True love isn't exactly easy to find in Bachelor Nation, but it's even harder to keep, especially when you're in the limelight. Just ask ex-flames Cassie Randolph and Colton Underwood.
After almost two years of dating full-time — I'm not really counting their months on The Bachelor because Colton dated everybody — Colton and Cassie announced that they had ended their relationship in May. In separate Instagram posts shared with their followers on the same day, the exes revealed that they were no longer together.
"Sometimes people are just meant to be friends, and that’s okay," Colton wrote in a brief message. "We both have grown immensely and been through so much together - so this isn’t the end of our story, it’s the start of a whole new chapter for us.”
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Unfortunately, the exes' plan to stay on good terms isn't panning out like they thought it would, and it's because Cassie and Colton just can't agree on whether or not they should keep talking about their breakup.
Cassie was one of the Bachelor alums chosen for a "Greatest Seasons Ever" interview with host Chris Harrison, and she talked about her time on the show and the relationship that spawned from it. She thought that she was being vague about what had transpired with Colton, but her ex-boyfriend didn't see it that way — to him, it looked like Cassie had gone back on their personal agreement to keep the details of their love life private.
"When our relationship ended we agreed to handle things as privately as possible as we attempted to navigate our new relationship as friends," he shadily captioned a photo following Cassie's interview. "I chose to do that since we were living in this interim period, but obviously a lot changed this week."
Colton's thinly veiled shade didn't go over so well with his ex, who didn't hesitate to address the comments on her own social media page. She stated that she had no intention of exposing the details of their relationship and felt like she'd been as careful as she could in the interview. Her feelings were hurt because it appeared like Colton was trying to paint her in a negative light.
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But that wasn't even the messiest part of the post. Cassie went on to accuse Colton of attempting to "monetize their relationship" for his memoir The First Time: Finding Myself and Looking for Love.
"On Monday evening, you informed me you intend to monetize our breakup by writing a new chapter to discuss your experience with COVID (where you stayed in my family's house during your recovery & about our breakup," Cassie wrote. "You have also refused to give me any sort of approval on the chapter you will be writing, which will heavily feature me... This seems a bit unfair to me."
"Colton, you can do what you want," she concluded. "But please do not have a double standard."
Yikes. Breakups are tough, but in Bachelor Nation, ending a relationship is almost always a messy, messy process. Now, these two don't have to get back together — what's done is done — but can't they keep it friendly?