Kristen Doute is giving a candid look into new motherhood in The Valley‘s third season. The iconic Bravolebrity gave birth to her and Luke Broderick‘s daughter, Kaia, last June, and within three months, they were back to filming their reality show. Looking back on this time in their lives, Doute spoke to DECIDER about the toll those early days of parenthood took on her relationship with Broderick.

“It’s crazy watching that back because I feel like we’re just not speaking the same language,” Doute said during our recent Zoom call.

In the first six episodes of Season 3, Doute has opened up about her struggles with postpartum body dysmorphia and not feeling ready to engage in intimate acts just yet. Broderick, on the other hand, has been aggressively pushing to reignite their once-vibrant sex life, much to Doute’s disapproval.

Unsurprisingly, Doute has garnered the support of fans, many of whom have called out Broderick’s “immaturity” and “red flags” for seemingly prioritizing his sexual desires above his fianceé’s mental well-being as a new mom. However, the Vanderpump Rules alum shared an unpopular opinion, revealing that she’s been feeling more sympathy for Broderick now that she’s watching the season back.

“I was just so stuck in survival mode,” she told us. “It was like hormones, make sure the baby stays alive, we have two dogs, and then I’m trying to figure out who I am again, and I wanted to be social, and I really wanted to have dinner with my girlfriends, but I needed the push from everybody to sort of get me out there. Even with that, it was still really difficult.”

Doute said she wants the fans to give Broderick “a chance,” noting that there aren’t a lot of resources out there for first-time dads.

“I was going through more, okay? He was still going through a lot. So, I just want everyone to give him a little bit of a break,” she said. “This butting heads mentality that we have will not last the whole entire season. There will be some breakthroughs. And as anyone knows, as a first-time parent, it is a roller coaster. So, it is going to be up, down, up, down until we find our footing.”

The reality star said Broderick has been “very smartly staying off of social media” to avoid seeing the hate, which, according to Doute, has been mostly coming from moms who are “speaking from their own experience.” Doute said that while she “appreciates the support” and is “glad” she can feel seen and heard by these moms, she doesn’t want Broderick to “take it too personally,” especially since she knows how “tough” it is for him to bare his soul for an audience on national television.

“I feel like watching it back, what I can hear Luke trying to say is that he wanted our relationship back, and I think it was a lot more about that than it was about actually having sex, but didn’t come across that way to me in those moments,” she said. “But now I can see that a lot more clearly.”

While things have since improved within their relationship, Doute said she has “absolutely not” gotten back to wedding planning yet. “The baby just started crawling a couple of weeks ago. Now she’s standing, walking’s coming next. We still have to baby proof the house. We put her in her little, baby jail play area most of the time. That is my concern right now,” she said, though she revealed that they do have a wedding planner and a city they want to host the wedding in. “That’s as far as we’ve gotten, so that’s better than we were a year ago.”

The Valley airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.