Kristin Cavallari got real on her podcast. The Hills alum opened up about her seven-month short-term relationship with her boyfriend Mark Estes and why they broke up.
Kristin and Mark became official in February 2024 when she captioned an Instagram post of them together: “He makes me happy 🤍.” Many people criticized their relationship for the 13-year-age gap as Mark was 24 at the start of their relationship with Kristin is 37. She fought back against haters in several social media posts. In a TikTok, she captioned “When they’re all up in arms that im dating a 24 year old. Andddd?” as she mouthed the words to, “So what are you gonna do about it?”
Related: A Timeline of Every Wild Rumor About Kristin Cavallari’s Divorce From Jay Cutler
The Laguna Beach star revealed that after 7 months, the two broke up on the Call Her Daddy podcast. She shared that the split was “so fresh,” but didn’t go into detail about it. She instead spilled all the details on her own podcast Let’s Be Honest, and she was candid about how it all went down.
Why did Kristin Cavalleri and Mark Estes break up?
The age gap was indeed a factor in Kristin and Mark’s breakup. “I broke up with Mark because I just know long term it’s not right,” she said. “It’s not because of love lost or something bad happened, no one cheated, no one was mean. No one did anything. Those breakups are always the hardest, I think.”
“He’s been the best boyfriend I’ve ever had. I just know long-term he needs to experience life, he’s young… I started to feel the age a little bit with life experience,” she continued. “I look back when I was 24 and how much life has happened between then, those are crucial years, those are formative years, they’re when you find yourself and he needs to be able to do that.”
Kristin, who has four kids with her ex-husband Jay Cutler, talked about how he needs to experience life in order to settle down. “He will make someone so happy one day, so, so happy one day. And he will have a beautiful family of his own, which he should do,” she said of her ex. “He should go and he should have multiple kids. He should. I know that one day he will look back and he will understand it. And I actually think one day he will thank me.”
The podcast host was clear that she’s “optimistic” they will remain friends and have him in her life “in some capacity.” As for the future of her dating life, she said she has “no interest in getting back into the dating world right now.”
“I’m really happy and really content having my life right now being about my kids and work,” she explained, adding that she’d love to prioritize “peace” and “making this home exactly how I want it.”