Serene Russell is opening up about what caused the end to her engagement to Brandon Jones.
While the Bachelor in Paradise stars announced their split in an Instagram post back in May, Russell, 28, opened up for the first time about the breakup during a recent appearance on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s Off the Vine podcast.
“We both had things we could have done better in the relationship,” said Russell. “It was something that we were both very much still in, and we had gone to therapy, which was really cool.”
The TV personality added that they had been provided with therapy from the start of their relationship and that they tried to set themselves up for “success,” but there were “just ultimately so many things” going on.
One of the things that caused “ irreparable damage” and there was “no coming back from” was when a video began to surface online of Jones, 29, with another woman.
“There was part of me that was like, ‘Okay, I really love this person and I struggled with it for a really long time,’” she explained, before revealing that the video was sent to her by a stranger via direct message.
When she didn’t open the message, the stranger sent it to someone else who was on her season, who told her it was “something you should look at.”
Although Russell said Jones apologized to her after the incident, it was something that she said was “hard to understand.”
“I spent so much time ruminating and playing things back in my head. Like, does this make sense? Did I not see things?” she told Bristowe, 38. “I think the most painful thing is that we were still very much committed to each other.”
“I never felt that depressed in my life,” Russell added further in their conversation. “It was hard to deal with.”
The former couple got engaged during the season 8 finale of BiP, which aired in November 2022. Before Jones got on one knee, Russell referred to him as her “missing puzzle piece and my soulmate.”
“You came into my life and showed me that your love is so much more than the love I had dreamt of all those years,” she said. “I feel like we have two hearts cut from the same cloth, and I have never felt more seen or understood in my entire life. In you, I found my best friend, my missing puzzle piece, and my soulmate. I love you so much and I’m never going to take that for granted.”
That same month, the former couple revealed that they had already moved in together and shared that they were excited about their future.
“She’s going to show me her city, meet some of her friends, stuff like that,” Jones told. “And I think Christmas time, we’re going to have our families come together and then just spend Christmas together here.”
While they didn’t get into details when announcing they were ending their engagement, they shared that having a relationship in the public eye had been “incredibly challenging.”
“This has been immensely hard to accept and painful, as there is a lot of love between the two of us. We are deeply hurting and can only ask that there be no hate,” a portion of the post read. “The best path for us at this time is to try and move forward and heal from this as individuals.
Bachelor in Paradise airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
