A former “Bachelor in Paradise” star is opening up about his difficult split and it has fans talking. Brandon Jones and Serene Russell fell in love during season 8 of the show. They got engaged in the finale, and initially, fans thought they looked like they could go the distance.
However, as ABC News shared, the pair announced their split six months after their finale aired.
The split came days after blogger Reality Steve shared a short video showing Jones dancing with someone at a club.
Jones shared his side during the September 20 episode of Clayton Echard’s “Beyond the Cover” podcast.
“I’m fearful of my life every single day,” Jones said of the complicated dynamic he had with Russell in the aftermath of their split.
Brandon Jones Claimed Serene Russell Wanted to See Him ‘Fall’
Jones reflected on how tense his relationship with Russell became. He said, “I accepted what I did, I took fault…I did that for months after [the split] with her privately, behind closed doors.”
Despite having split, Russell called Jones regularly, he said. “I got blamed for this, I got blamed for that, I was taking so much accountability to the point where I would just take accountability just to take it,” Jones shared.
“I was living in fear, I’m not going to lie, I was living in fear of this woman because she could say whatever that she wanted and anyone and everyone would believe her,” Jones said.
He added, “At the end of the day she just wanted to see me fall.”
Jones shared, “She’s telling me constantly ‘Oh, I don’t see that you’re rock bottom, I’m going to make sure that you’re rock bottom.'”
“I’m crying every single day, I’m fearful of my life every single day,” he shared.
He said Russell had a “plan” to ruin his life if he went public with his side of everything. “I just lived in fury,” Jones said, as he lived through “this abuse over and over.”
Jones claimed Russell would show him “80 videos of secretly recorded fights” they’d had, which he said she threatened to share publicly.
Jones Says He Took Responsibility for His Mistakes
Jones told Echard, “I took all this abuse from her and I took it day in and day out, everyone just hating on me.” He continued, “I [have] just been so manipulated and so hurt by all this.”
He added that “Being this [expletive] nice guy sucks, it’s like one time I want to be a [expletive] savage…I’m just not that person.”
“I’m taking this abuse still to this day,” Jones shared.
Jones also shared additional insight into where the couple stood when the video of him dancing with someone else emerged.
He explained that Russell had given him the engagement ring back a week before he traveled to Austin, Texas. In addition, she planned to leave their apartment in San Diego, California, to move back to Oklahoma.
When he was spotted dancing at a bar in Austin, Jones said he did so “as a single man.”
He admitted, “The problem, though, is before I left to Austin I gave her hope about us possibly making it work.” Jones acknowledged, “I was in the wrong a thousand percent, shouldn’t have done it.”
“I take full responsibility for it,” he noted. He admitted, “If I was in her shoes and I saw her out with her girls after our engagement just ended and she’s dancing with a guy I’d feel some type of way too,” Jones noted.
Jones added, “What I did wasn’t okay but telling the whole world that I cheated” wasn’t okay, he felt. “I’m not a cheater,” he insisted.
After she returned to Oklahoma, Jones said she called frequently and he felt obligated to continue communicating with her.
“I think I stayed in anger for a long time, anger and depression kind of like a mix between both of those,” Jones recalled.
He told Echard he hoped finally letting everything out would allow him to finally move on.
Stacy Carey has been a freelance writer focusing on reality television and celebrity news for more than a decade. She is a Heavy contributor for The Bachelor, Hallmark and Dancing With the Stars. More about Stacy Carey
