Jason Tartick Admits He Had ‘Tough’ Week After Kat Stickler Split

Jason Tartick is getting real about riding emotional waves following his split from Kat Stickler.

“Past week’s been tough. Yeah, I mean, there’s just no way to kind of beat around the bush,” Tartick, 35, said on the Monday, October 21, episode of the “Trading Secrets” podcast. “Tough week. Breakups suck. If you’re in a situation where you’re not feeling OK, just know that’s OK.”

The former Bachelorette contestant explained that he had a speaking engagement that he “powered through.” Tartick added, “Weirdly enough … I felt like it was one of the better speeches I ever gave, and it was what I was dreading the most. I didn’t feel like I was in a headspace to do it.”

Tartick continued with a message for his fans who may be navigating a similar situation to him. For anyone who’s “not feeling OK,” Tartick offered “productive ideas” including “really leaning in.”

“When you feel as though, you know, you’re off balance … you’re not centered, or you’re just in a state of confusion, just in your head, right?” he said. “Like, [try] everything to get grounded again, and I think leaning into the people that matter most to you [helps] — mom, dad, for me, brother, two best friends.”

Tartick also cited meditation as a tool that has helped him. “I got away from that for a while, but this week, [I’m] just like really sitting in, avoiding distractions. Small things like focusing on hydration. I’ve been doing sauna, I’ve been reading instead of watching TV, and even focusing on diet. All those little things, those little baby steps, truly can help you get grounded and centered again,” he said. “So that’s a little update from my personal life.”

Tartick and Stickler met when she was a guest on his podcast, and they began pursuing a relationship soon after, making their romance Instagram official in June. Earlier this month, Tartick and Stickler revealed that they called it quits.

“I am sad to share that Kat and I are no longer together,” he wrote via his Instagram Story on October 12. “It’s fair to say that I love hard with all my heart and fall fast. Sometimes in life that works out and other times, it doesn’t. This time it didn’t.”

Stickler broke the news about their split earlier that day, calling it “amicable.” She said via her Instagram Story at the time, “I understand that with posting a relationship online, you also have to show this side [and] the aftermath. … I just wanted to tell you guys, and it’s not love wasted. I feel like sometimes it’s so easy to think when a relationship ends that the love was wasted but love is never wasted. That’s all I have to say.”

Days later, Stickler defended introducing Tartick to her 4-year-old daughter, MK. (Stickler shares MK with ex-husband Mike Stickler, to whom she was married from 2019 to 2021.)

“I just hope that MK knows I am looking to find the right partner for the both of us, because we are a package deal,” she said on October 14. “And I know I don’t always make the right decision, but I learn from my mistakes and every decision that I do make, it’s because it’s what I think is best for my daughter and I.”

Tartick, for his part, addressed the breakup on his podcast while opening up about his life. “Obviously there’s a lot going on in my personal life right now,” Tartick said last week. “One thing I’m going to share that I will talk about in regards to something else that’s come up in this last few days actually. Aside from, of course, Kat and I no longer being together.”

While sharing that he has a “very, very close” family friend whose dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Tartick encouraged listeners to reach out to their loved ones.

“When things like this happen, it puts [life] in perspective. Even a podcast like this where we’re talking about how we can better ourselves financially, professionally and personally, we can get caught in the rat race of life,” he said. “This is such a reminder to slow down, to speed up. Go tell the people you love [that] you love them today.”