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Deon Derrico is shedding more light on his surprising split from Karen Derrico. 

The stars of TLC’s Doubling Down With the Derricos shocked fans in July 2024 when they announced that they had divorced after nearly 20 years of marriage. While it’s been more than a year since their breakup, neither Deon nor his ex are rushing into new relationships, he says. 

‘Doubling Down With the Derricos’ discusses the logistics of dating with 14 kids 

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Deon was recently a guest on the November 20 episode of The Sarah Fraser Show, where he shared that both he and Karen were still single. 

“At this point, we are just working it out as a family collectively. No, I’m not dating. She’s not dating,” he said. 

Deon and Karen have 14 kids, including a set of quintuplets, triplets, two sets of twins, and two singletons. Bringing new partners into the mix is something they want to approach with caution and care, he said. 

“We’ve talked about how would that look, because our biggest concern is our children,” he said. “It’s a unique, complicated, different, esoteric – I can’t think of enough words to describe it – because of the 14 children.” 

Deon Derrico opens up about the breaking point in his marriage to Karen Derrico 

Deon and Karen divorced after filming wrapped on Doubling Down With the Derricos Season 5. He’s since shared that their reality show won’t return for a sixth season on TLC. However, they do intend to move forward with a new show on another network. Those episodes will address the divorce.  

“You will see it all unravel … I really want you guys to understand how this happened,” he said.

Deon added that infidelity was not the reason for the split. Rather, he and Karen were no longer in sync on some important issues, including how to parent their children. 

“The [final] straw for me was the whole thing with Darian and her schooling. That was the starting point for me,” Deon explained. 

At the time, Darian was considering her college plans. Her mother was pressuring her to apply to NYU, but the teen wasn’t fully on board with that plan, Deon says. (Viewers saw the drama regarding Darian’s college applications play out in season 5 of Doubling Down With the Derricos.)   

“I support anything our children want to do,” Deon said. “But it should be their choice … that’s where Karen and I didn’t see eye-to-eye. And we had some very contentious moments.” 

“Darian felt pushed [to apply to NYU],” Deon claimed. “And Darian came to me and confided in me.” 

That led to a conflict with Karen and a situation where Darian felt caught between her parents, Deon explained. 

“It was a big struggle for me to get past that,” he said.

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