Gage Edward Marks One Year Since Split from Ex Jeff Lewis with Instagram Selfie — and a Message
It has officially been one year since Gage Edward and Jeff Lewis announced their separation — and Edward acknowledged the occasion with a cheeky post to his Instagram.
“Because it’s been 1-year,” the Flipping Out alum, 35, captioned a black-and-white photo he shared of himself with his right hand in his hair and a smile on his face. The caption also includes the arm muscle emoji, seemingly indicating he’s been staying strong since the split. Though he doesn’t state it outright, many fans knew just what anniversary he was acknowledging in the caption, and many showed their support in the comments section.
“You look so much happier,” one user wrote, while another added, “And u survived!!! I bet u have self esteem now.”
Edward and Lewis, who dated for 10 years and share 3-year-old daughter Monroe, decided to take a break from their relationship and live in separate residences in January 2019, Lewis, 49, revealed on an episode of his Sirius XM radio show Jeff Lewis Live last year.
Edward has, for the most part, remained silent about the break-up.
A post shared by Gage Edward (@mrgageedward) on Jan 31, 2020 at 10:51am PST
RELATED: Jeff Lewis Says Gage Edward Sent Him a Cease and Desist Letter After Disclosing Custody Battle
According to Lewis, the two had been living in separate rooms in the same house for the better part of a year before Edward moved out of their home and into a hotel. He’s since found a new permanent home.
“This has been a long time coming. We were in separate rooms a significant portion of last year, so it was kind of like a roommate situation,” Lewis said at the time, explaining that the two had been trying to work through their problems. He characterized their relationship at the time as closer to “friends with benefits.”
Eventually, the breaking point came when Edward allegedly told Lewis that their physical relationship was “confusing.”
RELATED VIDEO: Gage Edward Shares Smiling Selfie with Daughter Monroe Amid Custody Battle with Ex Jeff Lewis
Over the months since, things have gotten increasingly messy between the two Bravo stars, as they continue to fight over custody of Monroe — a battle Lewis frequently speaks about on his radio show.
Until earlier this month, the two fathers had been operating on a temporary custody agreement while they worked out a formal arrangement in private mediation.
That paperwork, it turns out, was ready to sign in early January. But according to Lewis, it included terms he no longer agreed to. And negotiations had gotten so bad that Lewis was refusing to move forward with their proposal, and was ready to turn things over to a judge.
“I’m going to fight this to the bitter f—ing end,” he said. “If I felt like the motivation was pure and this was about our daughter, then I’d be very open to mediation or whatever. But because I really believe that this is serving [Edward’s] best interest, I will fight it. If we have to go to court, we go to court.”
Reached for comment at the time, Edward, 34, provided the following statement to PEOPLE:
“I will continue to stay silent on the issues related to our private custody case. To address the derogatory and slanderous statements being made about me would be putting my interest above our daughter’s. The situation is being exploited for attention, which is sad because that ultimately only affects our daughter later. What I will say is that there are gross mistruths in the majority of what’s been said.”
Lewis has also claimed that he thinks Edward is simply looking for financial support, claiming that the two had a verbal child support agreement that was left out of the written custody agreement. “I do believe this is money-motivated,” he said.
Lewis revealed in a later episode that he “did receive a cease and desist letter from Gage’s attorney,” which PEOPLE later confirmed.
Edward, however, had no comment when asked about the legal action.
Meanwhile, Lewis has moved on to a new relationship with boyfriend Scott Anderson; the two went public with their romance back in June, and made it Instagram official in August.
In December, Lewis told Andy Cohen that he was ready to get married.
“I got to put a ring on it. I’m going to have to put a ring on it,” Lewis revealed. “I would consider putting a ring on it.”
“There was always some apprehension [with Edward],” Lewis continued. (The long-term partners never married.) “But we get along so well, me and the new guy. We get along really well. It’s really nice.”
