Kaitlyn Bristowe Says She’s Experiencing Grief As She Navigates Life Without Ex Jason Tartick

Two days after Kaitlyn Bristowe and Jason Tartick announced the end of their engagement, the former Bachelorette is opening up about the aftermath of her breakup — and the loss she's experiencing.

"I'm going through a breakup with someone I was engaged to," Bristowe said to marriage and family therapist Jenny Wise Black on Tuesday's episode of her Off the Vine podcast. "Now, we both are public figures, we both came from the same show. We have all these followers who we've let in, and we've invited them into our lives and our relationship and our home and what we're doing — morning, afternoon, night. It's become part of, like, business."

Bristowe continued by saying it's "gotten to this point where something like going through a breakup — it's a loss, it's grief, you're going through the thought of losing somebody, all of these big emotions — and now these people are on the other end of this phone expecting you to share it with them." 

"I'm holding so much responsibility because I see them as this community that I've built for myself," she explained. "It is affecting my mental health so much."

"Here's the logic of everything and then here's the emotion, and I am finding myself in the middle of that" Bristowe concluded.

Tartick and Bristowe announced Sunday that they had called off their engagement, sharing a lengthy joint statement via Instagram.

"Continuing our friendship is incredibly important to both of us," they wrote. "We feel grateful to be ending our engagement with love and respect for each other. It's heartbreaking and sad to say goodbye, but our care and admiration for one another will never die."

"We are beyond thankful for the memories made together, and for your support of us and the boys throughout the years," the former couple noted, referencing their shared dogs. "Moving forward we will always have that level of support for each other. We don't know what the future holds so please try to hold space for us in your hearts."

On Monday, Tartick had a hard time getting through the introduction of his first podcast recorded since their split.

"I'm going to make this one a little bit shorter today," he said during the intro to Monday's episode of the Trading Secrets podcast. "This is my second attempt at this. [The] first attempt... it did not go well, I'll tell you that much."

"As some of you might know," Tartick added with a pause, "Kaitlyn and I have shared our relationship news that we are ending our engagement tonight. So the intro will be short, it will be sweet. I'm not going to provide news at this time given what's happening in my life. It's been a little bit of a challenge today and tonight. When I'm prepared and feel ready to talk through how these things also impact my life, what's next for me, I will share those."

The Bachelorette contestant's comments on his podcast come after The Messenger reported exclusively that the breakup "has been really hard on both of them because they still care about one another."

"He hasn't been living in their Nashville home, and they are still figuring out how to divide up their lives. This split is pretty recent," an insider close to Bristowe said. 

The source continued: "They just weren't on the same page about their future plans. They couldn't agree on wedding-related plans or starting a family. It has been really hard on both of them because they still care about one another."