'White Lotus' star Haley Lu Richardson is 'proud' of surviving breakup: 'Life has gone on'

With the help of therapy, dance and compassionate strangers on Instagram, Haley Lu Richardson has gotten through some hard times.

After opening up on social media about having "a painful couple (of) months," the "White Lotus" star, 28, spoke with People magazine about how she's been healing. Though she didn't reveal the reason behind her struggles, she was candid about "experiencing deep heartbreak and fully letting myself feel how scary that was."

"I just felt compelled to share that I wasn't actually doing that great. It was so overwhelming, the effect that had, because I immediately felt less alone," she told the outlet about her vulnerable Instagram post from July 13. "We all go through these painful times, and to come together in that – that's where compassion comes from. I felt like I was getting hugs from everyone."

"It's taken me forever to even be able to tell the people I'm closest to that I'm having a hard time," she'd written in the caption of her post. " … Up and down and generally feeling things a lot. Feeling things a lot is vulnerable and heavy and exhausting and also the absolute coolest most deeply expanding thing about my experience of life so far."

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Haley Lu Richardson is 'proud' of getting through breakup with Brett Dier

A year ago, Richardson revealed in an Instagram Story that she and ex-fiancé Brett Dier – known for playing Michael Cordero on the CW series "Jane the Virgin" – had quietly split two years prior.

"It was hard, but I got through it. ... I was in a really long relationship. I spent a lot of life with someone, and it was very special – I'm going to cry – and it was very necessary," she told People, seemingly alluding to Dier. "And I thought it could be forever, but it wasn't."

Several years later, she is now on the other side – and proud of how she handled that breakup.

"I had thought the whole time we were together that if it wasn't going to be forever, my life would just stop. But it was really cool because ... it's been three years and my life has gone on," she said. "'Wow, I got through that, and I was capable of getting through something like that, and I'm capable of being on my own': That's been an amazing thing to learn."

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As she got emotional again, she explained, "I'm really trying to not cry; (it's) because of sadness and also because I'm proud of myself."

Richardson realizes that she "learned a ton" through her breakup as well as during this time of "figuring out myself on my own (and) figuring myself with other people that I've gotten to know."

She's learning who "adult Haley" is, and what she wants in a life partner.

"I do feel like I'd love to share my life with someone, but the whole idea of what that looks like and who that would be has changed a lot."

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Haley Lu Richardson reflects on breakup with ex-fiancé Brett Dier