Kristin Cavallari opened up about her divorce from ex-husband Jay Cutler, revealing she initially called off her engagement for "the same reason I got a divorce."
"Same reasons, I should say," Cavallari said during the latest episode of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast. "I guess if there’s any takeaway from that, it’s that you can’t ignore red flags, people don’t change, and you gotta trust your gut."
The "Laguna Beach" alum added she doesn't regret anything and she is thankful for her marriage with the former Chicago Bears quarterback, with whom she tied the knot in 2013 and shares three children: Camden, Jaxon and Saylor.
Cavallari, 35, said she met Cutler when she was 23, calling herself “a baby,” and said at that time in her life “the next natural step” would be getting married and having children.
In the "Call Her Daddy" episode, host Alex Cooper asked Cavallari to explain what made her relationship "toxic," and the Uncommon James founder cited her three kids as the reason she won't publicly answer what went wrong with her marriage.
"Because I have three kids with him, I’m very careful about what I say," she said. "If you and I didn’t have microphones in front of us, I’d f------ tell you, but that’s their dad and my oldest Googles us now and I just want to be very careful. My mom never said anything bad about my dad growing up and I really respected that, and I want to be that kind of mom."
"It was toxic," she continued. "Period. End of story. That’s all I kinda need to say."
She also said she thought of her kids when deciding if it was time to end her marriage.
"I didn’t want my kids thinking that was normal and I wanted them to see me happy and see me eventually, not right now, but eventually see me with someone who really respects me and treats me the way I need to be treated," Cavallari said. "I was really unhappy, I mean, and that was the bottom line. I was in an unhealthy relationship and so that, to me, is not worth it."
Despite their split in April 2020, Cavallari said "it stung a little" the first time she heard about him dating other people after their divorce. Still, she said she hopes that Cutler finds someone new and gets remarried.
"I want him happy," she said. "My kids benefit from that, you know."
Cavallari revealed last year on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s podcast, "Off the Vine," that she went on "a couple of dates" with Cutler after they separated, but said "it wasn’t there anymore... it’s not there for me anymore."
The former reality star also shared a photo of her ex-husband and children together for Halloween in 2020, months after they filed divorce papers.
But Cavallari said on "Call Her Daddy" it took her years "to pull the trigger" on making the divorce official.
"Nothing major happened at the end," she said. "I remember always asking my mom, 'But how am I going to know?' and she would just be like, 'You'll just know.' And I did, I just kinda knew."
"It's the scariest thing, it’s also the saddest thing," she said of her decision. "I mean, it's so many emotions but it can also be the best thing."
