Kristen Responds to Luke Criticism in Unaired Valley Moment: "Almost Made Me Take His Side"
Kristen Doute unpacked the Luke Broderick backlash in Peacock's extended cut of The Valley's Season 3 reunion.
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Key Takeaways
- The Valley's Kristen Doute defended Luke Broderick against harsh criticism over their postpartum intimacy struggles, saying the backlash helped her recognize that he was also adjusting to first-time parenthood.
- Kristen revealed that postpartum depression and rage contributed to tension in their relationship, including conflicts over Luke sleeping on the couch and his late-night habits, which she says have since improved.
- Luke said he felt unheard and isolated during the early months of parenthood, explaining that giving up personal activities in hopes of improving the relationship instead led to loneliness and resentment.
Kristen Doute's postpartum relationship issues with Luke Broderick came under intense public scrutiny almost immediately after The Valley Season 3 premiered. In a previously unaired moment from Peacock's extended and uncensored version of The Valley's Reunion Part 2, Kristen unpacked the criticism of Luke's behavior in the months after their daughter, Kaia, was born in June 2025.
After Kristen and Luke shared that their sex life is more active today, host Andy Cohen brought up the passionate viewer reactions to their previous intimacy struggles. "A lot of female viewers were really coming after Luke for expecting sex from you so soon after having a baby," he pointed out, before giving Kristen the floor to address the backlash.
"I mean, it's hard because, like, 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."
Regardless, she continued, "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."
Kristen Doute reveals how her relationship with Luke Broderick has changed post-filming
One of Kristen and Luke's earliest conflicts on The Valley Season 3 erupted in the wake of him spending the night on the couch. In another previously unseen reunion moment, Andy asked Kristen why Luke's sleeping arrangement was "such a trigger" for her.
"When we've had times where we weren't doing well or times when he was, like, drinking and I was pregnant and I couldn't partake in anything, it was like, late nights led to that, whether it was 'cause he didn't wanna wake me up or whatever it was," Kristen explained.
"I'm like, 'But I still want you in bed with me. Like, I'm very clingy, needy right now,'" she continued. "But I wasn't expressing it that way. I was just super defensive. And what I learned later, too, is that, like, there was a lot of postpartum depression and rage. And rage was something I wasn't familiar with."
Kristen further claimed that she doesn't "even think about" where Luke sleeps anymore, before revealing another recent change that her fiancé has made. "There's no more late-night garage nights," she added. "That used to frustrate me. That doesn't happen anymore."
Luke, for his part, chimed in to say that in the rare instance that he does fall asleep on their sofa, it's usually only because he's dozed off while watching a movie. "It wasn't a spiteful thing to sleep on the couch," Luke insisted.
Luke Broderick sheds new light on his and Kristen Doute's struggles
In yet another extended moment from the same reunion segment, Andy asked Luke why he felt as though first-time parenthood was "only allowed to be hard for Kristen," as he'd stated during Season 3.
"I did not feel heard at all by anything," Luke explained. "I felt I had, you know, given up well over 90 percent of my previous life before being thrown into all of this, with zero consideration into that. ... I was still doing nothing right, at the time ... That was the feedback that I was getting."
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Getting more into specifics, Luke cited his decisions to forego his annual fishing trip with his dad, in addition to golf trips with his brother. "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."
After Kristen tacked on the word "resentful," he 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."
As you await the conclusion of The Valley's three-part reunion, don't miss an exclusive update on Kristen and Luke's timeline for moving.
