Tayshia Adams' ex-husband has come forward with his side of the story—and wants the Bachelorette star to own up to her alleged part.
As fans of The Bachelor or Bachelorette are well aware of at this point, Adams was previously married. She's shared that fact with the contestants on her current season as well as when she was competing for Colton Underwood on his season in 2019. During the latest episode of The Bachelorette on Tuesday, Dec. 9, Tayshia confronted one of her final remaining suitors, Zac Clark, after he admitted to cheating in the past as part of a lie detector test. "Essentially, that was like the main reason why my marriage ended," she told him. "I will not date a cheater."
While she has not identified her ex-husband on the show, his name is Josh Bourelle and, thanks to a newly aired interview on the Reality Steve Podcast, he has publicly addressed the demise of their marriage from his point of view for the first time.
"While she was on The Bachelor, she did bring up the fact that the reason why our relationship failed, in her opinion, was that I had cheated," Bourelle recalled. "When that first happened, I said, Well, ok, I guess it's fine for her to say it one time, but now it just continues to happen."
"Really, the only perception of me from the audience," he continued, "is that I am the guy who cheated on Tayshia. So, I mean, I feel like that's a slight injustice to me because there was a lot more to it than that."
While Josh did not participate in the show and kept his comments to press cordial, he has taken issue with the fact that he is now publicly entwined with the show and what Tayshia has said about him, including when clients Google him. "It's been a slight mar to my reputation," he told Reality Steve, "because honestly I don't think there needs to be a negative connotation about our relationship in the past."
From his side of things, the relationship was not going well before his infidelity. Josh claimed that he consistently expressed to Tayshia that he was unhappy with their marriage and suggested going to therapy. Meanwhile, he felt she was "coasting" and not willing to make a change.
"I was not happy with our relationship," he told Reality Steve. "I wasn't in a place where I was actually happy and what I look for in a relationship is a partner and I didn't feel like I had a partner. I also look for somebody that I want to raise kids with and honestly, I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to raise kids with her."
Intimacy, Josh claimed, was also "seriously lacking in our relationship."
As for his infidelity, he clarified it was a "single occurrence" that happened while she was out of town on a trip. He went out with friends, met someone and admitted it to Tayshia a few hours after she got back home.
"Eventually, because I did what I did," Josh recalled, "she wanted to put forth an effort and she did put forth an effort." While they went to therapy, he realized after a few months his heart was not in it and ultimately, they split after two years of marriage and more than seven years as a couple.
Josh also did not hold back about his outlook on her work ethic at the time, telling Reality Steve that while he was working 12-hour days on his roofing business, "I didn't really feel that reciprocated on her end in any way."
While he thought they ended their divorce on a cordial note, Josh has since taken issue with how she's represented him to the audience. "I figured we had a mutual respect that we wanted the best for each other after the divorce," he said on the podcast. "Now, her going out and saying that I cheated on her and that was the reason for our divorce on national TV, I felt like kind of crossed the line on that a little bit because I feel like she was using that as her sob story to make her look better and it was hurtful to me because it wasn't just me that heard about that." He noted that his parents, his parents' church, his current girlfriend and her family had all heard.
"I had to do a lot of explaining after that was said," Josh continued. "It's not something I really even want to talk about."
However, it sounds like he doesn't think the fingers should only be pointed at him. "We're humans. She made just as many mistakes, maybe even more mistakes than I did over the course of our relationship," he said, "and it would be refreshing for her to actually own up to that a little bit."
And, while he did not care about her going on reality TV, Josh didn't think she had to bring up his infidelity along the way. "I was happy until she kind of threw me in the gutter by saying what she did about me," he admitted. "I think she could have went just as far as she's at right now without saying that...What do you know these people for like two, three weeks—a month?...You don't really have to get into the most intimate personal things about your life in that short of period of time when you're just trying to get to know somebody [sic]."
While drama does come with reality TV, Josh said, "It's kind of like at the expense of somebody who doesn't even want to be involved."
He did reveal that she texted him to apologize and reiterated the importance of his privacy after fans were wrongly convinced he was going to make a surprise appearance on the season because of a false caption.
"If she really is happy, then that's great and if she really is happy, she shouldn't involve me in this show in any way," Josh said. "She should just leave me out of the whole entire thing and dragging me in by saying that the reason for her past relationship's failure was infidelity and other things that basically didn't have to do with her—it's a misrepresentation of her character." As a result, he urged her during the interview to be honest and own up to her alleged mistakes instead of, as he repeatedly claimed during the chat, "padding" her image.
"I'm not trying to put Tayshia down and I do wish the best for her," he clarified. At the same time, "I'm done with that stage of my life," Josh declared. "I don't need to go back to it. I learned a lot from it."
"When she's saying things, whether or not she's using my name or not, it can have a negative effect on my life," he continued, "and it can have a negative effect on my parents and it can have a negative effect on my girlfriend and her family and I just don't think it's not a good thing for her to use her stage as something to kind of twist and manipulate the truth in a way that makes her look good and makes everybody else in her past look bad. The only reason why I am talking to you is because I just want to kind of bring a little bit of light to the situation that there are two sides to every story."
Before the chat was over, Josh took one final jab at Tayshia. "Quit using one thing that happened in our relationship as a sob story to make people feel bad for you. I mean, it's kind of hypocritical in a way because, I mean, you're calling me a cheater, yet you're dating 25 different guys at the same time or whatever," he quipped. "It's been a tough situation for me and I'm kind of over it at this point."