Pleasantly surprised? Though Jana Kramer’s romance with Ian Schinelli has grown stronger since the duo took their relationship public earlier this month, she was initially wary if her new man was too good to be true.
“He has a nice body,” the “I Got the Boy” songstress, 38, commented about the former Navy SEAL, 36, during a Monday, January 17, episode of her “Whine Down” podcast. “A lot of people call him Captain America, like, his friends.”
Kramer, who debuted their romance via Instagram on January 11, went on to gush over his physique and personality.
“In the very beginning when I met him, I was like, ‘OK, he’s handsome. He’s got a body to die for. He’s a freaking Navy SEAL. He’s charming. He’s nice. He’s kind. He’s got a daughter. He’s a dad,'” she jokingly told her podcast cohosts. “And I’m like, ‘I bet you he has a small penis.’ That’s it. Something has to be wrong with him.”
The One Tree Hill alum was seemingly mistaken, noting, “I will say that it’s very nice.”
Kramer and the businessman — he currently works in private equity — initially connected during a party late last year.
“I go to the party and I see this guy in an orange shirt and I was like, ‘Oh man, he is cute, but obviously, he’s probably married.’ I don’t really pay much attention to it,” the Soccer Mom Madam star explained of attending the October 2021 event. “But long story short, Andrew [East, who’s married to Olympian Shawn Johnson] came over to me and was like, ‘Hey, there’s a guy here I want you to meet.’”
She continued: “I’m like, ‘We’re at a 2-year-old kid’s party, like what are you doing? Like, please don’t try and set me up right now.’ And he’s like, ‘No seriously, he’s a really good dude, he’s the guy in the orange shirt.’ And I was like, ‘Shut up, I’ve been staring at him this entire time.’ And then we ended up meeting and that’s how we met. The rest is history.”
Schinelli, for his part, is a good friend of the “Couple Things” podcast cohost, 30, and the two men often workout together.
The Holiday Fix Up actress first confirmed her budding romance with the single dad — he has a daughter from a previous relationship — on January 11 after the pair fueled dating speculation.
“Sometimes you just have to stop fighting it and listen to your heart,” the Lifetime actress wrote via Instagram at the time. “I don’t know what the future holds and honestly who does … Everyday [sic] I continue to heal and I know there is still lots of work to do, but damn it feels really nice to find happiness along the way. To find someone who doesn’t look at your scars as a challenge or problem but rather helps you hold them and stands there to encourage you with love, strength and empathy along the way.”
The pair’s romance has continued to develop after they first connected that October evening.
“We just have a lot of fun together, and he pushes me to just stretch my limits on things,” Kramer added of her beau, calling him a “normal dude” during Monday’s episode. “It just feels really nice. … I was scared to post [their romance] because I don’t want to be embarrassed. I don’t want the same history to repeat itself. From what I see, he’s an honest man.”
The Michigan native’s new romance comes less than a year after her divorce from Mike Caussin was finalized. The exes — who share daughter Jolie, 5, and son Jace, 3 — first announced their split in April 2021. Their divorce was finalized that July.