Over the weekend, Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker announced their engagement, marking the first time the eldest Kardashian-Jenner sibling will walk down the aisle. 

Following the news, many people’s first thoughts were of Scott Disick, who Kardashian dated on and off for over a decade, and with whom she shares her three children, Mason, Penelope and Reign. Since their final split in 2015, Disick has very publicly said he hopes to rekindle his romance with the mother of his children, with the most recent sign he’s still in love taking place via leaked Instagram DMs just a few months ago. 

Now, despite keeping an incredibly close relationship with the Kardashian-Jenners in recent years, and continuing to star on their reality TV show, Disick is taking space away from the family in order to process the engagement news and “make peace” with it. 

According to a source who spoke with People, Disick had never properly come to terms with Kardashian’s new relationship because he had assumed Kardashian and Barker would eventually break up. “Scott hasn’t really wanted to deal with Travis and Kourtney because he didn’t feel like he’d have to,” the source says. “At first, it seemed like it was just a casual relationship to him, nothing serious. So he pretty much put that on mute. Hasn’t been giving it too much brainpower, thinking that eventually, they’d break up.”

The source continues, “But that didn’t happen and now he’s being forced to deal with it, which is uncomfortable. He knows he has to lean into the discomfort and get past it. He understands that it’s not Kourtney’s job or Travis’s job to make him okay with this. It’s his job, and if he’s going to co-parent with Kourtney, which he has been, he has to process this and make his peace with it.”

Distancing himself from the family is a way for Disick to achieve that, they add. “It’s not about them, it’s not about Kourtney. It’s about him needing some time to process this and deal with it on his own, without them. He’ll come around soon.”

Earlier this week, another source told the publication that Disick is “not happy about the engagement” and had assumed he and Kardashian would eventually get back together. 

“Scott never approved of Kourtney dating Travis. He has struggled with their relationship,” the source said. “He always had this idea that he and Kourtney would eventually get back together. He was pretty shocked when he found out that she was dating Travis.”