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Doubling Down With the Derricos alum Deon Derrico is opening up about the aftermath of his split from ex-wife Karen Derrico.
“There was a breakdown at the point that I just told her that I didn’t want a relationship between [her] and I any longer,” Deon, 55, exclusively tells Us Weekly of his dynamic with Karen, 46, after their 2024 split, adding that they chose to coparent their 14 children under the same roof for two years following their divorce.
“We were trying to make it work for the children,” he recalls. “I know I was very dedicated and devoted to that. She appeared to be as well. But we were just having issues and, you know, financial issues, you could name it.”
Though Karen suggested that they try couples therapy to make their coparenting dynamic work, they continued to grow apart. Karen also allegedly pressed Deon on whether he was seeing another woman, which led to a transparent conversation between them.
“[She] just kept asking me that, saying, ‘I can handle it, tell me. I can handle it if it is.’ And I then just said, ‘Yes, my love interest does lie somewhere else, but I don’t want that to factor on you and I with the children,’” he recalls, noting that he’s had a “special friend” in his life for about a year. “And, of course, you know, she had her crying moment. It felt like a kumbaya moment. We were just really transparent. I told her it wasn’t her. We just grew apart. I’m not faulting anyone.”
Karen ultimately decided it was best for her to move out, according to Deon.
“I helped her move out, and that was on April 3, [2026],” he continues. “The very next day, I had discovered a series of untruths that she had been taking part in, and I addressed those issues with her. And everything rapidly declined.”
Though Deon thought he and Karen had been in a good spot, he says he could see “anger and hatred” in his ex after she moved out with seven of their kids.
“I just kept telling her, ‘Hey, look, I want peace.’ I’m a peaceful person by nature,” he explains, recalling a day where Karen allegedly wouldn’t let him visit with one of their sons in her care.
“I went by the house to pick up three boys that were in her care to cut their hair, and then when I brought them back to drop them off, I asked to see one of my sons. She declined me being able to see him, and I then said, ‘Don’t do this, don’t play this game. We’ve never done this before,’ which we hadn’t,” he recalls, adding that they had “always been supportive” of each other as parents despite calling it quits romantically.
The exes share kids Darian, 18, Derrick, 13, twins Denver and Dallas, 12, quintuplets Deniko, Dariz, Deonee, Daician and Daiten, 10, Diez and Dior, 6, and triplets Dawsyn, De’Aren and Dyver, 4.
“When she did that, I knew something was up,” he says of her alleged behavior, adding that Karen filed a temporary protective order against Deon the following day.
“After that happened, I couldn’t believe it, ’cause she had done threatening things to me and things that made me question even my life. I had even told my mother, on a couple occasions, maybe back in January, that if something happens to me, look at Karen, because that’s the level of anger and hatred I was feeling from her,” he claims, adding that as far as he was concerned, they were “on the same page” about their relationship.
“My daughters, they saw it too. They started sleeping in the room with me. So she and I were sleeping in separate rooms, and my daughter started staying in my room with me and locking the door,” Deon notes.
Us reached out to reps for Karen and TLC for comment.
Karen was recently arrested in Las Vegas and charged with harassment, violating a restraining order, preventing a witness from testifying through threat of violence and aggravated stalking, according to online records viewed by Us on Wednesday, June 24. Prosecutors accused her of sending emails to Deon in which she threatened to kill him and their children. She also allegedly tried to prevent Deon from attending a court hearing about a temporary protection order he requested.
Karen was arraigned on the felony charges on Tuesday, June 23, and pleaded not guilty.
“The allegations are completely false,”. “And we will prove they were completely fabricated by Mr. Derrico.”
“We are in the process of proving that these emails are crude forgeries by the supposed victim and never sent by my client,” her attorney Jess Marchese said in a statement to Us. “We have retained a forensic expert who is uncovering vast inconsistencies in the his story.”
Karen was released from custody on a $2,000 bond and outfitted with an ankle monitor. Her next hearing is scheduled for August 6.
Karen and Deon rose to fame on the TLC reality series Doubling Down With the Derricos, which documented the former couple’s life raising their 14 kids. The show ran for five seasons from 2020 to 2024.
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