VH1 ‘Couples Retreat’: Claudia Jordan and KJ Dismute’s Relationship Was on Ice – Did it Thaw it Out for Love? [Exclusive]
Claudia Jordan from The Real Housewives of Atlanta, and boyfriend Kendal “KJ” Dismute get very real about their “stuck” relationship on VH1 Couples Retreat. After dating for three years, Jordan and Dismute felt that their romance turned stale and described it as feeling stuck.
In the VH1 Couples Retreat trailer, Dismute is asked if he’s still attracted to Jordan. He answers “no,” but explained to Showbiz Cheat Sheet he needed to dig deeper to find out exactly why he said he wasn’t at the time.
“For me, I don’t have a just a simple, ‘yes.’ I really wanted to think about the reasons why yes, why no,” he said. “And so at that point, I was like, let me just go ahead and say no. Because, of course, I’m supposed to say yes. But there’s a reason why I’m not. Or a reason why I wasn’t at the time. Of course, she’s gorgeous, she’s got a great body and all that stuff. She’s attractive. There’s no doubt about it. But there was a reason why I chose to say no at that point. And I think I explain.”
Claudia and KJ said they had a ‘Mexican standoff’
So when did Dismute get to the point where he realized what was wrong in their relationship? “I don’t think there was an ah-ha moment as to why we were stuck,” Dismute said. “But stuck was definitely, in a word, it was a standoff is what it really was.”
Jordan added, “A Mexican standoff. You lower your gun. You lower your gun. No one lowers their gun. So you just stay there.”
“That’s what it still is,” Jordan said. Dismute tried to joke that it was “kind of” still like that, but Jordan doubled down and said they are still feeling stuck.
The couple gets ‘a lot off our chest’ on ‘VH1 Couples Retreat’
“We got a lot of things off our chest,” Dismute said. “At least that much. Because she’ll tell me what she wants, but she won’t get any answers. I can tell her what I want, but I won’t get anything. There’s no resolution to any of our issues. And that was what we were kind of hoping for with [host] A.J., for her to say, ‘OK, he just asked you this. Now, what do you have to say about it?’ So I think we did get to some of that. But moving forward there’s no AJ standing around saying, ‘Hey, you’re not supposed to be doing this or doing that.’ So maybe we need another try.”
“It just feels like nobody wants to go first,” Jordan explained. “I’m not saying that disrespectful. I’m not calling you the B-word. I feel like it’s too bad to be in a relationship and each one thinks, well, I’m used to the other person, being all over me and making the move.”
Many couples will be able to relate to their story on ‘VH1 Couples Retreat’
Jordan continued, “And I’m used to the girl bending over backward. So I’m not calling you that word, but you get what I’m saying. It feels like it’s two people that are just used to their partner bending over backward. So it’s kind of like an ego thing. Where no one wants to do the thing first to fix it where the other person is like, ‘If you do this, I’ll do that.’ And no one’s going first.”
She added that many people will likely relate to their story this season. “And I think a lot of people probably deal with that if they’re being honest about their relationship. I think a lot of people like feel like, well, you go first when you go first, you know what I mean? And I don’t know, that’s tough because why is it that nobody wants to go first? That’s a problem.”
VH1 Couples Retreat premieres on May 16 at 9/8c on VH1.
