Jason Oppenheim says he still loves Chrishell Stause months after split

Jason Oppenheim is getting candid about his breakup with ex-girlfriend and “Selling Sunset” co-star Chrishell Stause. The Oppenheim Group co-founder shared that he still loves the former soap opera star, despite going their separate ways.

“I think that I made the right decision for myself, but I think it’s just extremely difficult,” Oppenheim, 45, told Us Weekly ahead of the fifth season of “Selling Sunset.” “I love her still. I always will. She’s a great woman so there’s just a lot of loss there. It’s been a difficult process, far more difficult than I thought and it’s gonna take a lot longer than I thought.”

Oppenheim and the actor called it quits in December 2021, months after of going public with their relationship. At the time, Stause, 40, revealed that she hoped to have a family some day and decisions she made about her future were “with that goal in mind.”

Oppenheim noted, while chatting with the publication, that re-watching his relationship with Stause unfold on screen would be “tough.”

“It doesn’t help that I have to re-watch it and then go to a reunion and talk about it. It’s gonna be a tough few weeks ahead,” he expressed, before being asked if having a family was something he could change his mind about in the future. “I want to be really respectful to our relationship and to her, and so I can only speak to how I feel now.”

He also added that everyone’s going to see his decision play out during the new episodes. “I think that speaks for itself," he said. “I'm not going to speak to the future ... I will always love her.”

Oppenheim and Stause met in 2019 during the first season of “Selling Sunset.” They took their relationship to the next level during the summer of 2019, when they shared photos of their trip to Greece together.

The real estate broker explained that it was difficult keeping their relationship under wraps because he considers himself an affectionate person. “And you want to be able to express your love and your affection, and yet we weren’t able to do that for a while,” he noted, adding that they both enjoyed the relationship both “before and after it was made public.”

However, he acknowledged that there was a point where “the doors were closing in” and they felt like they had no choice but to share their news with the world.

“I was happy and … It’s rare for me to be comfortable and be able to defer and rely on someone else’s judgement and thought processes,” he said. “But, I was able to do that with her in that relationship and it was nice. But not just about going public but just about a lot of things. There were a lot of things that were awesome.”

Season Four of the hit Netflix show ended before the couple began dating. Season Five, which drops April 22, will see their relationship unfold.

Oppenheim previously dated co-star Mary Fitzgerald, who is now married to Romain Bonnet. Stause was married to “This Is Us” star Justin Hartley. They divorced in 2019.