Luke Broderick is under fire after his postpartum intimacy issues with Kristen Doute became a hot topic on The Valley season three reunion.
During Wednesday’s episode, Andy Cohen, 58, revealed that Luke, 35, had refused to appear on Watch What Happens Live with Kristen, 43, as he attempted to explain his decision against going to New York City, and fans lashed out against him.
“Luke, we invited you and Kristen to appear on Watch What Happens Live together a few weeks ago. You told my producers you would only come if Kristen was not involved, that you needed a break. Why did you say that?” Andy asked.
But before he could reply, Kristen explained, “I was asked to do it and we — our nanny was out of town — so I said, ‘Well, we have to bring Kaia. And he said, ‘Maybe my mom can come.’ So I started looking at flights with his mom. She can be with Kai. We can do the thing.”
She then asked Luke, “Do you want to say what you really said, or?”
“Do you want to skip the part where you said you’re just gonna be in the room the entire time and we can’t do other things?” he fired back.
According to Luke, he felt like it would be a “miserable” trip if he and Kristen were unable to enjoy themselves — while simultaneously dealing with Kaia being on a different schedule.
“He said, ‘I want to go to dinner, and I want to enjoy New York, and I can’t enjoy New York if you and Kaia come,’” Kristen corrected.
At that point, Luke admitted that he and Kristen sometimes “need space.”
“Jumping her three time zones to not even get adjusted and then jumping her back, we’ve got a week of fallout with her baby on top of this it just wasn’t a good idea,” he reasoned.
Meanwhile, Brittany Cartwright, 37, and Jasmine Goode, 38, pointed out that Kristen’s feelings were hurt.
“Have you apologized like, about that?” Jasmine asked.
“Just now,” Kristen replied.
In his own defense, Luke suggested that he didn’t realize the situation had hurt Kristen as deeply as it did.
“Well, you laugh it off, and you didn’t come to me in a serious way that it hurt your feelings, and I am sorry that I did. You make light of it, and I’m sorry that I haven’t read that it hurt you like it did,” he admitted.
“I make light of a lot of things because we have a baby and I have to be good for her but that was really tough,” Kristen replied.
@bravotv Luke’s discussing why he declined #WWHL. #TheValley #Reunion #KristenDoute #LukeBroderick ♬ Luke Needed a Break from The Valley – Bravo
Meanwhile, after the clip was shared on TikTok, fans didn’t hold back.
“He wants a child and wife but doesn’t want to be a dad and husband,” one person noted.
“Guys, what’s the confusion? He hates her,” said someone else.
“He doesn’t just hate Kristen, he hates having a kid,” added a third.
Others said, “Luke is dangerous,” and, “This show is a documentary on misogyny, settling, and how the nuclear family dynamic destroys women.”
“I hope she leaves him,” wrote an additional fan.
As backlash continued, an unaired scene from The Valley was released, via Bravo’s The Daily Dish, in which Andy mentioned that female viewers, especially, had come for Luke for wanting sex from Kristen so soon after she gave birth. In response, Kristen admitted that seeing fans act negatively toward her partner made her defensive of him.
“I’m allowed to come after him, but I don’t want other people to,” Kristen responded. “But I did explain to him, these are moms, these are pregnant women, these are women going through or [who] have gone through the same thing that I am. And so, they’re coming from this place of, like, maternal passion.”
“And then, it almost made me, like, take his side a little bit more, because I was then coming out of the really tough postpartum stuff and remembering that, like, he was new at this too,” she added.
Overall, Luke said that he “did not feel heard” by Kristen amid their hardships.
“I felt I had, you know, given up well over 90 percent of my previous life before being thrown into all of this … [And] she didn’t make me give up those things,” he clarified. “I thought it would make things better for our relationship by not doing those things. And ultimately, it made me feel more lonely, more estranged.”
Then, after Kristen mentioned being “resentful,” Luke replied, “Well, I think the [resentment] was that I had this unspoken expectation that it would improve things, and it didn’t. So that was where that came from.”
The Valley season three reunion concludes next Wednesday, August 19, at 8/7c on Bravo.