Jessi Draper Opens Up on Divorce, Co-Parenting, and Supporting Taylor

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The reality television personality opens up about body dysmorphia and her improved co-parenting relationship with Jordan.

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On this week's episode of 'CHEERS!,' host Avery Woods is joined by Jessi Draper, who opens up about regrettable plastic surgery, the leadup to her divorce, and the emotional toll of the process — but notes that her and Jordan have recently 'turned a corner' in their contentious co-parenting relationship. She also addresses why she publicly stood by Taylor, despite not condoning all of her behavior: 'you can be there for someone without fully co-signing everything they do.'

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Jessi Draper: I feel like it's better to be authentic, but I also don't ever want anyone to think I'm pushing plastic surgery. I have never been like, 'You need this.' If anything, I tell people, 'Be really cautious.' I feel like I did too much, and I wish I wouldn't have done my last one.

So I really do wish that people would just let us live our lives and be like, 'Great, I'm glad you shared,' but I don't need to take it on personally, you know?

Avery Woods: So you got your upper and lower bleph, right? What is the fat grafting procedure that you were talking about? Is that the one that you said you regret?

Jessi Draper: Yes, and I didn't even want it. I think that's what triggers me so much about my plastic surgery. I went to get an upper and lower bleph, and he was like, 'I think you need some fat grafting to fill in the eyes.' So I was like, 'Okay, do what you think I need to be balanced.' That's all I said, which I shouldn't have given free rein that way, because he took fat from my legs and put it in my jaw, in my lips, in my eyes, everywhere.

So when you watch season five, I just look so swollen and puffy, especially in my lips, because he put it in there and I did not ask for that. We did not talk about it.

So I was very upset, and for months I was swollen, puffy. I had to get Kybella to try to dissolve the fat. It's been a nightmare for the last nine months trying to fix what happened, and it was my biggest regret.

So don't get fat grafting. Seriously, just don't do it. And even my upper and lower bleph, I didn't need. I think I just got into my head of, 'I need to look a certain way,' and there's so much pressure on us when we're in the public eye. But I regret it, for sure.

Avery Woods: I really felt like when I started doing social media full time and was watching myself every day, multiple videos a day, editing on my own and looking at every angle of my face possible and my body possible, it's so unhealthy. It makes you become obsessive with how you look. On top of that, then you add reality television, where you have these crazy high-quality cameras. People are watching them on a big screen. You're watching yourself, and of course you're gonna pick yourself apart. That's just human nature.

Jessi Draper: And the audience will too. People always say, 'People don't think about you as much as you think they do,' but when you're on reality, it's actually the opposite. They actually do, and they post about it, and they tag you in things, and they comment, and then it makes your body dysmorphia worse.

Jessi Draper: Divorce is so tricky because obviously you guys saw that our marriage was not perfect, and we had issues, and we shared it. But no divorce is perfect. I think that no matter what, when you're getting divorced, there's gonna be ups and downs, and it's been really hard, I'm not gonna lie.

But it's really weird to go through a divorce publicly and then also have hurt and anger towards this person, but then also be like, 'But I loved you, and you were my husband, and you're the father of my children, and we had a life together.' So I go back and forth between obviously having frustrations and being hurt, and then having regret and being sad. It's the weirdest thing.

So my mission, as I'm going through this and in an upcoming season that you may see, I'm hoping to just share that journey of even if you know it's the right decision to leave, it does not make it easy. I'm still mourning. So even though I know it was the right thing, it still sucks. I'm still kind of going through that, and I think the first year will be the hardest. There's days I can't get out of bed, crying, really, really sad, and I can't believe my kids have to go through this. And then the next day I feel fine. So it's just a long haul. It's a lot.

Avery Woods: How is co-parenting going?

Jessi Draper: You know what? It's been up and down. I think recently we turned a corner, which I'm grateful for. It's been contentious, but we just finalized everything, so it should be final within the next week or two. We both kind of just got to a point where we agreed we have to be better for the kids.

They are old enough to understand what's going on, and I want them to have as good of an experience as they can, having two separate households and having their family divided. Especially my son, he's six and he gets it. He's like, 'Why don't you wear a wedding ring anymore?' He asks questions.

So as of the last week, I actually feel a little better about it. Hopefully it stays that way. But regardless of how I was treated or how he feels he was treated, I just want the best for him moving forward. That's my kids' dad. I want him to be happy, I wanna be happy, and I really hope we can coexist as parents because that's what the kids deserve.

Jessi Draper: Even bringing up the emotional abuse I talked about, I was nervous because I'm like, 'I don't want anyone to think that I'm making excuses for what I did and trying to throw him under the bus.' Because even though I don't feel like I was treated the best in my marriage, I still regret what I did, and I still wanted to take accountability.

So I didn't wanna bring that layer into it and then have it be like, 'Oh, what I did was fine because you did this.' But once we were getting divorced, I was like, 'Well, I might as well tell the story, because this kind of contributed to where we got today.'

I will say, I don't think I'll ever know the truth of everything that happened, but I was told one thing about the escorts and the messages I got, and when I talked to him, he said they're strippers. So I don't know if I'll ever believe, but to me, it's the same thing. You're paying for something sexual, and you're hiding it from your wife.

For me, we did kind of hash it out after my Call Her Daddy thing, and that's what he's saying, so I'm just gonna choose to believe that and move forward.

But yes, I think we both made mistakes in our marriage. I really, really do think that neither of us were perfect, and it wasn't meant to be, but we got our kids out of it, and I'm so grateful for that.

I definitely feel like kissing Marciano and having an emotional affair was not the reason we got divorced. There was so much that led to that, and we both made mistakes.

Avery Woods: Well, I'm happy that it's finalized. Good for you guys for moving on and putting the kids first. That's huge.

Jessi Draper: Thank you. It was finalized way quicker than I thought it would be, so I'm so grateful for that.

Avery Woods: Going back to when everything happened with Taylor, you were one of the only ones of the group that very much stood by her side and defended her publicly. Was that hard for you to do with the other girls not really being in support during that time?

Jessi Draper: Oh, yeah. It's definitely something that's caused contention. The thing with this is I don't condone everything Taylor does. I see some of the actions and the behavior, and I'm like, 'That's not okay.' She's posted things at times where I'm like, 'Delete that.' I'm able to be honest with her, and I do not agree with everything.

But at the same time, I understand she's going through a lot. She's in a lot of pain. I'm coming out of a relationship where I went through a lot, and we can kind of relate on certain things. So it was almost like we bonded in a way over our exes doing similar things to us and having those shared experiences.

She's really been there for me through my divorce, checked in on me, and I've wanted to be there for her, too. I just feel like as a friend, you can be there for someone without fully co-signing everything they do.

So that's what I've tried to do because I'm going through so much, I don't need to turn on someone that's also going through a hard time. But I also understand the girls' frustrations and feelings. It's really hard to be in the middle when you get what they're feeling, but also don't want to abandon someone who's really low right now.

So it's definitely been probably one of the hardest parts of all this for me.

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Episode

_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/Jessi-Draper-on-Divorce-Co-Parenting-and-Standing-by-Taylor-20260921)._