Ed “Big Ed” Brown is coming clean about the downfall of his romance with Liz Woods. In the wake of calling off his wedding to Liz filming 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After? Season 8, the reality star confronted his now-ex about his sudden change of heart. Big Ed stopped by TV Insider’s studio and opened up about how he handled the split, his current relationship status, and his one “regret” regarding the breakup.
Liz felt blindsided by Big Ed canceling their wedding after their PastaGate fight—Big Ed’s taco pasta was too spicy for Liz’s daughter—without telling her. “I don’t regret calling off the wedding and here’s why: I knew three months prior that it wasn’t going to work,” Big Ed told TV Insider. “I just knew. It didn’t feel right.”
Big Ed explained that he and Liz moved back to Arkansas to “get away from the toxicity. I wanted to get away from that small town, start over, have her daughter come live for the summer, [in a] new house, surrounded by my family.” However, their past issues resurfaced. “And I knew that if we got married, we would be in divorce court within six months,” he admitted.
Big Ed and Liz had broken up several times before, but this time around, there was no reconciling. Big Ed revealed that he’s at peace with the breakup and doesn’t have “regrets” about how he handled it. Despite getting a couple’s tattoo with Liz, Big Ed said he has no plans to get rid of it.
In the May 12 episode of 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?, Big Ed and Liz came face-to-face for the first time since the sudden breakup. Liz was adamant about wanting to save their relationship, but Big Ed had made up his mind. “When she starts to cry, it upsets me,” Big Ed recalled. “It still didn’t change my mind, and I still loved her at that moment, but I don’t want her to be in pain. I want her to go on and be happy, and I knew that it wasn’t going to work. For me, it was the least painful path of resistance.”
During their conversation, Big Ed told Liz, “If you ever meet anybody like me, just run.” The real estate agent explained that he took a “self-deprecating” approach when speaking to his ex. “What I’m most sad about is that she never quit,” a tearful Big Ed told TV Insider. “So that’s what I regret is that she never quit — ever. In the 13 times we broke up, she never gave up. And so for me, that was very admirable, but it was just everything else that we couldn’t pull together.”
Despite not getting his happily ever after with Liz, Big Ed isn’t giving up on love. “I know I’ll find love again,” he declared. “I just gotta calm down. I’m in a new city. I’m not looking for someone to make me happy as much as I’m trying to find my own happiness.”
The 90 Day Fiancé star is dating someone new, but he’s following a new rule: “You can’t date anyone unless there’s a three in front of their age, so that’s been a challenge constantly. But there’s a girl I like that has a pontoon boat like I do, so we’ll see what happens.”
90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?, Season 8, Sundays, 8/7c, TLC