Jason Mraz doesn’t get enough love around here. He’s an extremely talented musician and a decent guy who keeps his business out of the tabloids. He’s not hanging out at clubs, getting DUIs or sticking his foot in his mouth all the time so we don’t talk about him much. We’ve written about him exactly twice that was two years ago, and they were low key pieces about something interesting he’d said. (We also featured him once on HGF.) He’s a multi-platinum artist and he’s all about the music. In fact Jason is so focused on his work that it cost him his engagement to his long term girlfriend. He just told The Daily Beast that losing his fiance was his biggest regret, and the way he said it sent a little pang through my heart. It was romantic, longing and sweet. I’m sure there are plenty of other women clamoring to take her place now. Here’s his quote:

Mraz told The Daily Beast exclusively that he’d recently split up with his fiancée, 29-year-old singer Tristan Prettyman. “My greatest mistake right now is, I’ve been clinging to my art,” he said. “In that, I have victory for my art and a great loss for my heart. At the moment, my beautiful fiancée is no longer my beautiful fiancée.”

Mraz, 33, explained (see embedded video) what led to the breakup. “Two halves don’t make a whole,” he said. “Two wholes make a whole. In my relationship, I was giving myself away to make the relationship better, but in actuality, wasn’t doing better by doing that. I became less of a man.”

“I have victory for my art and a great loss for my heart.”

Mraz popped the question to Prettyman last December after a lengthy on-again, off-again relationship that included a previous split, in 2006. “SHE SAID YES,” he tweeted on Dec. 24. He surprised Prettyman with a 2.3-carat diamond ring on the beach, “under a blanket of stars and a watchful bright moon,” as he later described on his blog. In January, he explained to US Weekly why Prettyman, a singer-songwriter, was the one for him. “You just know,” he said. “We grew up to be each other’s dream person. She is definitely my dream girl.”

He added last night: “We are still super friends, we go to yoga together, we surf together. We acknowledge the journey that each of us are on. We certainly want each of us to feel whole and complete. And it’s when you’re whole and complete that that attraction exists and it really thrives.

“The good news is that no matter what— ” he paused and glanced to the side—”I’m looking over here, because I think my publicist is freaking out.”

[From The Daily Beast via Popeater]

Some of that stuff can sound a little pretentious, but when you watch the video of Mraz saying it, you can tell that’s just how he talks. It’s sad when you split up with someone you were hoping to spend the rest of your life with, but better now than after you’re married and have to go through the headache of getting a divorce. It sounds like Mraz was having identity issues and was giving too much in the relationship. That happens all the time and it’s not only women who change too much in an effort to make it work.

I hope we talk about Mraz again soon, but that it’s not because he’s dating a twit of a starlet or model. That doesn’t seem to be his speed anyway. Who would be good for him who is single now? I can’t even think of anyone I like for him who isn’t married. (Zoe Deschanel and Emily Blunt come to mind but they’re both married.) That’s what happens with the good ones, they go fast.

Jason Mraz and Tristan Prettyman are shown on 2/11/11 and 11/8/10. Credit: WENN.com