Why Did Susie & Justin Break Up Before Bachelor in Paradise? She May Have Hinted at the Real Reason Weeks Before Their Official Split
Jason Pham
They may not have been on the same season, but Bachelor Nation alums Susie Evans and Justin Glaze were able to find love off camera… at least for a short period of time until they announced that they had broken up less than a year after going public with their relationship. Now that they’re both on Bachelor in Paradise Season 10, we’re looking back on what went wrong in Susie and Justin’s relationship and why they broke up.
Related: All the Bachelor in Paradise Season 10 spoilers, including who’s still together
Susie, the winner of The Bachelor Season 26 with Clayton Echard, and Justin, the runner-up on The Bachelorette Season 17 with Katie Thurston, went public with their relationship in January 2024 after months of rumors. Justin told E! News at the time that his and Susie’s relationship changed from platonic to romantic around October 2024 when Susie told Justin to “stop messing around” regarding their flirtatiousness. “In the back of my head, I was like, ‘If you’re serious, I’m serious.’ That was kind of my mindset,” he said in January 2024. “I had always been testing the lines, and I wasn’t sure if she would go for it. So, I didn’t want to cross those boundaries.
He continued, “I was like, ‘Hey listen, I don’t know where you stand on our friendship or relationship. Obviously, I respect you so much, and I appreciate our friendship. But I’d be lying if I [said I] haven’t thought about if there is potential for more than a friendship just given the natural chemistry that we had as friends.'”
He also revealed that they had their first kiss that night. Fast forward to eight months later, and it seemed like Susie and Justin had already called it quits. Fast forward again to the summer of 2025, and they made headlines again when news broke that they were both on the cast of Bachelor in Paradise Season 10. So what happened between them, and why did they break up? Read on for what we know about the latest Bachelor Nation split ahead.
Why did Susie and Justin break up before Bachelor in Paradise?
Justin announced that he and Susie had broken up in an interview on the “Almost Famous” podcast in August 2024, about a year before their appearances on Bachelor in Paradise Season 10. “Susie and I, we’re not together,” he said at the time. “We are doing our best to — kind of, like I said — protect each other, keep things private as we try to navigate what this looks like for us.”
While Justin confessed that the decision to end their relationship hadn’t “been easy,” he assured fans that he and Susie still have a ton of love for each other” and are on “great terms.” “We still talk and are in communication. Like I said, [we are] still prioritizing each other, ourselves, our relationship,” he said.
While Justin acknowledged that he saw “comments all the time” asking for information on what happened between him and Susie, he told the hosts that he wouldn’t “succumb to giving anything I don’t want to give when it comes to my private life.”
Justin went on to confirm that he and Susie came to the mutual decision to end their relationship. “I’m very fortunate to have someone like Susie in my life. We are always on the same page about our relationship,” he said. “So when this first happened we decided like, ‘We’re not gonna make some joint post. We’re going to figure this out together, we’re going to keep it private, I’m sure people will catch on eventually, and when we’re ready to talk about it, that’s what we’ll do. I’m just very fortunate to be at the place we are at right now.”
As for why they split, Susie told People that things between them were “complicated” due to their past friendship, so it seemed like their transition from friends to more played a part in their decision to end their relationship. “[We] started out as friends, so what’s most important for us was that we just respect each other, love each other through whatever our relationship became, which is something we decided even before we ever dated was friendship first,” she said. She continued, “We think so highly of each other, we respect each other. So that is the forefront of everything.”
Susie also addressed rumors that she and Justin had split in her own interview on the “Almost Famous” podcast in July 2024, in which she explained that she “totally” understood why fans thought they had broken up. “I feel like our careers, people are going to have questions. I totally get it. And their podcast topic is kind of like hot topics in Bachelor Nation, so I totally get them speculating. It’s really confusing because Justin and I haven’t said anything publicly. So that’s just something I think is bound to happen when you’re in a public relationship,” she said.
She continued, “At some point it’s important to set boundaries for yourself, for your partner, for your relationship…” she shared. “I think we’ve just kind of been keeping things more private, obviously more private than usual while we figure things out for ourselves, either individually or together.”
