The Break-Up Diet - The European Kid: Breakups in Big Cities

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

This week on The Break Up Diet, Yaz is in New York with Aris Yeager aka The European Kid for a very real, very honest conversation about breakups in big cities and why they somehow hurt more the older we get.Aris opens up about his worst breakup and why the ones from your teenage years do not even compare. We talk about how moving to a fast paced city like New York can completely shift your priorities, your relationships, and your sense of self. And like a lot of men, the heartbreak did not hit straight away. It crept in weeks later through the small things. Seeing something funny and instinctively wanting to text them. Reaching for your phone out of habit. Realising someone quietly became part of your everyday life.We get into modern dating in big cities, fake energy, surface level connections, and how social media makes it feel like there is always something better around the corner. Aris shares what it is like navigating relationships while having an online persona, why genuine people feel rarer than ever, and why closure actually matters when it comes to moving on.This episode is thoughtful, relatable, and very Break Up Diet coded. It is for anyone who has ever wondered why they are still hurting while their ex seems completely fine, or felt like a breakup is less about losing a person and more about losing a version of your life.Press play if you are healing, reflecting, or just want to feel a little less alone. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Buckle up, bitches. It's going to get bumpy. This is the breakup diet. Welcome back to another episode of the breakup diet. Today we have a very special guest, Eris Yeager. So we basically saw each other in Cassa Chifriani. We're in New York right now, so we're out of the comfort zone of the studio at home. But welcome to the breakup diet, Eris.

Thank you for having me. This is much overdue. I know you've been saying, we've been talking about doing it, but I've obviously been pushing it away because I don't want to talk about breakups. No, I feel like you're very busy. You're probably getting asked to do so many things. So thank you so much for coming on and doing it today. Of course.

So I'm going to throw you right in. How many breakups have you had? I would say today two, but almost like three. No, today. Today, today it's like two breakups. I almost like don't see. I feel like as you get older, they get more intense.

Like I feel like the breakups that I had when I was like in high school, I don't even count them. Yeah. It's like, yeah, as you get older, I feel like they just get more intense? Intense. Yeah. Really? I haven't heard that before because most people think like their first love and their first real breakup, like that is really hard. Well, I think actually it's how many years you have been dating someone. And yeah, I mean, I remember my first kind of breakup that I would associate it to was it was like,

I was still in college. I wasn't like, I almost, I kind of knew it was going to happen. So I guess maybe the breakups that you're not, like, you still don't really process because you still don't really believe that it's actually happening or the worst. Yeah. So, yeah. And what I find fascinating about breakups is just how like men and women like obviously differ from like how they process it. Yeah.

So what do you do? Like what happens? So honestly, like one year ago now. I went through like my worst breakup. Oh gosh. Yeah. Why? It was just like, it was just, was it bad?

Because you guys were like always together. So it was like very kind of like the same person and then splitting up like that. Yeah, it was like two years. And the thing is like obviously it was a breakup, but we got back together. Yeah. But it was two years. And I think what really pushed me to go through it was actually the impact. the influence of the city like New York yeah this fast-paced environment like sometimes like

makes you feel like you're always supposed to be doing something else and it makes you kind of um I mean in hindsight like I think it makes you not appreciate current things and situations that you have and you're always kind of like and it was a really big transition for me because I was studying in Boston and then I moved to New York doing my content start doing a startup and like this huge shift and with and this relationship that I had I it was basically almost like it was I had started it when I was in college yeah so you're just different you like grew up when you're going through like changes you're almost like oh I think like does this mean I need to change my relationship to like

adapt with this change I think that was the cause the cause of it yeah then it led to like this breakup and for me I didn't fully process it until weeks after that it happened. Yeah, that's what most people say that that's where men and women are so different. So for mine, my breakup with my ex was like maybe six months ago. And the first four months, I was devastated, whereas like it didn't even hit him until four months later and then he was sad. But the difference.

Four months a long time. I know. So first it was me crying like every single day, even though I knew what I was crying. I was going to say like a month max. No, mine was four months. And then I got a call crying up, like crying that I missed me. But it took four months. I was there like.

As soon as a breakup happens, I feel like women are processing it like day to day. Yeah. For me, it was like honestly a couple of weeks after. And I'm like, wow. Like it's just small things that you take for granted. Yeah. That like start accumulating. You realize like.

It's like a habit. As in like you see something funny and you're like, oh, I would text that person. But then you can't text that person. Exactly. I feel like those things like really get you and that's what's really hard about it. Yeah. I think what's also interesting when I started doing content, like obviously my life changed a lot because Did you, can I ask you a question about your content?

Did you blow up overnight or were you doing it for a long time and then they slowly kept going? It was like three years ago. Okay. It was in college. And it kind of happened like instantly like when I started posting the character like mocking like friends that I had. And then I realized like there was a lot of. of attention on me and there was a lot there's also inevitably you're going to get a lot of fake like

attention and like yeah it's just so funny like how I had a lot of people from like back home would always start texting me after like oh this like if people just treat no people will treat you differently like it's it's just it's how it is like it's the reality so obviously this makes you really like value having people that are close to you that are real with you like that breakup for me was it was so traumatizing because it was almost like I was cutting out the only person that was like real in my life oh gosh yeah so but you didn't realize that straight away it took a little bit and then you were like oh no what if I yeah because I started dating her right when I also created the character a real person that like started with me yeah before any of like the kind of

yeah the little fame not like it's like crazy fame but this little fame that you get from social media. Yeah, and I also feel like in America as well, I don't know, there's everywhere, but lots of people are very into social media and, like, going down those routes. So it must be hard to find genuine people. So, I think. There's so many fake people. Like, I mean, there's so many fake people everywhere. Yeah, that's true. New York City, like any big city, like New York, Miami, L.A., it's always prone to having, like, very artificial people. So important to be able to be wary of it. Yeah. How do you find, how do you like now, because obviously, you do have it.

So like, how do you actually find genuine and know that someone's genuine or you kind of just have to go with your gut and be like, oh. Well, for me, like, what are they prioritized? Like, if you are looking, my girlfriend is like actually the complete opposite of what I do. She's, she's in law. She's a lawyer. Doesn't have, like, more than 800 followers on Instagram. Okay.

And, like, just has different priorities, which I like. Yeah. kind of compliment like I wouldn't the reality is I actually wouldn't want to be dating someone who's like necessarily like a big influencer because I've actually seen a lot of the negative things I know a lot of the it looks glamorous but the reality is like it really isn't yeah there's a lot of misconceptions of like what that lifestyle is like and then obviously my closest friends are friends from from uni which I like just to surround myself people that are like inspiring, intelligent, really simple. Honestly, like, if they're, if they're pushing me and

like, and we're having good conversations that are like meaningful and. Interesting. I'll be so real with you. Like, we were at the Casa Chippriani party. Yeah. And it's like, you know, like you walk around. Like, I bump into so many people that I know. Like every person's like, you bump to them. Like, oh, like, I'm going with my friend. Like, I'll see you. I'll see you in a bit. Like, it's so good to see you. Like, no one's, no one has a. genuine conversation. Everyone's like, like, everyone's like constantly like on the next, like moving around. Like, I feel like it's, that's like so artificial. I feel like that is a world though now with social media as in because there's so many so much content. It's all trickled into like

dating and relationships too. That's why there's like everyone's switching up and they're always thinking is the grass greener. Yeah. Like we're looking at even every day, you're looking at how much stuff like how many different videos, how many different things. How many of your videos are coming up? Yeah, I know. Have you had any friendship breakup? So from friends, like, since you've, I don't know, become this character and have this whole, have you had to be like, okay, no. I feel like I have, yeah. Yeah.

It's, it's, it's, I've definitely like just stepped away, like, removed myself from certain, like, friendships. Did you ever get lost in, not lost, but did you ever not do that? Like when you first had, like, the bit of, like, fame and attention and all that. Did you ever not think like this or this is now because you've been like doing it for ages? No, I think I am like a very generous person. Like I remember like I would always try to like satisfy people and like it's great. But like obviously sometimes you're going to just get asked like so many things. I think for me like just my personality is like to be very generous.

Yeah, it's just hard to balance sometimes. Also in relationships, do you always feel like you're giving a lot? I feel like yeah, I am, yeah. So do you like to put up boundaries or not really? Like do you have there's, for you, are there some non-negotiables now, like to not give, give, give? I don't know, I haven't really thought about it. Sorry. But I will say, like, for me, like, if I was single right now, I've spoken about this before and it's a little controversial, but like I'm really not, I don't think I would ever date an American girl.

Okay, why? Because I just find, like, I grew up in a super international environment. So obviously I value like speaking multiple languages. I just really click more with like internationals that have gone through this like similar kind of like I grew up in Belgium. I went to an international school. Like I always moved around. And the values that I find that like and then it honestly go, I just truly believe like the values ingrained by like Europeans and like others that have like. lived in other parts of the world like just mostly American girls that I've I've I've

had like I've gone on dates with American girls like I've just never clicked with them not to say that they're all the same but like your experience I don't align in the values that they have like like for instance like hookup culture is so it's and like I experienced in the US like in Boston like I realize that's like this is crazy like that is it just you want hook up culture like You can go out and sleep with someone the same day. Like this is so like, to me that's so obscene. Like, growing. Wait two different people in the same day, you mean?

I mean. Or what? I'm sure you'll meet some American frat guy, yeah, that does that. But like, but the idea that like in Boston, like when I was sitting there, it's like, oh, you can go out and hook up with a girl and like first time and then never talk to her again. And I'm like, this is ingrained in the culture that's in the U.S., right? This is so like, this is so obscene. In Europe, like, especially, like, growing up with, like, I'm also part Greek.

And, like, this would never happen to, like, I mean, this is just not something that you find in Europe. It's not that comment. I don't know about London. I feel like London probably does have that a bit, but I haven't, like, not with any of my friends or mine. Like, my circles, no, not really. You don't hear of, like, as many one-night stands, I don't think. Yeah. That sort of thing.

But then there are situationships for the, but then there are situationships. They're not one night stands. They're like months that go down this like, you know. Have you had a situation ship breakup? That's like when you're, you know what a situation ship is, obviously. It's like you're dating, but you're not dating. Yeah, you're dating.

So it's a bit confusing. So like even if you have a breakup, you don't really have the right to be annoyed, but you're still normally really annoyed. I haven't really had a situation ship, to be honest. Yeah. Yeah, no. You're either a girlfriend or a single.

Yeah, pretty much. That's good, though. That's what you want to be. Yeah. And do you believe in closure? I do. Yeah? Yeah.

So you believe in having a conversation one last time to put cards on the tape? Yeah, I really do. I mean, I think communication is everything. Yeah. You can't. Like, there should be no reason to, like, elude something or, like, to not be, especially during a breakup, like, yeah, it's hard because you're obviously pushing away someone and it's like, inevitably it's going to be personal.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, what's your philosophy on talking after breaking up with someone? I think it's so important. So I didn't really have it off to mine, but then I did a few months later. And then I really felt like I could let go then because I got like, I didn't get gas lit anymore. It wasn't like, oh, I wasn't doing that because of that. It was like, no, you were right.

I did do that. And that was shitty. Like, so I actually, it was the best thing I did was go back to have a conversation. because before that I was like hurt and angry. It was like after that, I wasn't, you know? Yeah. So I think closure is really important. But I think people get mistaken with wanting closure because they want their ex back.

That's where I think it gets a bit funny. Like I don't think you should be going into a conversation like that if your idea is not to get answers is to like win them back. Yeah. No, definitely. So that's why I asked if it was happy or sad because like I couldn't listen to sad. music if I'm sad because I'll just cry too much. But it's almost like, yeah, it's honestly a mix. Like I was listening to a lot of jungle.

I was listening to, I listened to like even rap, all kinds of different emotions. Depends what phase you're in. Yeah. Have you ever regarded anything you've done after a breakup? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Most people, yeah. Many things, yeah.

I didn't. The reality is that like the most important. thing when you do when you have a breakup is is time to really digest like how you feel and don't act out of um like i yeah like i did a lot of things that obviously i regret i mean i didn't go and sleep with someone like but like because i mean obviously people do that like people will like really lose sight of like good judgment and there can be like a lot of animosity and with that animosity turns into, yeah, spites. Yeah.

So it's difficult. It's really hard to navigate, actually, because also there's two people and people handle it so differently. So my experience, like, my ex and I were completely opposite. Like, he went out and slept with somebody so fast. There's all this. I heard about it because you always find out. Yeah.

There's so many people. Whereas, like, I was there, like, cry and get home alone for four months. Like, didn't even want to go on a date or anything. So it's like the complete opposite. I mean, it's shocking. like. But to be fair, neither way, okay, yeah, him doing that isn't nice, right, for me. But either way, you're not together. So then you have to kind of be like, if as long as it's not on your face, but it's still hurt and it's still really bad. And I don't wish anyone to have that. But you can't really say anything either. I mean, I did say something that you shouldn't really like. Have you ever had your heartbroken? Like, as in have you got dumped? Is what I mean? Or have you done? Do you think that's easier? to be dumped or be the dumper? That's such an interesting one,

because I really can't actually like fathom that. Not to sound like pretentious, but I think it would be easier for me. To do the dumping. To get dumped. Yeah. Because like then I can, I'm more like if someone, if someone tells me like, okay, I don't want to, it's like, okay, that's, I feel bad that you don't recognize that. like for me I deal with so much hate right like in social media like if I if I didn't realize like

the the tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of comments of people like being like oh this guy is like what a pretentious guy like I would have never like continued my account yeah but the reality is like I know myself enough to be like this guy's like I love acting like it's a joke like so I think I'm pretty like in tune I feel yeah I feel like I can cope with it more yeah than letting someone down. I feel like if I break up someone I'm letting them down. I've not broken up with somebody. My ex great guy, but like we weren't right. But then I wasn't happy and he obviously wasn't happy. But it was so hard. I could never have done it. So I had to wait for him to basically do it because I just was second guessing myself the whole time and thinking, oh maybe I'm

being funny. You know what I mean? And it's honestly the hardest thing is breaking up with a nice person. Exactly. Like if something happens, like if somebody cheats or something like this happens, at least you have a reason, you know, do that. Whereas like, if they're a nice person but they're just not right, I think that's honestly the hardest. Definitely. Definitely. Okay, I want to ask you more about your character. Yeah. Okay, so we've talked about your breakups. I want to know about you as a character and, you know, how you're meeting people, because you must have the fans come up to you and then, they realize you're not actually like that. Is that weird?

Like they're breaking up with the idea of who they think you are, but you're not like that? Or do you sometimes like play into it? Yeah, no, I mean, everyone that, obviously I deal with it all the time. Like people come up to me and they're like, wait, what? Your accent's not as like.

Oh yeah, because you have an accent as well, don't you? I do the French accents. Like, but. Why French? Because aren't you Greek? Yeah, but I grew up in Belgium. So I speak French. And I mean, I just stumbled upon.

that character like it was kind of a joke like yeah and then it just turned into it just yeah it just turned into this whole like brand so I have to maintain it yeah do you like acting is that how come you got into it I love acting yeah that's really like yeah something you want to do like more and more um I mean I really look at it more for fun because I'm so what I spend most of my time on is like a startup that I have it's called story time I don't I feel like I was telling you about it. You can say it on here. I created like a marketplace that allows creators to instantly see offers at all these different local spots.

So basically like it's I kind of, I created it for myself as an issue that I noticed. Well, not an issue, but like I was like, hey, like if I'm going to join the juice every day, I should be able to get like a free sandwich in exchange for posting a story tying the business. Like a super simple exchange. And I was like, why isn't this like kind of market. Why isn't there more of a marketplace that does this? So I just created that. And then like now I'm working with like hundreds of businesses in New York.

Do you have to have like a sudden amount of followers to be able to do it or how does it work? Yeah. But it's more like based off your local reach. So you basically connect it with your IG account. And then from there we can see, okay, like you have 500 people that are going to see your story in New York. Like you can qualify for five, 10 bucks like like small values, but like things that we do every day, which we're already probably like you're maybe you're taking a foot of a match. sharing your story. So it's just like, why not get that much for free?

Yeah. So like super simple. Is it only in the US at the moment? Are you going? Only in New York looking to scale it into Miami next. So it's going well? It's going really well. When I met you at the first, was it you just started?

It was very much still getting started. Yeah. Now we're like launched. We work with like Joe and the Juice, matchaful, oakberry, like a lot of big chains. And yeah, getting ready to scale. scale it. That's exciting. Are you happy with it? Yeah. I'm super content with that. I love

I love entrepreneurship. So it's exciting being able to also build on the creator space. And also you are a creator so you can understand it. That's like a big part of the selling point. Yeah. Okay. Can I ask you one more dating kind of question? Yeah. Ask.

What is your, do you have anything like X that you talk about maybe with your friends? Because I'm mostly female audience, right? I'm like 90% female So the girls want to know What's an ick for boys? I would say just like If I think of an ick I just I really go to like

I think of like the Casa Chip crowd right Where it's like some of these girls Like they're in the entrance Everyone before they get in They don't acknowledge anybody They're just like in line Like trying to like Like I don't know

Like these like model type of girlies Like which obviously like are super full of themselves, they give me the biggest ick. Fair. Because I'm like, if someone's like super full of themselves, like, it's just, for me, it's instantly like, okay, like. That isn't it? You obviously get a lot of attention, but you're probably getting a lot of attention

from the wrong people. And typical influencer girl of what you think about. Yeah, like, yeah. Model girlies and like, and honestly, like, it's funny because, like, I have a marketplace now. Like, Storytime has like, thousands. of creators and a lot of them are on my platform and sometimes I'll meet super sweet people and sometimes I'll meet very obnoxious people which are just like like oh like they were they didn't allow me to sit down because they're fully booked and and then they send like a they create a bad

review on the play I'm like why are you acting so entitled like yeah so honestly it's so ironic because I play such an entitled character but an entitled girl you're like no really is something that I'm not into. And I will say like also, I also love like when a girl speaks multiple languages. Yeah, fair. That's nice. You said that at the very start. So that's the thing. How many languages do you speak? I speak four. Okay, fine. I was going to say if you only have one, you can't say that. I'll be so hypocritical. What do you speak French? I grew up speaking, yeah, English, Greek, French, and I speak Spanish also. And a little bit of Portuguese. Okay, there we go, lots.

Yeah. Is it true that every language gets easier? Like, as in you pick it out faster? Well, the base for like French and Spanish is Latin, so it's like pretty similar. It helps, but yeah, over time it does get easier. So do you think that's like breakups do? Every breakup gets a little bit easier now? I think breakups will never get easier.

Yeah, they're always hard. Yeah, and I think it's necessary. Like, for me, like the emotions that you feel like during a breakup or at least what I felt are the same emotions of like someone almost like passing it is there's a lot of grief associated to it and that's so fascinating that like so complex because you're mourning somebody that's alive yeah so it's not like you know when somebody dies they're obviously this is so more when you dies they're just gone you know whereas like you're constantly reminded whether it be like a friend of a friend post something that you see whether you you know what I mean

it's like they're there but they're not there and anymore. It's weird. Yeah, no, it's a, it's a interesting conundrum. Well, thank you so much for coming on the breakup diet. My pleasure. And sharing all your insights and, you know, your character, story time. It was great. This is a, this is a, was it not as bad as you thought it's going to be. I enjoyed it, honestly. It's, it's a fascinating topic. And I think everyone goes through it. Like, there's no point in, I think it's important to be open and, and talk about it.