The 37-year-old Laguna Beach alum called the 24-year-old TikTok star the “best boyfriend I’ve ever had,” and described their relationship as “beautiful,” “very healthy and very mature,” and “the best relationship” of her life.
Kristin Cavallari is opening up about her split from Mark Estes.
During Tuesday’s episode of her Let’s Be Honest podcast, the 37-year-old reality star emotionally detailed the reason behind her decision to end her relationship with the 24-year-old after seven months together, and shared why she thinks Estes will “thank” her “one day” for breaking up with him.
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“Mark and I broke up. It’s hard because I broke up with Mark because I just knew long term it’s not right,” Cavallari began. “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 because it’s almost easier if the guy does something that makes you hate him. “
“Mark didn’t do anything. Mark has been nothing but so sweet and so supportive …,” she continued. “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. I look back when I was 24 and how much life has happened between then, those are crucial years, those are formative years, this is when you find yourself and he needs to be able to do that.”
The Laguna Beach alum added that while she has “always been well aware” of their age difference, she wasn’t “ignoring the fact that he was younger.”
Cavallari continued to look back at their romance fondly, calling it “beautiful” and “the best relationship of my life.”
“It was very healthy and very mature,” she said. “It was nothing but sweet and loving.”
The former Hills star — who shares kids Camden, 12, Jaxon, 10, and Saylor, 8, with ex-husband Jay Cutler — started to get choked up while she praised her now-ex, whom she called “a really good guy.”
“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,” Cavallari said. “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,” she continued, noting that Estes doesn’t have the “hindsight” that she has since he’s 24. “At age 24, it’s so hard to think about the future … you just, like, don’t get it. Everything is so right now when you’re 24. And (when you’re older) you have a little bit more life experience to realize, ‘This is not the end of the world . He’s going to be okay.'”
The Uncommon James founder said that looking back at their relationship, she doesn’t have any regrets
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“I don’t regret going public with him. I don’t regret introducing him to my kids. I don’t regret anything,” she said. “It was such a good, happy relationship. And I think with every relationship you learn and you grow from, and I will forever look back at Mark and I with such fond memories and just pure happiness.”
Cavallari also shared her hope that she and Estes will stay in each other’s lives after their breakup.
“I am optimistic that we will remain friends,” she said, before again getting a little choked up. “I like being friends with my exes and Mark really is someone that I would really love to have in my life in some capacity because I really do care about him.”
As for how she’s doing now and her thoughts on dating, Cavallari 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, noting that “happiness” for her means “peace.”
“I just want to really take care of myself. I’m like really feeling this energy of just wanting to feel really good and making myself a priority and so I don’t really know where men fall on that list,” she concluded. “I guess they sort of don’t, and in a few months, I’m sure that’ll change. But right now, that’s kind of all I want to do.”
Cavallari and Estes were first linked back in February 2024, with the pair each being fairly open about the romance after going public with their relationship.
On Friday, Cavallari confirmed reports that she and Estes had called it quits when she made an appearance on stage at Alex Cooper’s Unwell tour stop in Austin, Texas.
