the thing is
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe thing isthe thing isEXPLAIN spoken used when you are going to explain something, give the reason for something, or give an opinion ‘It sounds like a good idea. Why don’t you invest?’ ‘Well, the thing is, I can’t afford to.’the thing is that The thing is that you can’t always judge your own work. → thingExamples from the Corpusthe thing is that• And the thing is that it was just crazy!