When it comes to her reality show marriage, Cortney Hendrix has no regrets.
Through her experience on Married at First Sight, she was matched with Jason Carrion.
The pair enjoyed a natural chemistry that was apparent from the moment they met at the
altar in March 2014.
Although love and a shared set of values always remained at the center of the marriage, there
were also obstacles, which caused some on-air quarrels that Cortney wasn't proud of in hindsight.
And in one of the most devastating breakups in the show's history, the couple called it
quits in 2019, with Cortney announcing her divorce on Instagram. She wrote,
"We have decided together to move on in different paths, but that doesn't mean we don't have
love for each other.
He will always have a special place in my heart and life."
During the difficult time, Jason made a statement to People, saying,
"It is with a heart full of sadness that me and Cortney have decided to separate.
We fell deeply in love, and had very much a fairytale story being married as complete strangers ..."
So what caused the pair to ultimately go their separate ways?
We spoke with Cortney to learn what happened to cause their eventual split.
"It just really came down to, the things I wanted in life no longer matched up with things
he wanted in life."
Soon after things went south, the former reality show stars moved on with other people — and
by 2020, both were remarried.
Although they sadly have no contact, Cortney says that she knows in her heart that it's
for the best that they don't communicate anymore. She said,
"I think that's probably the healthiest."
Cortney believes that it was because of her honesty during the show's casting process
that she was 'well matched' with Jason.
She told us that the two had a lot in common, which included their devotion to religion. She said,
"It was very important to me that faith and God be the center of a marriage."
But it was ultimately their differences that pushed the new couple apart.
One major point of contention that arose was deciding where they'd live once they had children.
Cortney made it clear that she wanted to raise her family back home in North Carolina and
her Brooklyn-born hubby wanted to remain in New York.
The spinoff show Married at First Sight: The First Year began with Cortney and Jason at
the six-month mark in their marriage.
The series chronicled their everyday life as husband and wife.
And for all the cute moments they shared, they also had their fair share of hurdles.
After only a few short months of wedded bliss, Jason entered into the fire academy and was
working up to 13-hour days.
As for Cortney, she was hustling to grow her business as a freelance makeup artist.
Cortney admitted that their vastly different schedules sometimes made it tough.
"I didn't react, as well as I thought I would be being a first responder's wife."
Besides the mornings alone, she spent many nights away from Jason, and had to make decisions
on how to spend her time. She explained,
"I also came to kind of a crossroad where I had friends who were single, I had friends
who were in relationships, and the people in relationships and marriage aren't doing
the same thing that your single friends are doing.
And I had to decide, okay, the nights that Jason was at work, what was it that I was
gonna be doing with myself?
Was I going to be going out to the clubs still?"
Although Cortney supported Jason's profession, she struggled with the fact that it kept them apart.
"It was hard.
And some days I was okay with it; a lot of days I wasn't.
And you just, you have to be okay with it.
There is no if, ands, or buts.
You have to be okay with it."
The couple never doubted their mutual affection for one another.
And if we want to put an exact time on how long it was before they said the L word, according
to Cortney, it took her approximately four weeks to fall in love with her husband.
"I knew I loved him when I started crying in an interview about his mother.
I knew he didn't accept how sick she was and him going through that pain and having such
uncertainty was so hard."
As for her other half, Jason told his new wife he loved her after his mother passed
away, which was two weeks after filming ended.
"This was it.
There was no second guessing, there was no 'if in the future' there was no 'what if after
the academy' it was 'this is the girl for me.'"
For the lovebirds, falling in love was the easy part.
But what Cortney quickly came to realize is that her love language was very different
from that of her husband.
She said,
"He and I had very different love languages.
And like, I am a needy person.
I need attention.
I like to be touched.
I like the physical touch, and like, I want someone with me.
And how I show my love is through time."
Marriage isn't easy, but it's even harder when your every moment is being filmed.
Cortney explained that as a couple, she and Jason went through a lot.
"In such a short amount of time, we experienced a lot of trauma together and huge life changes.
[...] Throwing in finding the time to move and my own job difficulties, then add a spinoff
show and me working through my own trauma — there was a lot in just a few months."
All those hardships and obstacles weighed heavy on the new couple, but they worked through
them together.
"Like there were certain things that happened that I helped him get through, certain things
that happened that he helped me get through.
And we really balanced each other out.
And we fought for each other and fought for our marriage for a really long time."
Even though they ultimately divorced, Cortney doesn't regret getting married to Jason.
"If you got divorced, that means you regret it.
And I don't see it as that, because I really view it as we were in each other's lives for
the season we were meant to."
The silver lining is that they both grew from the experience.
And although they are no longer married, they can still use the lessons they learned together
in their new lives.
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