Jana Kramer has taken jobs that challenged her 'moral compass' to pay for child support

Fox News

2 days ago

Jana Kramer has some regrets about her career choices, but as the sole provider for her children, the country star says she's done what she needed to do to take care of them.
"I mean there's definitely some things, some ads that I'm like, 'Oh, I wish I could have gone back and maybe not done that ad,' but you know, you learn and you go back and you go, 'All right, I'm not gonna do that one again,' you know? So sometimes when you gotta pay that child support check, it's just like, 'Well, this is a good check money. I'm gonna take this," the country star told Fox News Digital during a joint interview with Jessie James Decker about their first song collaboration, "Do It in Heels."
After Decker asked Kramer if she was talking about the "vibrator" commercial, they both cracked up and Decker told her, "It's OK, honestly it is what it is."
Kramer continued, laughing, "I'm not gonna do it again, like you know what I mean? Like I'm like, OK, I'm good now, like, you know? Like we're good, we're leveling up to a different [place], you know?"
She elaborated that she has to pay child support checks to ex-husband Mike Caussin, and "I am a sole provider, where I have a lot of pressure on my shoulders to provide for my kids. And so I think that piece of it sometimes outweighs my moral compass."
Kramer has primary custody of her two children with Caussin: Jolie, 9, and Jace, 6. She also shares son Roman, 1, with her current husband, Allan Russell.
"There's nothing wrong with it. You're good," Decker interjected, before Kramer added, "We could be on OnlyFans, but we're not, right? So, you know what I mean? There's a level where I don't want to go to."
Kramer and Decker's new single "Do It in Heels" will release on Friday, and the "One Tree Hill" actress told Fox News Digital that when she started writing it two years ago, she wanted to do a "girl anthem" that was "up-tempo" and "fun."
"I'm so sick and tired of the like, 'He hurt me, he cheated on me,' like I'm over that era of my life and like I wanna just, I want fun and so like I want to write just a girl anthem."
She said while she was writing the song, she knew she wanted another woman to collaborate on it.
"And the only person I had in mind the entire time was Jessie, because I'm like, she's such a girl's girl," Kramer said. "We've been friends for years."
Kramer said she knew Decker "would sound killer on this song, but it was one of those things where it's like, because we're friends, I almost didn't – I'm like, 'I don't know if she would want to do that.' It's like she's, you know, like what if she doesn't like the song? And then it's like that weird, awkward thing because we are friends, you know?"
She continued, "Like if she hates it, and it's like, how does she let me down easy? And so, 'cause I'm still, you know, semi-insecure with my music and stuff."
But she said she just decided to ask Decker anyway, "And girl, you were like, 'I love it. Let's do it.' I'm, like, 'Wait, really?'"
Decker said, "I was like, I'm down. Let's do it. It was great, it was catchy. I loved everything about it, and I related to it. And I was, like, 'I would love to do this with you.'"
Kramer said when she and Decker first became friends years ago, it felt like the industry wanted them to have a "rivalry."
"I instantly loved you," Decker said. "I remember not knowing if you liked me in the beginning."
Kramer agreed that there's a lot of competition between female country stars "in general," and they both thought the other was more beautiful and talented, which she said led to a "rival friendliness."
Finally, they met up at a party, and Kramer asked her: "'Do you not like me?' And you're like, 'No, I like you.' I was, 'Well, I like you, too.'"
"And that was it," they both agreed, adding that it felt like people around them had tried to promote a rivalry.
"Once we met and talked, it was like 'Did we just become best friends?'" Decker said.
Decker said one of her favorite things about Kramer is how much she "loves love, she is such a lovely girl."
"What's happened to her has been very traumatic," Decker added of Kramer's ex-husband's infidelity. "And it shows you how strong of a person she is. She is so unbelievably strong, but it also shows you that she loves more than she wants to sit and be sad. She didn't give up. And because of that, she has found the man of her dreams. She is the happiest I have ever seen her."
Kramer added that her past marriages and her current one have taught her what she's worth.
"Before I would let things go because of the family aspect," she admitted, but now… I found an incredibly respectful, loving man. And so it's always been my work along the way."
She added that as long she continues to do the "work and heal and grow, then, you know, and I have a respectful man by my side, it's going to be always light years different."
Going back to "Do It in Heels," Decker said she wants people to "feel good" while listening to the song, like the way they did while recording it.
She said, "I think sometimes women can be so hard on themselves that 'I should be doing this more, I should be mothering more, should be working more.' But I think you've got to sit back and really listen to the message of this song. Which is 'I'm doing it, and I'm doing it well, and doing it in heels.'"
"Do It in Heels" is out now.