Woman went broke moving cross-country for love — and got dumped
Her ex literally lives in Texas.
Jillian Lavin sacrificed her career, drained her savings and moved halfway across the country to the Lone Star State for love — only to get dumped.
The singer, known online by her stage name Spritely, detailed the dreadful ordeal in a now viral TikTok video that has scored 2.3 million views, where she shares her heartbreak and pain through song.
Lavin said she thought the three and a half year relationship, which blossomed in California, was “amazing” — she told New York Magazine’s The Cut that the two were planning a future together.
It’s why she didn’t question spending thousands of dollars to pack up her life when the time came.
But just two months after leaving Los Angeles for the unnamed cad, he broke up with her in a concise, handwritten note, blaming everything on them being “incompatible.”
“It was pretty disappointing that it was such a short f–king note,” said Lavin, who now lives in Florida.
“As soon as he pulled it out of his pocket, I knew. Who just hands you a note and says, ‘I think this says everything’?” she continued.
She told the magazine that, earlier this year, her boyfriend had expressed a desire to move back to Texas to live on his family’s farm. It didn’t come as a shock — she knew that the Golden State was not his long-term goal.
“He’s more of a Texas farm boy, and I am a musician who wants to be in a major city,” she explained.
“Eventually, we compromised on being in a major city in Texas near his family’s farmland. That ushered in talks of what our future would look like together.”
She was under the impression he would propose, that he was the one, which is why she was blindsided by the break-up.
“People are speculating: Was there another woman? Did his family talk him out of it? No, knowing him, there is no other influence involved,” she said.
“He said that at the point we moved to Texas together, he had fallen out of love with me, and I think it’s his fault that he kept these concerns bottled up long enough for that to happen.”
The heartbreaking split, Lavin said, left her “shattered” — leading her to take a two month break from social media. Eventually, she felt like she needed “to tell people what happened.”
Sharing her story online opened the floodgates for viewers to share their own bad break-ups and decry her ex’s actions. But she also told The Cut that self-appointed relationship experts on social media have called her “crazy” and blamed her for following her ex to another state.
“He made you move and then handed you a note?!?!” wrote one person on TikTok. “I thought my ex was bad for leaving me to move back in with his mommy. You win.”
“Real definition of ‘follow your dreams not your boyfriend,’” another commented.
“Boosting for the algorithm so this can go viral, and you can make all your money back from the move,” one viewer said.
“1. I’m so sorry, but 2. Is this on Spotify,” someone else wrote, referring to the sing-song delivery of her harrowing tale.
Two months after going their separate ways, she said she’s “better,” although “every day is a battle.”
As for the ex, she hasn’t heard from him despite her newfound internet fame. Which, Lavin said, she’d be happy to trade in.
“I would probably take it all back and just want to be with him,” she admitted of her viral notoriety.
“I see in hindsight that he’s not the best for me, but I was so happy with my little life with him. This is probably the most success I’ve seen in my career, but it’s just a career,” she said.
