'The past is in the past.'
Vienna Girardi hasn't spoken to her ex in nearly a decade.
ET's Lauren Zima recently caught up with the Bachelor alum, who got engaged to Jake Pavelka during the 2010 season of the reality dating series.
The former couple called it quits in June of that year and sat down for an explosive post-split interview with host Chris Harrison that aired the next month. The now infamous interaction -- in which Girardi called Pavelka "a fame whore," Pavelka said he was "disgusted" with her, and Girardi left the set in a flurry mid-interview -- was the last time they spoke.
"Ten years ago when we were on that bench," Girardi tells ET of her final conversation with the pilot.
Despite their tumultuous courtship and resulting breakup, Girardi says she wishes Pavelka "the best."
"I don't hold any grudges," she insists. "The past is in the past and I don’t hold any hard feelings for him anymore."
While Girardi has moved on with her post-Bachelor life -- she and her boyfriend recently celebrated their two-year anniversary with an "amazing" two-week-long European vacation -- she still finds it difficult to watch the franchise today.
"I can't [watch it]," she says. "I never watched them before. People always ask me, 'Who do you think is gonna win?' I'm like, 'I don't even know who the Bachelor is right now.'"
Due to her separation from the franchise, Girardi was surprised to learn that another pilot, Peter Weber, would be taking on the lead role next season.
"I think anything can be better than the first pilot," she says of the advice she'd give Weber. "It's terrible to say. I probably shouldn't say that."
As for any tips for the women who've signed up to appear on the show, Girardi, who was 22 when she was on the series, urges, "If you're young, I would say wait and probably watch the show first before you go on it. Study a little bit. I should have done that too."
"I think our early 20s is a little too soon for most people. So I would’ve waited. I would've waited a little bit," she says. "The girls kinda shamed me for being the young one on the show. I got hated on by the girls because I was the young college girl... I had actually never even watched the show, so I had no clue what I was getting into when I went on."
See more on The Bachelor in the video below.
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