Ryan Sutter is speaking out about the cryptic social media posts about his wife, Trista Sutter, that sparked backlash in May.
“I’ll go months without a post and then suddenly, I’ll get in a mood and I’ll send something,” Ryan, 49, explained on the Monday, June 17, episode of Chris Harrison’s “The Most Dramatic Podcast Ever.”
Ryan explained that he wanted his wife, 51, to see his posts once she had a chance to look at social media — but he didn’t think about what strangers might infer.
“Trista wasn’t gonna be able to have access to social media until she got finished with this experience she was on,” Ryan said. “So I was gonna post these things knowing, like, the second she had access to it, she would look at it, and she could see, like, ‘Here’s what happened while you were gone.’”
Although Ryan didn’t elaborate on what Trista was doing, the former football star noted that the whole ordeal “just blew up in my face and backfired.”
Ryan — who shares son Maxwell, 16, and daughter Blakesley, 14, with Trista — sent fans into a frenzy by sharing two separate Instagram posts on May 11 and May 17. The cryptic messages led some fans to speculate that the couple had split or that the Bachelorette alum had died.
I know you wish you were here for Mother’s Day. We wish you were too,” Ryan captioned a family photo on May 11. “But sometimes being a mom means letting go of their hands, granting independence and stimulating their courageous spirit.”
At the time, Ryan explained that “sometimes it’s necessary to exemplify the characteristics you preach,” adding, “It takes being uncomfortable and scared to show them that it’s ok to be uncomfortable and scared. Sometimes you have to go away so they know you’ll come back, that your love is not limited by distance or difficulty or time.”
On May 17, Ryan wrote, “I really wish I could talk to you. Ask you how you’re doing? How was your day. I’d really like to hear your voice — just for a minute.”
Ryan went on to say that he wanted to “support and encourage and cheer you on,” adding, “I want to be there for you. But I can’t. And that’s ok cause I know you need this time – time to discover yourself again. So I’ll be here for you instead. I’ll be here when you get back. I’ll be here to listen to you, to smile with you, maybe cry with you — I’ll be here to love you… I’ll be here… forever.”
The following day, Ryan took to Instagram again to clarify that “Trista is fine” and “we’re great.”
“Trista is at a place in life where she is searching a bit,” he wrote at the time. “I miss her. We miss her.”
The couple met during season 1 of The Bachelorette — which aired in 2003 — and tied the knot in December of that year in a televised special.
Earlier this month, Trista confirmed that she’ll eventually reveal why she missed Mother’s Day.
“I will share it as soon as I possibly can but, yeah, life is crazy right now,” she explained during the June 5 episode of the “Almost Famous” podcast. “It’s summertime right now with two teenagers who need to get jobs and get ready for their junior and sophomore years.”
Almost Famous” cohost Ashley Iaconetti, meanwhile, believes that Trista was filming the Fox reality show Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
“I know what happened. I think people know. I think it’s Special Forces,” Iaconetti, 36, said during the May 29 episode of her and Ben Higgins’ podcast. “Did the show get annoyed by this? Like, she basically revealed herself as a cast member.”
