Jana Kramer: Mike Caussin has ‘more respect’ for each other after the divorce

Making progress! John Kramer revealed that she and ex-husband Mike Caussin kill it when co-parenting – and work better as a team now than they did when they were married.

“[Mike] and I have a great relationship, you know, everything is fine,” Kramer, 39, said on Sunday, June 4’s episode of her “Whine downpodcast. “When things come up, we think, ‘Hey, can we talk this out a bit?’ We still have our moments where we get frustrated, but we can communicate in such a better way now, so that was nice, we got more respect from our marriage than we did in our marriage.”

The A tree hill alum – who announced her engagement to fiancée Alan Russell last month — shares daughter Jolie, 7, and son Jace, 4, with Caussin, 36. The couple finalized their divorce in 2021 after splitting over the former NFL star’s repeated infidelity. (Kramer also married Michael Gambino in 2004, Johnathon Schaech in 2010 and was engaged to Branley Gilbert in 2013.)

While the countryside crooner told her podcast cohosts on Sunday that she “never” thought she’d come “to the other side” with Caussin — and that there’s still “deep grudges” between them — they’ve been able to get past their problems to put their children first.

“I let go of a lot of things and just thought of him as the father of my kids,” she explained. “I don’t want bad energy. I just don’t want it. I don’t want hate, I don’t want heaviness. [Life is] shortage.”

Kramer noted that even with “pain,” the two are able to work amicably at the end of the day — including sharing space for their little one’s milestone moments. “If it’s going to make my kid happy that his dad is here for his birthday party, I’ll invite him. Put my things aside,’ she said. (The pair reunited for daughter Jolie’s dance recital in February.)

The duo have been working hard to make progress in their relationship, Kramer said earlier Us weekly in February 2022 was “not fantastic”.

“It’s one of those things that we can, hopefully, in time [get along]’, the singer of ‘I Got the Boy’ said exclusively Us at the time. “We are doing well. I’ll just say this: I’m doing my part in what I can do to be a good co-parent, and… he’s dealing with his own side of things. If he doesn’t want to be good at co-parenting, that’s his thing.”

When it comes to her personal life these days, Kramer has moved on Russell, 42. The couple met via Instagram for the football star at the end of 2022 fell to one knee last month.

‘He said my name and me [stood up] and he got down on one knee and then Jolie just started jumping up and down. It was the cutest thing ever,” the singer gushed during an episode of her podcast “Whine Down With Jana Kramer” in May. “For example, she knew what was going on [before he said anything]. She was like, “You’re getting married!” And then I sort of blacked out at that point.

As for Caussin’s reaction to her engagement, Kramer shared that she told him over FaceTime — and he couldn’t be happier for her.

“He was like, ‘Hey, I’m really happy for you. Allan’s a great guy,'” she recalls. “I actually started crying because he says, ‘Of all people, you deserve to have someone who loves you and respects you and you deserve this.’ He says, “After all I’ve done to you, you deserve this more than anyone.” It meant so much to me that he said that.”

Russell, for his part, revealed that Kramer “didn’t explore too much” when they first hooked up — and didn’t “judge her” for her romantic past.

“I didn’t do a background check. Once I looked up who she was, I knew about it [her] as an actress and in the music industry and that she looked like a great mom and had some great kids,” he continued “I am not judging Jana for anything from the past. I don’t judge anyone on anything from the past as long as they show up for me and the people I love and the people that matter to me. It shows that they have grown through all kinds of decisions or mistakes made in the past. And to me that’s attractive, and it’s just one of the many things that’s hugely attractive about Jana – how she’s had all these setbacks in the past, but she’s moving forward. She is a little warrior and that is attractive.”