Bre Tiesi is sharing how her former husband, Johnny Manziel, encouraged her ahead of her appearance on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
“I talked to Dwight [Howard], and then my ex-husband, Johnny, was on it,” the 35-year-old Tiesi said during the Tuesday, November 3, episode of the “The Viall Files” podcast. “So, I talked to both of them. Dwight was like, ‘I don’t know if you should do this,’ while Johnny was like, ‘Absolutely.’ He said, ‘You’ll probably get mad at some point, but aside from that, you should do it.’”
Howard, 40, competed on the first season of Special Forces, while Manziel, 33, joined the celebrity recruits in season 4 of the Fox reality series. Tiesi later appeared on season 5, though she voluntarily left the course midway through the competition.
Before welcoming her son with Nick Cannon and joining the Oppenheim Group on Selling Sunset, Bre Tiesi was romantically involved with Johnny Manziel. The model and the former Cleveland Browns quarterback, widely known as “Johnny Football,” began dating in 2016, the same year Manziel parted ways with his agent and was released by the team amid personal and professional struggles.
Long before she entered the jungle, the Selling Sunset personality was married to Manziel from 2018 through 2021.
“I mean, we went through a lot. We didn’t speak for years after our divorce,” Tiesi said during Tuesday’s episode. “I’m very big on the idea that if you can take accountability, apologize
and be an adult by talking things through, I’m happy to move forward.”
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She added, “Obviously, we loved each other at one point. We got married. So I thought, ‘You know what? I respect and accept this apology, and I appreciate it. We can be cool moving forward.’ I wouldn’t say we spend time together often or talk every day, but we’re definitely on good terms.”
Bre Tiesi experienced a series of highly publicized highs and lows before and after joining the cast of Selling Sunset. Prior to her reality television debut, she was best known for her marriage to football star Johnny Manziel. The couple’s turbulent relationship ended after a brief and difficult marriage, with their divorce finalized two years later.
Tiesi said completing the Special Forces course felt “easy” compared with the challenges of her marriage and subsequent divorce.
“I think I realized that I didn’t want to be married. I didn’t really want that kind of serious relationship,” she explained. “I didn’t like anything about being married. I do very well on my own, and I struggled with the responsibility of it all. Having to answer to him and deal with everything he was going through, I thought, ‘Maybe I’m really selfish. I don’t know, but this just isn’t for me.’ I wasn’t happy. Honestly, I think that was my biggest lesson.”
Tiesi continued, “We were very toxic. It wasn’t healthy, and I learned a lot about myself through it. I did a great deal of self-reflection because of that experience.”
Tiesi welcomed her son, Legendary, with partner Nick Cannon in 2022. Cannon, 46, is the father of 12 children with six women, including Tiesi, and he and the model have described their relationship as non-monogamous.