The Bachelorette alums Kaitlyn Bristowe and Jason Tartick reunited at Chris Harrison and Lauren Zima's recent wedding, and now Ashley Iaconetti and Ben Higgins are spilling the details.
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"CONGRATULATIONS CHRIS AND LAUREN. I love this incestuous family so much," Kaitlyn, 38, captioned an Instagram post on Monday, November 6, showing the many bachelors and bachelorettes in attendance.
"I told Chris I'm going to need 3-5 business days to recover from the most perfect wedding of all time. I love love."
Kaitlyn tagged Jason, whom she had announced her split from in August, and the 35-year-old former Seattle banker commented, "It was great seeing you KB."
Kaitlyn then replied, "@jason_tartick great seeing you too JT. Rip to the dance floor cuz we all killed it."
Chris and Lauren kicked off their wedding festivities with a "Bachelor World" gathering at their Texas home on Friday night.
But before going to Chris and Lauren's home, Kaitlyn had gone out for a couple of drinks with Ashley, Jade Roper, and Trista Rehn.
Ashley, 35, revealed during the Wednesday, November 8, episode of her "The Ben & Ashley I: Almost Famous Podcast" that Kaitlyn was running late to the bar and, before she arrived, Jason showed up at the same bar and ordered a drink.
"I don't want to overstep. But I will say this: it had been a while since she's seen him," Ashley revealed.
Ashley told her listeners how the ladies "did [their] best" to do some damage control.
"We intercepted [Kaitlyn] and we walked her out to the outdoor sitting area. We found an empty spot in the corner, but Jason, when he made eye contact with Jade, he was like, 'Oh gosh! She's definitely coming!'" Ashley recalled.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"We were sitting there in the corner and she was like, 'Oh my gosh, this is so awkward. What do we do?' So he ended up texting her, like, 'I saw you. Do you want to say hi?' Which is great."
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Ashley admitted "we were all really curious to see what would happen" between the exes.
And Ben, 34, confessed Kaitlyn and Jason's reunion was full of "intrigue and interest" for him as well.
"There was a lot of buildup behind the scenes. I can't say that anyone fully knew the dynamics of their relationship," Ben elaborated.
"We all know though that any time you see an ex -- even if the breakup is mutual and amicable and very sweet and nice -- the dynamics can be awkward. They are, because you've broken up for a reason."
The former The Bachelor star noted, "You haven't broken up because you still like each other so much. You've broken up because at some point, you're like, 'Hey, this isn't working. We're not getting along. We need to end it.'"
Kaitlyn and Jason clearly saw each other on Friday and Saturday night, but according to Ashley, there is nothing exciting to report.
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Ashley acknowledged how she would've loved to have seen a "rekindling of a flame" between the exes, but that simply wasn't the case.
"We said, 'If they're so friendly, maybe, just maybe they should try again! Maybe just tonight!'" Ashley joked.
When looking back on the weekend as a whole, Ben pointed out how he's "really proud" of Kaitlyn and Jason for being so cool and amicable with each other in what could have been a very awkward situation.
"I don't know if I would've had that ability with an ex in my past to do that, and I was just admiring how well they navigated it," Ben said, referring to his split with The Bachelor 20 winner Lauren Bushnell.
"Everybody knew they were once together and everybody knew they were broken up, and they didn't let it be a thing."
Ashley said she could tell that Kaitlyn and Jason had "a really good foundation of friendship" as far as relationships go.
"Because they did choose to hang out together at certain points," Ashley shared. "Even on Friday night... they took Ubers with us and it looked like people who really enjoyed each other's company for so many years."
When Kaitlyn and Jason made their breakup public knowledge in August, they appeared to be on good terms.
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But Jason admitted later that month that losing Kaitlyn was "really tough" and he needed time to "grieve" and "cope" from the breakup, which caused "emotional swings" on his part.
"I've cried more in the last month or two than I have in my life altogether," The Bachelorette alum cried on an episode of his "Trading Secrets" podcast.
During the September 19 episode of the "Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe" podcast, things appeared to get a little tense between the former couple when Kaitlyn claimed Jason "didn't protect" her from online hate and scrutiny after 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 recalled.
Kaitlyn elaborated, "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 Ramen and Pinot looking sad while he put his belongings into a moving truck.
"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."
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."
Jason, who proposed marriage to Kaitlyn in May 2021, moved "down the street" from Kaitlyn in Nashville, temporarily, after their split. And at that time, he began scoping out the real estate market.
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.
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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 in her since-deleted post, "Have a f-cking heart. You're scaring me with your comments and demands. I'm almost worried about YOU."
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).
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
