One of Bachelor in Paradise‘s married couples is no more, as Krystal Nielson and Chris Randone announced Friday that they had decided to mutually separate after just eight months of marriage. The former couple, who met and got engaged on Season 5 of the The Bachelor summer spinoff in 2018 before marrying in June 2019 in a ceremony officiated by Chris Harrison, revealed their split in a statement to Bachelor Nation.
“It hurts to announce that at this moment, we have mutually decided to separate. Never did we imagine this scenario, but we’ve come to a point where we both need to work on ourselves,” the two said. “We are best friends that love and care for each other so deeply. We’ve appreciated everyone’s love and support so far throughout our journey and we just ask that you please respect our privacy as we navigate through this.”
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Just months prior in August, The Bachelorette alum told Us Weekly that he and his new bride were planning on starting a family soon. “She let it be known that she’s off birth control, and I didn’t know that,” he said at the time.
“We’re going to spend the rest of the year just detoxing, putting good stuff in our body,” Nielson added. “We want to start trying for a family at the beginning of the year. So we’re just using the rest of the year to … get situated get our new home [and] take our honeymoon.”
After their engagement, Randone had praised Nielson for opening him up after his difficult run on Becca Kufrin’s season of The Bachelorette.
“I was very thick-skinned and hard-shelled when I got to Paradise,” Randone told PEOPLE at the time. “I was not myself. I was trying to act like this tough guy, that I had an ego.”
Continued Randone: “She pulled me aside and said, ‘You need to be more self-aware or you’re going to lose friendships here and you’re going to lose me.’ I realized that this woman came out of nowhere to give me direction. I felt it from her heart and I realized that if I don’t change now and be vulnerable, I’m going to lose this incredible woman.”
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