The reality star tells PEOPLE it will be "bittersweet' watching his past relationship play out on season 3 of 'The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys'
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NEED TO KNOW
- Steven McBee Jr. tells PEOPLE he’s learned to take a 20-minute pause before reacting when emotions are running high
- The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys star says watching season 3 will be “bittersweet” because it documents a relationship he once believed had a future
- McBee says he takes “full accountability” for his past actions and hopes to apply lessons from the breakup to future relationships
Steven McBee Jr. is reflecting on lessons he’s learned after a difficult year that included his breakup with Allie Eklund.
Speaking to PEOPLE ahead of the season 3 premiere of The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys, the reality star, 32, says therapy and self-reflection have helped him better understand how he responds to emotionally charged situations.
“There’s a moment where you find out information, and then there’s your reaction,” McBee says. “In that moment, if you can pause and take a breather and just give yourself— for me, it’s literally 20 minutes.”
The entrepreneur says he’s learned that creating distance between an emotional trigger and his response has become one of the most important tools in his life.
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“If I have 20 minutes of an emotional roller coaster and I come back to the situation 20 minutes later, I’m levelheaded, I’m logical, I’m rational again,” he explains. “I’m over that spike of emotion.”
McBee, who says he discussed the possibility of marriage and living with Eklund on his show, says he now focuses on practical ways to slow down when he’s feeling overwhelmed.
“I definitely put my phone down,” he says. “I do not have my phone in hand, and I give myself that 20 minutes to come back to the situation whenever I have a clearer head, I’m calm, I’m rational, and I can think through a situation and handle it the way that I should handle it.”
His comments come months after his public breakup with Eklund, a Texas-based model and content creator, after six months of dating.
In April, Eklund shared screenshots of text messages in which McBee used "degrading" language toward her after accusing her of being unfaithful. Eklund denied the allegations and posted what she said was the full video referenced by McBee. Days later, McBee publicly apologized for the messages, writing on Instagram that the texts he sent were “cruel” and that he was “ashamed” of them.
“No level of personal hurt and betrayal justifies the language I used,” he wrote at the time. “I recognize that the criticism I am receiving is fair, and I am listening.”
As season 3 prepares to air, McBee says watching the episodes back will likely be “bittersweet.”
“I had a great relationship that’s going to play out in this season,” he says. “I thought the world of the girl I was dating and thought that things were going to go certainly a different direction than they have over the last few months.”
Rather than dwell on what went wrong, McBee says he’s trying to focus on the positive memories and the lessons he can carry into the future.
“I think there’s a lot of self-reflection and learning lessons that can be taken from this season, for myself especially,” he says. “That’s what I plan on doing: looking back, being grateful for the time that I had in that relationship and trying to take the learning lessons from that relationship into my future, my next relationship, whatever it may be.”
McBee also acknowledges that viewers will see him navigating significant personal and professional pressures during the upcoming season, including the challenges facing his family business while his father serves a federal prison sentence.
Still, he says those pressures are not an excuse for mistakes he’s made. “It doesn’t justify anything. I’m not excusing anything I’ve done, and I certainly take full accountability for it,” McBee says. “But just a little bit of understanding of, like, ‘Hey, there’s a lot on their plate at times. I can see why it would overfill.' "
Though he’s focused on personal growth, McBee isn’t ruling out finding love again in the future.
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“At this point, I think dating shows are back on the table for me, potentially,” he jokes.
The reality star also says he’d be open to competing on shows like Dancing with the Stars — and revealed he may be more prepared than fans realize.
“There was a girl I was in love with in my early 20s, and she was a great two-stepper,” McBee recalls. “I had no idea how to dance.”
Determined to learn, he secretly enrolled in dance lessons. “I started taking dance lessons with this sweet 65-year-old lady,” he says. “I took them for eight months.”
His family had no idea. “They’d always ask where I went because I’d be gone for two hours and away from my phone,” he says with a laugh. “I’d tell them, ‘Oh, I was at the gym.’ Meanwhile, I was taking dance lessons.”
The new season of The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys chronicles the family’s efforts to weather legal challenges with their father, Steve McBee Sr., who is serving 24 months in prison after pleading guilty in a multi-million-dollar crop insurance fraud case.
McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys returns Monday, June 15 at 9:15 p.m. ET on Bravo
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