Kaitlynn Carter found herself in the middle of a pop culture meltdown last summer, when she started dating Miley Cyrus, who had just split from Liam Hemsworth, and she was on rebound from Brody Jenner. 

The pair dated for just two months, but the tabloids covered their every outing, date and social media post, so fans could be excused for feeling like it lasted a lot longer. And as Carter explains on Nick Viall’s Viall Files podcast, it was a doozy for her too. 

Carter says: “What I’ve really realized is now with dating, I’m super private about it. Since last fall, once that whole situation [with Miley] came to a wrap, I was like, ‘That’s the last time I’m doing a public thing.’” 

Their plan was to keep it private, she says: “We actually did work pretty hard to keep it as private as we could, but it is what it is. It’s so hard to go through a breakup in the public eye, too. It’s so rough but there’s also a lot to be gained and learned from that. So now, I’m just super, super private.”

And Carter is dating someone new, but she’s not spilling the details or stressing the labels. She says: “With the person that I’ve been seeing recently, I’m trying to take it really slow and make sure that everything is in place. We’re not boyfriend-girlfriend.”