Entertainment

Becca K. Opens Up After The Dramatic 'Bachelor' Finale & You Need To Read It

by Kristen Perrone

If there's anyone that America collectively wanted to hug during Monday night's Bachelor finale, it was Becca K. Although she accepted Arie's onscreen proposal in Peru, their relationship crumbled weeks after when Arie told her he wanted to explore the possibility of being with runner-up Lauren B. We have to wait until Tuesday's "After the Final Rose" to see Becca (and the wrath of every woman in Bachelor Nation) meet Arie again, but for now, Becca K.'s quotes about Arie are enough to break our hearts all over again.

Speaking to PEOPLE after Part 1 of the finale, the Minnesota publicist said that she doesn't hold Arie's decision against him. While she may have had to relive the painful breakup by watching it on live TV, the split happened a few months ago for Becca, so she's probably developed a calmer mindset about it since. Anything could happen on "After the Final Rose," but it looks like Becca still sees Arie in some good favor:

He's a good person, I don't think he's a monster and purposely did this to hurt me and make me feel this way. But it's just the results of his actions. At the end of the day, I don't think he thought through everything of how ending things with Lauren would be, how being engaged to me would be and what breaking up with me and going back to her would be. I don't think he thought it through, but I don't think he did it maliciously to break my heart.
ABC

A reality TV production team's decision-making is a mystery to me, but I would like to think it was producers' nudging that convinced Arie to conduct this breakup on camera. While the two's unedited conversation during the split hinted that Becca knew of Arie's hesitation about the engagement, it's safe to say that she was totally blindsided by the actual breakup. Even from the day of Arie's proposal in Peru, Becca had an inkling that his connection with her would win out in the end:

I just felt it in my heart. I just knew it was me — that him and I were going to be together. There were still nerves, but I never was too anxious or worked up about it because I just felt it was right with us.

We caught a glimpse of the two's post-engagement life in home video footage that showed them cuddling in a hammock and tossing pizza dough. It was probably a blissful few weeks of "I love that"'s and tours of Arie's cardigan collection. However, Becca hints that Arie avoided being honest about his feelings when it came to trying to move past Lauren.

I never thought for a million years that once the going started to get tough that he would throw in the towel and jump ship and say, 'Oh sorry, I changed my mind.' I didn't think we were at that point whatsoever. I wish he would have been more honest with me. From the questions I was asking, I would have appreciated the full truth. I was obviously blindsided like, Did I miss something? I was asking you these things and you didn’t tell me. What did I miss? How could I have not seen any of this to the extent of how it played out? At one point I asked him if he wanted to make it work with Lauren and his response was, ‘Yeah I want to try.’ So in that instance I knew.
ABC

As much as we may like to pretend that Bachelor relationships are immune to modern-day troubles, Becca shared that Arie liking Lauren's Instagram photos as the season began airing was a huge red flag.

I’m a girl, I’m a human being. There was still jealousy there. You’re engaged to me, why are you liking another person’s photos or still wanting to contact them? I wish he hadn’t proposed. At that point I loved him and I wanted to be with him. Even if on that last day, he said, ‘I’m still uncertain, this is a big move, I don’t want to get down on one knee unless I’m 1000 percent sure, but I still want to be with you,’ I would have been fine with that. I would have been like, ‘I love you, I still want to be with you.’

While Arie and Lauren's post-show relationship has yet to be clarified for audiences, Becca's reunion with them on "After the Final Rose" is destined to be awkward.

"After the Final Rose" airs on Tuesday, March 6, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.