Chrishell Stause Is Keeping Her 'Options Open' for Starting a Family: 'I Can Do It on My Own'

The Selling Sunset star spoke to PEOPLE exclusively ahead of the launch of her memoir, Under Construction, out Feb. 8

Photo: Shawn Ferjanec

Chrishelle Stause is excited to be a mom one day — with or without a partner in the picture.

The Selling Sunset star, 40 — whose memoir, Under Construction: Because Living My Best Life Took a Little Work, comes out February 8 — ended her relationship with ex Jason Oppenheim, 44, in December because of their differing opinions on starting a family: She wants kids. He doesn't.

"It's bittersweet," Stause tells PEOPLE of the reasoning behind the breakup in this week's issue, on newsstands Friday. "You can't talk out this problem. It's just something that, it is what it is." (The reality star was previously married to This Is Us actor Justin Hartley, but they never had children and split in 2019.)

"We'll see what happens with my future, but I definitely think that I'm keeping all my options open," she says. And that might mean creating a family on her own terms if she doesn't find the right partner.

"I would love for that to happen, but if it doesn't, I feel like I can do it on my own," she says. "That's something that seems scary, but it also seems a little freeing, knowing that I'm not tied down to this idea that I only have this finite amount of time to figure it out."

Stause says that she is still putting herself out there in hopes of finding a person to parent with, but admits, "I feel like it's one of those things where I'm giving myself a certain amount of time."

"It's 2022 and we have to kind of look at all options," she says. "I definitely have come around to the thought that, yes, I'm going to go and try and [find a partner], but if I don't find that, that's okay too."

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The real estate agent and former soap opera star has been reframing her idea of the perfect romance lately, too.

"My whole life, I had this idea of Cinderella — a guy sweeps you off your feet, you live happily ever after. But it's a new world out there and I've just decided we were all messed up a little bit by Cinderella. Sometimes you have to be your own fairy godmother."

Chrishell Stause/Instagram

She also promises to keep her fans updated along the way in hopes that they can relate to her journey.

"Having connected with so many people through the failures that I have had, it really does feel so much more obtainable when you have people that you feel like you're going through it with them," Stause says.

It's also the reason she decided to be so open in her book: "Nobody wants to hear criticism about their love life or their aging ovaries or whatever. I don't think it's something that I would've volunteered for, but now that I've found myself here and I'm embracing it, I think that it's helping me to just live out loud a little bit."

Under Construction: Because Living My Best Life Took a Little Work comes out February 8.