Richie Strahan breaks silence on split with Alex Nation: ‘It’s heartbreaking’

RICHIE Strahan has stayed out of the spotlight since he split with Alex Nation, but now he has revealed what really happened.

AFTER months of staying quiet, Richie Strahan has finally broken his silence on his split with Alex Nation.

Australia watched as Strahan and mother-of-one Nation fell in love on The Bachelor in 2016, but the romance was relatively short-lived and the couple called it quits earlier this year.

A short time later, Nation revealed she was in a relationship with her female AFL teammate Maegan Luxa, and the pair are now celebrating their engagement.

Speaking to New Idea, Strahan finally opened up about their breakup, describing it as “heartbreaking”.

“The months leading up to it were the most difficult, crazy and confusing time I’ve been put through. Having something dissolve the way it did was heartbreaking, but at the same time, there was a lot of relief that the emotional rollercoaster was finally over,” he said.

“I guess the brightest spark can fizzle fast. We made some bad choices back in June and our relationship really struggled to recover for months after that. It didn’t matter how much effort I put into it — sometimes these things are destined to fail.”

This Bachelor relationship didn’t last the distance. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

In November, Nation spoke for the first time about the high-profile split, after being asked by an Instagram user why she’d gone on The Bachelor if she was interested in women.

“Richie is a great person, he’ll still get his ever after,” she wrote.

“We both hoped for things to work, but life just is. Sometimes things in life simply don’t work out for us. You cherish the nice memories and you move forward.”

The comments were published alongside a new photo Nation posted of herself with girlfriend Luxa.

Alex Nation and girlfriend Maegan Luxa. Nation's Instagram post

“When it comes to love, my friends and family would tell you that my heart isn’t one to discriminate,” she captioned the black and white snap. “I very much fall for a person and the connection that I share with them. My heart is a wild thing, it craves extraordinary adventure. It’s impulsive, sometimes a little dysfunctional but it’s big and loud and I follow it to the nth [sic] degree. What a wonderful adventure it is with her.”