Even Bachelor Nation’s biggest success stories aren’t immune to the quarantine breakup. Last week, Bachelor in Paradise alums Evan Bass and Carly Waddell announced that they were separating after three years of marriage. Bass and Waddell got engaged on-screen in 2016, married in 2017, and have since had two kids together.
“A lot of you kind people have asked if I’m ok. And I want to say I am, but I’m not. I will be though,” Waddell captioned a Christmas Instagram post. “Today is the first day that both kids are staying at Evan’s house overnight. I feel like I’m missing a piece of my soul.”
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On Saturday, she opened up more about the challenges of navigating a separation during the holidays. “This is a weird week for me because most of you know Evan and I are getting a divorce,” she said in an emotional YouTube video. “I don’t know how to do Christmas alone. But I was gonna show you our Christmas week because I feel like that’s what i was going to do anyway, and I didn’t know it was going to look like this, but it is.”
In the 13-minute vlog, Waddell walked her subscribers through her Christmas preparations and celebrations, but also shared some thoughts on her heartbreak. At the end, she mentioned that it’s already been different to coparent two young children, especially her one-year-old son who had never slept away from home before. “I just wanted to thank you, because I know people are really surprised by all this happening, and I know that so many people loved us together,” Waddell said at the end of the video. “It’s just sad and I’m sad and that’s all there is.”
Bass and Waddell announced their split last Wednesday. “We will always cherish our time together and continue to have the utmost respect for one another as we focus on what's best for the future of our family,” they told People in a joint statement.
The Bachelor franchise isn’t always known for producing long-lasting couples, but Waddell and Bass became an unexpected favourite pairing after their respective runs on Chris Soules’ season of The Bachelor and JoJo Fletcher’s season of The Bachelorette. In 2016, Waddell told E! News that it was “shocking” when she realized she’d fallen for Bass. “I remember even in an interview I said I was falling in love with him,” she recalled. “I was seriously like, ‘I am shocked that I’m saying this.’ But now I’m not, because he’s the greatest person that I’ve ever known.”
Bass hasn’t been as candid about the split, but he did respond to a troll who joked that his throwback photo from earlier this summer — captioned “There’s never been a better paradise love story” — hadn’t aged well. “Still true,” he replied.