Calah Jackson learned firsthand that not every cowboy is ready for his cowgirl, especially when it comes to her ex-boyfriend Steven McBee Jr.
“It’s very different being in the relationship vs. being out,” Calah exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this month while promoting season 2 of The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys, confirming that she and Steven broke up while filming.
She later confessed, “I think I lost a lot of myself in that relationship.” Watching the season back, she added, she’s seen the red flags she missed while dating the McBee Farm & Cattle CEO.
Calah — who began dating the eldest McBee son in 2021 after meeting him on Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer — noted, “Maybe it’s a good thing that I’m able to watch it back on TV, because it really is just so eye-opening for me. I’m like, ‘Oh, why did I put up with this?’ Or, like, ‘I cannot believe I reacted that way to this.’”
During the current season of the Bravo series, fans saw Steven take his brother Cole McBee’s side during a blowout fight with Calah in the Ozarks. The argument served as the catalyst for Calah and Steven to break up — which Steven exclusively told Us in July was the “15th or 16th” time they’d done so.
Although Steven did reach back out to Calah — and invited her to his brother Jesse McBee’s wedding, which took place in fall 2024 — Calah said they are not back together.
“I did see Steven a couple months ago for press day in L.A., and that was probably the first time I’d seen him in a while,” she explained to Us, noting the period before that run-in was the “longest” they had “ever gone without seeing each other.”
Calah recalled the photo shoot being OK. “It was fine. It was cordial. I mean, we showed up and we did press and we didn’t kill each other,” she said with a laugh.
While Calah teased that fans will see her “teeter-tottering” with Steven to end the season, she is confident that her life in Missouri, which is where Steven and his brothers’ family farm is located, is done.
“I did love the farm life. People don’t think I did, but I’ve truly loved [it], and I really felt like that was my home and I made it my home,” she confessed. “So, that’s the one thing I miss.”
Calah made it clear that she doesn’t miss “the drama or the pressure of the antics” she witnessed while living on and off with Steven.
“I’m very, very happy back [in Dallas] and I will never be moving back to Missouri again. That’s for sure,” she declared, adding that being in Texas post-split has given her the chance to find herself.
She explained, “I’ve been focusing on myself and just trying to get back to a really good mental place. And honestly, I’m, like, the happiest I’ve been in a really long time. So, things are going really well right now.”
When asked whether she would date Steven again with everything she knows now, Calah played coy.
“I don’t want to be too negative about it. I don’t regret anything, but I don’t know,” she told Us. “Let’s just say that I’m not gonna regret my decisions. It was a good relationship for a long time, until it wasn’t. I learned a lot of lessons. That’s how I’ll leave it.”
The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys airs on Bravo Mondays at 9 p.m. ET.
