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The more I hear about Jana Kramer and Mike Caussin, the more I think they have some kind of endorsement deal with US Magazine. As of this morning, their vague story about how he broke some boundary in their marriage is at the top of US’s site, where it’s been since last night. How do these people rate that kind of coverage? They do not. If you’re not familiar with them, I’m mildly jealous of you but this is a trade off I made for having a job talking about celebrities. Mike has cheated on Jana many, many times, he goes to rehab and she forgives him. In their podcast they talk a lot of psychobabble about their toxic relationship. I listened to it once, here’s a link to my writeup about that, and my awesome job felt like hard work for a moment so I don’t want to revisit that. I’m just relying on US’s coverage, which got picked up by other outlets.
Jana Kramer’s husband, Mike Caussin, returned to their “Whine Down” podcast for the first time since the candid couple sparked split rumors to address his absence. [sic]
[In the] Monday, February 3, episode of the show, Caussin told listeners that he has been struggling with his sex addiction recovery.
“Even if I’m not relapsing or acting out or stepping outside of our marriage, if I’m still breaking boundaries or not being honest with things like the picture stuff, how is that sober?” he asked his wife, referring to the October 2019 incident when Kramer saw a photo of a topless woman on Caussin’s phone. “How is that living with integrity? It’s not.”
“He didn’t physically cheat on me,” Kramer clarified. “There was a boundary that was broken that was harmful for me because it was a discovery. … It was such a big discovery with a boundary that was harmful to me and our relationship.”
Caussin continued to play coy about what happened, noting he wasn’t “acting out” or doing “the real, major, big things that everyone assumes is an issue.”
While the twosome, who share daughter Jolie, 3, and son Jace, 14 months, told their listeners they are in a “great space,” Kramer got emotional after admitting it’s been a “heavy month” for the the duo.
“The heaviness isn’t …” the “Beautiful Lies” singer said before she choked up. “It’s a gratefulness that we can still be here conversing. It’s also that fear too. That’s been the hardest part of this month. We’ve both individually done a lot of work … I do feel hopeful for the tools that we’ve been learning, but it’s also very scary.”
She added: “Because of the constant lies, can you see how it might be hard to lean into you and trust your word?”
“Absolutely,” Caussin, who admitted he was just going through the motions at his meetings, replied. “First of all, I appreciate your vulnerability. I hear you and I see you right now. I feel your pain. I can’t imagine how hard it is to lean into somebody whose hurt you so much. That is terrifying.
It’s pretty clear that all Mike learned in rehab and therapy was how to hide his cheating better and how to frame his excuses in recovery speak. Ten bucks says she caught him on a dating app and then he explained it away. Oh look, she forgave him again. That’s completely predictable. I would say that they’re inventing these things for headlines, but I think they really are this dysfunctional and that their relationship is truly this bad. The sad thing is that they have kids together and that not only are their parents making this public forever, they’re modeling this awful behavior.
Read this caption and Jana’s explanation. Also, Mike looks smug AF.
Sorry, don’t feel sorry for her. She knows he’s a douche and does nothing about it.
Done.
They’ve made a cottage industry of his cheating and her rolling her eyes and taking him back. They are ridiculous.
I do not know who they are (go, me) but he seems like a real prize.
I had to Google her and I see she was on One Tree Hill and is a country singer. And she has 2 marriages behind her that each lasted a year or less (once to Jonathan Schaech!) This guy she married in 2015 so I guess she thinks third time’s the charm.
Or when you have 2 failed marriages on your record, you double-down on the 3rd.
I think Jana, like a lot of people, fall into the trap of thinking that there is a finite amount of love in the world and that if she leaves, she won’t ever find love again. Maybe instead of running to the tabloids every week to talk about his transgressions, she can go to a therapist and figure out that there’s no reason to be with someone who treats you like garbage.
Yes, I believe her trap is stupidity!
Also, douches know how to play their cards. He says ‘sorry’, and acknowledges how horrible his actions are, and promises to work harder in the future, I’m sure. Every time.
It’s a trick younger women fall for…you would think a middle aged woman would stop his shit in it’s tracks after the third sorry.
He’s shown her who he is over and over and over again. At this point, she’s got no one to blame but herself for staying.
Is this supposed to make them likeable? Does she think this is somehow relatable and cool? I mostly just feel sorry for her kids that their mom is sticking by their jack*ss father rather than kicking him to the curb. What terrible behavior to model. Doesn’t she have family or friends to tell her to leave?
Living like this sounds so exhausting. My boyfriend, before I met my husband, is a hardcore drug addict. I was with him for over a year and a half and it was an exhausting nightmare. I was always worrying, wondering, and more. It’s draining on a mental and physical level. He’s have periods of sobriety but he’d always relapse. He didn’t want to recover, though. He just gave me enough to make me believe he did, which sounds like this guy here.
For the record, I am an advocate for addiction treatment and recovery. I worked in that field for 8 years (after dating my addict ex) and believe that recovery is possible, but they have to want it and work their recovery, while having accountability and being open and honest to their close loved ones. Mike here ain’t it as of right now.
You nailed it: “…they have to want it and work their recovery, while having accountability and being open and honest to their close loved ones.” They have to want it for themselves and they need to do the work each day to remain sober; they also need to help others – it will help them. He seems too selfish to step outside himself and help others. I think she is stuck in her own cycle (when the addict is sick, so are the loved ones). Been there with a loved one (son), and I also worked in the recovery world as well – it is not easy, it’s draining and my heart goes out to those who help others recover each day.
I honestly think if your relationship is THAT MUCH WORK you should call it quits. The majority of the focus is how he cannot be faithful to her, ever. Why would you even want to keep wrestling with that?
Totally agree! Just freakin get a divorce already, my gosh! People do it everyday and their children turn out fine. In fact I bet their kids would end up having a much happier life and better mental health in the end if they did split and stop this nonsense. Geez.
And I think it’d be one thing if they BOTH had major issues that they’re working on, and understood that life is messy and all that. But it seems to me that their marriage issues are coming mainly or totally from him. I just can’t imagine how stressed out she must be living her life. It’s not healthy.
Honestly she seems addicted to playing the victim, the attention it gets her, and the media coverage. It’s social media culture to the extreme. Their poor kids.
Erinn, he may be physically acting out and cheating, but they both clearly have major issues, if she is allowing herself to remain in this situation.
I agree. In my opinion, she enjoys the upper hand it gives her in the relationship to constantly be talking about how she can’t trust him. They’ve got a very toxic dynamic. He cheats or breaks some rule then she lords it over him and publicly shames him under the guise of being open and honest. They’re just not good for each other.
They both seem really pathetic.
I agree. They are pathetic fools. She’s setting a horrible example to her children, and should be ashamed of herself for that. I honestly think she’s not bright enough to realize that. She seems to be dumber than dirt!
They’re both assholes, to be honest. Yes, yes, I know, she’s likely a victim of emotional abuse, but they’re both profiting from this shit. They’re aware enough to splash it out on social media to get hits, places where anybody, including very young, inexperienced people can see it, so that tells me she’s intentionally sunk herself into that cost fallacy for her own benefit. My sympathy is limited. Extremely limited. Especially because children are involved.
Their relationship is beyond toxic. This isn’t love..
I am doing my best to empathize with Jana because she seems to be in a cycle. She went from a physically abusive marriage to a emotional one.
This douche strikes me as someone who will take it as far as he can because he knows she will never leave.
It just reads as sad.
Yes. Cheating is abuse! He is regularly lying to her face, gaslighting her, spending marital assets elsewhere—whether those assets are money, or “just” time, intimacy, and emotion—he’s not spending them on her and their relationship. He’s also continuously exposing her to STIs, even when she was pregnant. Imagine caring so little about anything other than your dick, that you’re fine with risking your pregnant wife and unborn baby’s health by potentially exposing them to herpes, HPV, or HIV/AIDS.
Here is where I give my obligatory plug for Chump Lady at chumplady.com. “Is this relationship acceptable to you?” Do you want to play “marriage police” for the rest of your life? Do you want to be a wife and beloved partner or do you want to be “mean mommy” to your Timid Forest Creature of a lost and confused “wayward” spouse who just keeps bumbling his way into online dating profiles, receiving naked selfies from random women, and accidental f*ckfests?
You know, you can call it sex addiction if you want, but it seems to me this guy just doesn’t want to be with just one woman. And that’s FINE, just DON’T, OK? That’s the truth everyone needs to embrace here.
I think he gets off on the sneaking around. People like that don’t want open relationships, they want the thrill of cheating in a supposedly monogamous relationship.
FFS, just get a divorce already.
They are way overdue.
She can’t trust her husband because he isnt trustworthy. No amount of therapy that he attends changes that fact. She has bent over backwards to forgive him time and time again. Has she ever considered HE might leave her eventually? And that she forgave him and tolerated this BS for NOTHING? Because he clearly cheats and has zero loyalty to her. Their marriage will end when he impregnates someone else or leaves her for another woman.
She probably just waits for the other shoe to drop 24/7. Her life must be TERRIBLE on a day to day basis with this guy.
I wonder what she’s going to do when he decides to leave her? I hope she’s got a good therapist/support system because he seems like the type to put her through this and surprise her with divorce papers when he’s tired of her.
For her own sanity, she should either move on, or accept the fact he’ll never be faithful and let the man cheat in peace.
It seems like she very obviously does not have a good therapist is she’s spouting all this “sex addiction” stuff and is talking about how the cheating and lying is bringing them closer because then they’re forced to have the tough conversations about their relationship. How they’re actually both super excited about the HOPE they sometimes might feel for a better future together, rather than the current despair she always feels at being betrayed. Vomit! She seems to be taking a lot of responsibility for his cheating or not cheating, and she seems to think that it’s perfectly normal to live a life where you’re constantly policing your husband and being traumatized and then retraumatized and retraumatized. It is not her job to fix his sex addiction, if he really is a sex addict. Funny how with all the other addictions, they tell you not to enter into a relationship when you’re in recovery. Other addictions are perfectly good reasons to end a relationship, take the kids, and run far far away. Sex addiction is the one addiction that actively exposed your partner to the same physical risks as the addict (STIs), and yet, sex addicts are often married and the partner is somehow supposed to help rehabilitate the addict. A drug addict is exposing his partner to the mental, emotional, and financial risks of addiction, but the partner isn’t going to end up with infected track marks and isn’t going to OD or die from withdrawals. A sex addict’s partner will end up with HPV or herpes or HIV, though. So why is it expected that the partners of sex addicts be so accommodating and helpful during their spouse’s active addiction?
You’re right. She’s not responsible for his issues and shouldn’t be “rehabilitating” him. I keep hoping she’ll see her way clear, but every time I see her name pop up it’s about her dealing with her husbands issues. She deserves to have a peaceful life with a man who adores her all day, every day. The price she’s paying to be with this man is going to bankrupt her emotionally and physically.
He’s not going to leave her. He’s too much of a coward. He’s going to get someone else pregnant or give her an STD, and she’ll finally wake up and leave him.
I love how they use all these other words that sidestep the awful things he’s actually doing and wrap them in a pretty bow. Broken “boundaries” as in he gets nude photos sent to him and talks to other women, “sober” means he’s not actually sticking his dick elsewhere at the moment, but he’s not REALLY doing anything THAT bad because he’s not technically cheating. What a sick and twisted couple, she needs serious help. Even the way she’s curled up into him looking all sad is sick to me, at this point he needs to stop being selfish and just leave her, clearly she won’t do it on her own. Someone who constantly cheats and lies does not love you!!
Plus that BS about wanting to help other people who may need it is ridiculous, they can’t even go a month without him lying and cheating, that’s not a position to be “helping” others, lol.
Hopefully she makes him wear condoms every time. She’s obviously in for the long haul, but I highly doubt he is. He’s going to bail on her and the kids one day and it would add injury to insult if he left her with a nasty STD for all her trouble and forgiveness. That’s all I got, vague concern for her absolutely inevitable future as a divorcee is all I can muster for this woman.
Promise me that when they break up you’ll put that in the header….
I honestly don’t know their personal careers that got them famous. I only know them as the couple where he always cheated, she openly talks about it, while taking him back for him to do it over and over again.
Wow, these two are exhausting!
It is beyond frustrating to me that a woman would allow themselves to be disrespected. She knows what she married. He will not change, in fact he’ll probably get worse. So the balls in her court. She can leave and have peace of mind or she can stay and be tormented. But stop sharing with the world. This is now a choice you’re making and it is yours alone. The public doesn’t share the same need to drama and unrest.
They have to share it with the world. It might help another doormat feel good about their toxic relationship!
Ugh, not these two again. Who are they even?
All I can think about is what it might be like as a friend or family member in their orbit… how awkward does it get? Like do her friends worry about talking to her husband? Does she worry about how attractive her friends are? What’s it like at Thanksgiving? There are maybe not enough boundaries in the world to make me feel comfortable around these two.
There is no amount of money that can make this unending parade of public humiliation worth it. What kind of legacy are they leaving for their kids? It’s horrific.
The fact that this woman is making a living on her husband’s infidelity and lies, is so sick and pathetic.
I’m assuming the podcast is a factor in why they’re still together. He broadcasts how he gets to be a douche and still play hubby and dad. She gets attention. By the pose on the couch, she obviously still thinks this man is the sh&t. They podcast their problems in hopes of helping others? If anything they are doing a huge disservice to others by being utterly stupid and confusing.
It’s so tough to watch them and watch her try to navigate this toxic relationship. I don’t judge her bc I was also in a relationship like this. When the truth comes out and they start using it as a tool to justify their behavior (I have a problem, I’m trying to work on it etc), it’s easy to say: well, he’s being upfront about his issues. Relationships Are work and I’ll just help him through it.
So many of us are taught to stick it out and that people aren’t perfect. But we aren’t taught to see that some things never change and we deserve more than constant lies and cover ups and excuses. She’s been in a abusive relationships before and I think she thinks: well at least he says he’s working on it.
But this is a trap she will bury herself under if she doesn’t start to see that the pattern says it all and says what he deems important in reality when it comes to relationships.
It really is amazing how we’re taught to stick it out and forgive people’s flaws no matter what. I had to break things off with a woman I’d been friends with for several years because her toxic behavior was hurting me consistently, my heart wasn’t in the friendship anymore, and our lifestyles simply didn’t match up any longer. And even with all those valid reasons to let the friendship go, I was still encouraged by other family and friends to stick it out. Why? She was a good friend for many years, but the relationship was no longer serving me in a positive way. Sometimes it’s okay to step away for your own sake.
It’s ok to want and be wired for monogamy. It’s also ok to want and be wired for non-monogamy. It’s not ok for two people who are so differently oriented to continue to torture each other. It’s a shame they had children, who will no doubt be the collateral damage when this marriage finally breaks apart.
They are exhausting and really just kind of awful. Obviously it’s their choice, but the fiction that they’re doing the podcast to help others should be put aside. If people are tuning in, it’s got to be due to schadenfreude.
Well said!
Mike is a man who clearly yearns for non-monogamy. He’s stupid and out-of-touch with himself to not articulate this to Jana and actually try to repair their relationship by finding a new arrangement, or moving forward as friends and co-parents. And Jana is delusional to try to control his urges and pray this away. But just like the financial and fame-seeking aspects of this complicated situation , there is almost certainly an addiction to the drama and even an enjoyment of the almost BDSM-ish shifting power dynamics.
TLDR: performatively heteronormative Christians are still unintentionally some of the kinkiest among us lolol
Mike is a man who wants a wife appliance at home raising his kids and doing his laundry while he is out screwing strange for funsies. He likes having multiple women fight for his time and affection. Throw in a couple of kids who can also stroke his ego by wanting to be with daddy, and that just makes it so much better! Everyone wants him! Part of the “allure” of adultery is the lying and cheating and hiding. I don’t think he would be happy being an honest bachelor who dates multiple women that all know about each other. Or being in an open and honest polyamorous relationship. The lying and triangulation is what gets him off.
The lying and triangulation is what gets him off.
This exactly.
You both make a good point, I think it’s totally possible that is his actual prerogative. He did choose this lifestyle after all.
Either way, though… KINKY
Jana clearly doesn’t believe she deserves better, which is why she’s with this jackass. Until she believes she can do better, she will continue to saddle herself with this dead weight douche.
He isn’t cute enough to put up with this ish. Their psychobabble-speak is extra annoying; maybe they’re trying to be the sleazy redneck version of Dax Shepherd and Kristin Bell.
The comments on their post about their vulnerable podcast episode is 90% people saying how brave they are for sharing their store and “just what they needed to hear” and how they are all rooting for them as a couple. It just reinforces Jana’s warped perspective. A few people said “staying together for your kids is not helping anyone and is going to negatively affect them in the long run” but those are few and far between.
I basically follow her IG page to see when he drops in/out. He was gone for most of January – “in exile” is what he is calling it because he “broke some boundaries.” But guys, they are ALL GOOD NOW.
It’s so sad and I can’t imagine what those kids are going through.
I have a friend trapped in a relationship like this and it’s honestly sad. Her man doesn’t respect her and clearly doesn’t love her. He even openly hits on us, her own friends! In a very disgusting way too. He’s so trashy. I completely stopped hanging out with them as a result. And she won’t leave him, but she’s not happy either. Which I picture is Jana’s case too. She can’t possibly be happy with that man. He crushes her every time he cheats or flirts, yet she won’t leave him. People have tried to reason with my friend and one time she posted on Facebook that it’s her relationship and it’s her decision. It sucks, but sometimes we choose the love we think we deserve. People can’t help us see the light if we’ve made the decision to stand by a crappy person so matter what. And it’s a conscious choice too.
Women have to work extra hard sometimes to love ourselves.
That’s really sad. I hope someday your friend wises up and sees the truth.
Yeah he’s totally gaslighting her with the therapy speak. He seems like a total narcissist that has been successful at making his problem something that she feels responsible for and has to work on as hard as he does. I think as long as he convinces her that if she doesn’t also put in the work —that he will cheat, this way she’s forever walking on eggshells trying not to “trigger” him and be the “reason” for him straying. He is playing her, and emotional abuse and manipulation like that is extremely harmful.
Honestly, they are just ridiculous.
Why does she stay? Why does he stay? Why doesn’t he just divorce her and go get all the a** that he apparently wants/”needs” (<–coughcough).
They are literally a joke at this point.
It wouldn’t shock me if they had a deal with a tabloid. I’d say 3/4 of her Instagram content consists of her advertising random stuff. And this relationship is allllll about how they’re profiting from the drama. She seems like a nice person and all, but the fact that she exposes her dirty laundry and remains in a toxic relationship that surely impacts her children all for profit and attention grosses me out. They’re clearly addicted to the drama.
“I appreciate your vulnerability. I hear you and I see you right now. I feel your pain.” WOW he is BS-ing her to the extreme with that therapy speak, eh?
If she’s going to be stupid then she deserves all the heartache/heartbreak that comes with staying with a loser like him. I’ve lost all sympathy for her a while ago.
In every photo of them she’s clinging on to him physically and he looks like he wants to be some where else.
He does not look like he loves this woman, my guess is that he doesn’t know what love is and that he feels 0 empathy for others. He has taught himself to recognize when he should feel empathy, but he doesn’t really feel it..
I think you’re right on the money with him. He’s going through the motions and saying the things he knows he should say. He doesn’t actually feel any of it.
💯 he is probably incapable of being satisified with ANY woman, not just Jana. I bet Jana has a fear of letting him go and that he will find love with another woman.
She needs to realize if she lets him go..he wont ride off into the sunset with someone else and live happily ever after because he is incapable of loving someone and will cheat on whomever he is with. Honestly, people like him have attachment issues. They don’t bond to others like “normal” people. He has zero empathy. this pathology will carry on to his next partner. These type of guys always leave a path of hurt partners in their wake.
I still don’t know who these people are or why they are famous. I guess today will finally be the day I Google them.
I still don’t know who they are
My parents have five daughters and one son. The wisest advice that my mom ever gave to her daughters is this: marry a man who loves you more than you love him. Jana needs to dump this douchebutt and find someone who cherishes her and treats her like gold.
My friend once said that you end up with the person you think you deserve.
Clearly for whatever reason this is the best she thinks she deserves.
Not being American I’ve never heard of these people, but I feel sorry for someone who must have so little self worth that they think they deserve such a shitty partner.
I would rather eat a big then go through this type of relationship. Again. When you are young, you think the intensity makes it “true love”. Been there. Done that. Ain’t never going back.
What a mess. Way to show your kids how little worth you have and that staying in a toxic relationship is the right thing to do.