Exclusive Interview
‘Southern Hospitality’s Justin Assada Reflects on Brief Maren Morris Romance
What To Know
- Southern Hospitality star Justin Assada briefly dated Maren Morris in 2024.
- In an interview with Swooon, he shares his thoughts on the singer now and admits he took their relationship ‘for granted.’
- Assada also says Morris sent him demos of music she made with Jack Antonoff while they were together.
Before Justin Assada came to Bravo’s Southern Hospitality as a new cast member in Season 4, he had a brief romance with Maren Morris. The two were linked in August of that year when he posted a photo of her on his Instagram Story captioned, “Scary movies + Sushi.”
Things seemingly fizzled out fairly quickly, as Justin moved to Australia for another girlfriend shortly after that. However, he tells Swooon that he has nothing but fond memories of his romance with the singer.
“Me and Maren dated for a little bit,” Justin confirms. “She’s a wonderful woman, very intelligent, very talented. I think at the time, I was 26, 27 years old, probably took it for granted and was kind of an idiot about it.”
Joking about the Instagram Story that had everyone buzzing about their relationship, Justin adds, “I said it before, and I’ll say it again … I gotta not post Instagram Stories when I’m drunk.”
While he says their time together was short, he admits, “It was an honor just to get to call her someone that I could hold close. She was great.” He also says he hasn’t listened to her 2025 album Dreamsicle, so he doesn’t know if any of the songs are about him.
However, when they were together, Maren “was sending me demos before it came out,” he says. “She’s crazy talented.”
Justin is no stranger to having his love life in the spotlight. He was previously a cast member on Season 2 of Perfect Match in 2024, before the fling with Maren. On the show, Justin formed a connection with Elys Hutchinson, but she ended up dumping him and matching with Bryton Constantin instead.
Now, Justin is continuing to date on television as a Southern Hospitality cast member. So far this season, we’ve seen him hang out with Molly Moore and take her roommate Jordyn to a party. Coming up, though, he’ll be pursuing a romance with the newly-single Mia Alario.
Southern Hospitality, Season 4, Wednesdays, 9/8c, Bravo
