York City to be with her man.
In a February 2021 interview with Marie Claire, the previously-divorced The Bachelorette star revealed she had decided to keep her own place in California "for peace of mind" since this is "not [her] first rodeo."
"Coming out of that [TV environment], I think we had a strong foundation, and then it's about, like, digging in together and getting to know each other and understanding each other's lives," Zac told Us of his post-show journey with Tayshia.
"We're both passionate, driven, busy human beings. And with that, we need to remind ourselves to work each other into it and we've done [that]."
Zac had continued, "So yeah, a couple months after, there were some ups and downs, of course, and, like, well-documented, but at the end of the day, it's all good right now."
Prior to starring on The Bachelorette 16 last year, Tayshia competed for Colton Underwood's heart on The Bachelor's 23rd season and was eliminated during his round of overnight Fantasy Suite dates.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
