Chase Grzegorczyk and Asha Zapf, who made up the couple dubbed "Chasha" on Our Family Nest, have broken up after almost six years of dating. Our Family Nest is a family vlogging channel run by Candi Grzegorczyk that documents the lives of her, her husband, Ken, and their four children - Andrew, Blake, Chase, and Karli. The channel attained high success during its early years when the kids were younger and built up a following of 1 million subscribers. During the height of the channel, Candi attracted viewers by publicly sharing Chase's high school relationship with his girlfriend Asha.
The two went to school together and had "dated" for a week in 7th grade, but didn't officially start a relationship until they were 14 and Freshmen in high school. The pair announced their relationship on May 26, 2017, on an Our Family Nest video titled "Guess Who's Back Together?" that racked up over a million views. Almost immediately, the relationship name Chasha arose and fans become enamored by the innocent, young love story of Chase and Asha. From then on, the pair were nearly inseparable. Their dates, school dances, and outings together were so popular with viewers that Candi created a Chasha playlist which grew to include 105 videos of the couple.
There were early concerns about the relationship getting too serious for how young they were. Viewers were shocked when Candi revealed that Asha moved in and quarantined with the family during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, she was basically living with Chase when they were just 16 years old. Meanwhile, the two further concerned fans when they announced that they were moving in together straight out of high school. They moved into a rental house the week after graduation and opted not to get jobs or go to college, hoping they could live off Chase's YouTube fame from OFN and their fledgling couples channel, Chase and Asha. The pair brushed off any concerns about their impulsive decision and insisted that they had everything figured out and would get married one day.
Asha announces her and Chase's breakup
Starting around the holidays, viewers became suspicious about the status of Chase and Asha's relationship. Trouble seemed to have begun sometime around Chase's 20th birthday. The pair were seen in OFN's birthday vlog of Chase, where Asha could be seen being distant from Chase. Despite previously having spent around $1,000 on Chase's birthday/Christmas gifts, she revealed that she didn't get him anything, deciding to go in with Candi and Ken on an iPad for Chase, even though they had more than enough money and would've gotten it for Chase regardless of Asha's contribution. Asha was also spotted looking at her phone while the family sang "Happy Birthday" to Chase and later mimicked and mocked him while he was opening his gift from Candi and Ken.
That was the last time the pair was seen together. After that, Asha abruptly took a nearly month-long break from social, including YouTube and Instagram. While she confirmed the break up she didn't explain the reason for it. Meanwhile, OFN started making hints that the couple might not be together anymore. This included Candi mentioning wrapping presents for the four kids, plus Blake's and Karli's significant others, but made no mention of Asha. Meanwhile, in a cookie-baking video, Chase could be heard talking in the background, but Candi only mentioned Blake visiting, making it seem they were trying to hide the fact that Chase moved back home.
Asha returned to YouTube a few days before Christmas to state she was back from her break and that things were "crazy." She made no mention of Chase, but did mention being away from home for a while and filmed herself seemingly clearing his things from the bathroom. Days later, she uploaded a "What I Got for Christmas" video and mentioned Chase giving her a few books in November, but didn't share any actual Christmas gifts from him or his family. She was also absent from OFN's Christmas morning vlog.
Unable to hide it anymore, Asha finally posted a video on December 29, 2022, titled "We broke up." In the video, she confirmed that they broke up at the end of November and that Chase moved out. She refused to give the reason for it but mentioned that the pressure of YouTube and Chase's desire to stay off it may have played a role in the decision. She also insisted that no infidelity took place and confirmed she wouldn't be sharing details of what happened.
The problem with Chase's and Asha's relationship
Ultimately, it is unclear why the pair broke up due to their refusal to share the details. However, the pair seemed to be heading for trouble for a while. The fact that they moved in together straight out of high school concerned both viewers and their own families (as they hinted in videos). It didn't take long for viewers to notice that Chase isolated himself and became extremely introverted after beginning to date Asha. He slowly went from an outgoing kid to a withdrawn adult who rarely left the house. Even his family commented on how he "never went anywhere ever" and made him make his own phone calls to get his car fixed up after an accident, just to push him to talk to other people.
His situation only seemed to worsen when Asha began planning for them to move in together. Chase didn't seem to be behind the idea, but Asha went ahead and used family connections to get a rental deal on a house. In Q&A videos she later said that Chase "had" to move in with her because, otherwise, he would be visiting too often. She also seemed to decide for them that their sole income would be a couple's channel on YouTube, despite Chase already having grown up his whole life on camera and not being enthusiastic about YouTube. He rarely updated the channel after moving in with Asha and was often spotted looking upset, nervous, and uncomfortable on camera afterward. Chase also posted on social media about having to learn to deal with "boredom" and often seemed to sleep in and play video games all day while waiting for Asha to come home.
While Chase seemed unprepared to move out and very homesick, unmotivated, and isolated, he also seemed to be a burden to Asha. She paid rent while Chase paid the smaller bills and took it upon herself to do the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and all the work for both their channels. She had insisted in high school that she wasn't going to college, which quickly led Chase to give up the idea, too. However, after several months of living together, she changed her mind and attended community college, then university, while also holding jobs outside of YouTube sporadically. Despite living a life outside of YouTube, she continued to insist that Chase's "job" was YouTube and seemed to deter him from finding a real one.
Did Asha break up with Chase?
Despite the odd dynamics between the two, such as Chase being concerningly isolated and Asha taking on the financial and household burdens, the two continued to insist that everything was perfect and that they "loved living together." Hence, the shock when it was revealed that the two broke up. While the ultimate reason for the breakup is unknown, there have been hints that Asha was the one who did the breaking up. For one, she was the first to delete all of her photos with Chase on Instagram, remove his name from her Instagram bio, and post a video addressing the breakup. Meanwhile, Chase went dark, initially deleting every photo on Instagram, changing his photo to black, and requesting his parents not to speak about the breakup at all.
It was also easy to see that Chase lost more in the breakup than Asha. Asha revealed that she kept the house while Chase moved back home and kept Milo for herself, the dog she and Chase had shared. Shortly after announcing the breakup, Asha started posting on social media regularly again, posting TikToks, bikini photos, and revealing she had gone on vacation to Universal Studios and got more tattoos immediately after the breakup.
Meanwhile, Chase remained silent, but his family's cryptic comments raised concern. Candi started hinting about having "lots to say" and having "feelings and opinions" about the breakup and feeling frustrated at not being able to express them due to Chase's desires.
Many also suspected she was throwing shade at Asha after she posted this Instagram Story and unfollowed Asha on Instagram, despite having previously claimed that Asha would always be like a daughter to her, even if she and Chase broke up.
Candi also replied in the affirmative to a comment that suggested "feed that body to the pigs!" It's unclear if she was just trying to emphasize her label as "mama bear" or if it was another bit of shade directed at Asha.
Also, in his Kicking it With Ken series, Chase's father briefly mentioned Chase and hinted he may have been seeing a therapist after the breakup. He also mentioned that Chase had been having some "breakthroughs" recently. One of these breakthroughs may have been that Chase noticeably returned to social media, unfollowing Asha and uploading a profile picture and several photos to Instagram again. However, the term "breakthrough" made it seem like he was in very bad shape before. Candi and Ken have also made other comments about having conversations with and needing to be there for Chase, as well as struggling with raising adult kids. While everyone heals differently, the extremely different responses from Chase and Asha seem to suggest that Asha was more for the breakup than Chase was.
While neither Chase nor Asha is obligated to stay together, they definitely seemed to be much more pained by the break-up due to how public it was, with Candi having documented every minute of it on Our Family Nest's channel and thousands of fans believing they were the "dream couple." Plus, Candi and Ken's failure to push Chase to find a career or attend college also contributed to him making Asha the only priority in his life. Hopefully, both Chase and Asha will learn to lead a more private life away from the pressures of social media as they heal from their broken relationship.
Comments