I’ve seen coverage of Jana Kramer on Celebitchy for years and read the stories, even though I had no idea who Jana was. She is a country singer but has essentially made a second career off of her relationship drama. Basically every detail about Jana’s relationships is like a bright, flashing, neon sign that says “I have deep attachment wounds!” (I do, too, to be clear. Game recognizes game.) She had a podcast with her ex where they talked about all his rampant infidelity. He was a serial cheater and she continuously made excuses for him and took him back. It was a codependent mess. They finally broke up and she’s had a couple of relationships since then, including one with a guy who said she guilt tripped him for wanting to leave the house. Now she’s engaged to a guy after six months of dating and they already have a baby on the way. Flashing neon sign!!
This Allan guy sounds very nice: The country singer and Whine Down podcast host, 39, is pregnant and expecting her first child with fiancé Allan Russell, she confirms exclusively to PEOPLE.
“I didn’t think it would ever happen again, if I’m being honest. I’ve been through a lot, so this has just been a really beautiful thing,” says Kramer, whose new book The Next Chapter is out Oct. 24. “I’m letting it all sink in. It’s everything I’ve wanted and more. Allan was so sweet. He wrote me this little sticky note saying, ‘You deserve the happy ending.'”
She got pregnant pretty fast after deciding to try: “I’ve had miscarriages, so I didn’t even know if it was possible. I’m like, yes, it’d be beautiful for us to create something because I love this man. It would be the silver lining with everything that happened, but I’d always get kind of down about it because I didn’t know if I was capable of carrying a pregnancy again,” she says. “I was like, well, I’m going to be 40 in December, so I was like, we have one month to try. Literally one month.”
Then, during a trip to L.A. in March to attend the iHeartRadio Music Awards together, “I had this metallic taste in my mouth,” recalls Kramer. “That’s what I felt with both my other kids’ [pregnancies]. So I went to the store and got my Clearblue test. It said pregnant, and we just started crying.”
Her fiance splits his time between Nashville and the UK: Russell — who’s from the U.K. — has been flying back and forth from England to Nashville, and the couple try not to spend more than two weeks apart. “He’s splitting his time because he has a 15-year-old son in England. We make it work,” she says. “He is such a fun [dad], just out there on the trampoline with the kids. He always playing with [Jolie and Jace] and it’s really beautiful to see.”
I’m happy for Jana, and I hope the rest of her pregnancy goes well. In the article she mentioned having some bleeding which was really scary but everything’s okay. That happened to someone close to me–she had a full period one month after the positive test and thought she had miscarried, but it was fine. I sometimes think pregnancy still isn’t that well understood. There are so many mysterious things that go on.
But to get back to my armchair psychology, I couldn’t help but notice that her fiance Allan splits his time between the US and the UK because his son is based over there. This isn’t a knock on him or anything, it just shows to me that Jana is subconsciously still going after someone who isn’t fully available, at least not right now. In fairness, being long distance is a much more benign version of “not fully available” than Mike Caussin’s compulsive philandering. I still see a lot of myself in this stuff, though. It’s all textbook, garden-variety anxious attachment behavior. I’m always drawn to men who are unavailable emotionally or who live far away or who are otherwise unsuitable (think, like, “smoke jumper who lives off-grid in the middle of the woods in an old school bus” type of unsuitable. Yes, I am in therapy). I’ve come to realize that the feeling I associate with “attraction” is just the sick thrill of knowing they’ll let me down eventually, like the high you get from gambling. It would not surprise me if Jana experienced the same kind of emotions when she meets someone who activates her attachment issues. Maybe she’s been in therapy and is working through some of this stuff. But how’s she going to feel when the baby comes and Allan still has to leave for weeks at a time to be a present dad for his son? I think that situation would be hard on anyone, by the way, not just Jana. To have a new baby in the house, and your partner traveling a lot, plus two small kids already? I hope Jana has people nearby to support her.
I hope this works out for them. Mazel Tov.
I wonder what would happen if she spent a year not in a relationship…
Well said. I feel for the kids.
Exactly! She can’t be alone. With all her failed relationships, why get pregnant so soon? I guess if it fails, she can afford to take care of them, at least monetarily.
Huh, I had no idea she is (was?) a country singer, I assumed she was from some reality background (The Hills or similar maybe).
Good luck with your journey, my BFF is on a similar one and her therapy is playing a huge part in helping her to develop and address some of her attachment issues but there’s still a long way to go. She’s currently still living with but no longer involved with emotionally abusive drug addict with a laundry list of issues going back to childhood that he won’t take any responsibility for while having re-kindled a relationship with an ex from many years ago who lives far away and has three young children with an ex and is convinced he’ll lose access if she finds out he’s now with someone else – it’s been 18 months! So yeah, no off-grid smoke jumpers but I think you two would have a lot to talk about.
LOL me too. I thought she was like a Real Housewife or some shit.
Mostly, she was on soaps and One Tree Hill. And then she made a couple of albums, like 8-10 years ago. And then she was on DWTS.
Your point about what happens once the baby comes is a good one. And it’s something Jana hasn’t seemed to think about at all. She’s too busy romanticizing him and her “happy ending.”
I can already see her future podcasts about how tough it is to basically be a single mom half of the time 🙄
This woman makes the worst choices possible but can never fathom the very obvious outcomes that occur.
I don’t really care about Jana but I really enjoyed your analysis, Carina! It’s easy to snark on someone so messy but you brought a fresh perspective to it and kept it so thoughtful on all fronts.
Same as Kateee, I enjoyed the armchair psychological take.
She is a poster child for Poor Life Choices.
Messy. I hope that her children are fairing well.
Is this some Clearblue spon-con? She is the definition of *shrug* to me.
Right?! That’s what stood out to me, too. Nobody refers to pregnancy test by their brand name.
I can’t believe she planned this mess. If she waited until 12 weeks to announce that would be a 90 day fiance situation.
Yup, she’s a #clearbluepartner *eyeroll* Very cringey that she’s already selling this baby.
Jana Kramer is a thirsty grifter. She doesn’t really seem to have many acting jobs and is constantly in US magazine, so I assume— and I really hate to say this about another woman— this baby is just another way to “keep” the guy, stay “relevant,” and make money. She has a pattern of behavior that is pathetic and I really feel for her kids.
So if I were divorced with 2 young kids and dating someone, six months MIGHT be around the time I’d consider introducing them to the kids, if I felt it was serious and had potential. It seems awfully fast to be engaged and pregnant. The cynic in me wonders if he was aware she was trying to get pregnant, and I hope she doesn’t guilt him into not going to visit his son in the UK when the new baby arrives.
I hope her children, and the new baby, will all be happy and healthy and ok.
Great write up, Carina! I lol’d at your smoke jumper example and “Yes, I am in therapy.” 😝 But seriously, your analysis of her seems to be spot on. I feel for her…her first ex-husband was abusive and almost killed her. Third husband serial cheater. It really doesn’t seem like she’s done the kind of deep work someone with her past and issues needs to do. Having said that, engagement and babies are a happy time and I really hope it works out for them.
Usually I would say that having a partner who splits time between cities doesn’t have to mean an anxious attachment situation with one partner seeking someone who isn’t fully available. Lots of people travel frequently for work or hobbies, especially in the entertainment industry. BUT this is Jana Kramer who (1) has a history of falling hard and fast for terrible men so should probably slowly down in general until she knows someone well (2) jumped into a planned pregnancy with someone she only knew for 6 months; AND (3) he has commitments on another continent. All of this together raises a lot of red flags. Goodness, I hope that I am wrong and this is her happily ever after but it’s A LOT given her romantic history.
I’ve been following her on IG for years, since she was on DWTS. This is 100% her thing. Surprisingly she’s been in therapy for ages and yet still makes poor relationship choices again and again. She is desperate to be married – that’s all she wants and doesn’t care if the relationship is actually safe, healthy and the right one for her. She can’t be alone for five minutes. She just released a second book – the first one was with her ex and about how they got through all his cheating…..This second one is how she healed herself from all her trauma and she has learned to love herself. I’m just gonna leave it at that.
Which ex? Hasn’t she had like 3 of them?
Appreciate your perspective Carina 🌄 tysm
“I was like, well, I’m going to be 40 in December, so I was like, we have one month to try. Literally one month.”
Does she really believe this?
Very compassionate write up.
Twin Falls, I happen to know from hard experience that after 35 one’s fertility plummets. This is scientifically true. Of course, some people can get pregnant easily still, but for me it was very difficult. Impossible, really. I married at 37 and went through 8 IVF procedures to have a baby by the time I was almost 44. It could be genetic heritage, too, I think. My mom had her last baby by 27 and my grandma had her last kid by 32. Anyway, congrats to them.
I’m not disagreeing with you at all but there’s not a switch at 40. Yes, 35 is the age when fertility starts to decline and I know lots of women think of 40 as a mental cut off age. I had my second child at 39 using IVF and I’m very sorry to hear about your struggles with fertility. It’s so tough.
It was her saying “literally one month” that got me.
At the age of 38 with kids under the age of 6, two of which were through IVF, hardly any time to actually be alone with my husband and all it took was one random night and we got our youngest. So while it does go down, for me all of the sex schedules, supplements, clomid, and being young didn’t make my chances any better.
I have zero idea who this woman is other than what I read on here-but this is totally reminiscent of that Flipping Out “designer” Christina. She got divorced, was immediately madly in love (also to someone English with kids there), engaged and pregnant, and then married and divorced within the span of like a year. And of course remarried again. We all know where this is headed.
MaryContrary, Hopefully not. A good outcome is always possible IMO. I have to believe this or life would be just so damn depressing.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Apparently he’s unemployed and considering how controlling her last ex said she was, it wouldn’t surprise me if this new guy’s visits to see his kids dries up since it sounds like she’ll be buying the tickets.
Her poor kids went through a ugly divorce and their mom keeps bringing home new guys and now she’s pregnant after knowing a guy for two months.
She moves on fast.
So many surprise babies are popping up in the news.
How surprised can anyone be?
Unprotected sex is a big factor. Of babies and STDs.
No one is concerned about STDs anymore?
Geez. Hard.Pass.
“Game recognizes game.” Ha! Welcome, Carina!