The reality star has one major regret from his time on the beach.
Jacob is opening up about his Bachelor in Paradise romance. In an interview with ET, the reality star revealed that he has one regret about his time on the beach -- and gave an update on where he and his ex, Jill, stand today.
Jacob and Jill had an unforgettable naked date before the big split, and their connection was initially as strong as it appeared to be to viewers, Jacob said.
"Jill gets me in a lot of ways. That's what the viewers can see. We're goofy. We're fun. We're born a day apart. We have a lot of resemblance with each other and a lot of fun," Jacob told ET. "That date that we went on was probably the best first date I've ever been on in my life. To be howling at the moon with a shaman, naked in a bathtub, is unmatched. So up to that point, Jill and I's relationship is really good. It's pretty deep, and it was fun. It was definitely a fun time."
The night they got back from their date, though, Jill's foe, Kira, returned to the beach and asked Jacob for a second chance.
"That was a huge shock to me," Jacob said of Kira's surprise return. "I didn't think anybody could come back to the beach after being eliminated. She wanted closure."
Jacob gave her that, so much so that he got criticism online for what appeared to be a prolonged conversation.
"To be honest, after what happened with me and Gabby back on The Bachelorette, I was going to hear Kira out and see what she wanted to say and understand where she's coming from first," Jacob said, alluding to when he told Gabby that he didn't plan to pursue her on the show. "So that's where I didn't want anybody to think that I'm talking to her too long."
Then, the big split happened, as the show forced the women off the beach and sent five new ladies into Paradise.
"Prior to the split, we didn't have any time to talk with each other. So Jill and I had no time to communicate and say, 'Hey, look, if you want to go and talk to other people, and I want to go talk to people, and we have a better relationship with those people, then we can pursue that,'" Jacob explained. "[Host] Jesse [Palmer] came in and said, 'All right, ladies, you have to get off this property. You have to go to the other one,' and it was left like that."
Jacob said that the situation was "sad in the moment," but said that, already at that point, he didn't think Jill was "my soulmate that I'm going to get engaged to."
"We'd only been talking for two, maybe three days at the time," he revealed. "So it was very early in our relationship to where I could say that we were a full-blown couple. But ultimately, I look back and say, dang... Jill got me in a lot of ways."
With Jill out of sight, Jacob turned his attention to Kate, one of the new arrivals.
"Kate is super bubbly, fun. She works with Selling Sunset, that group. She's a go-getter type of person, very cute individual. It's just a breath of fresh air," Jacob said. "... That's what initially intrigued me with her. She even said herself, she's not typically into guys like me, younger, look like they're from a Marvel movie type of guy, which I thought was a compliment."
Despite several hot and heavy make-out sessions, Jacob ultimately decided that he and Kate would "probably not" last forever. So when she turned her attention to Logan, Jacob was not surprised.
"When she told me that she was feeling Logan more, I completely understood in that moment," he recalled. "I said, 'Logan's my best friend on this beach. You're my friend. I want the best for you. I want the best for Logan. I want the best for myself. But at this point, if you're not feeling me, then, girl, you go do your thing.'"
Even though things didn't work out with Kate, Jacob was still committed to ending things with Jill. Once Jill returned to the beach, the pair had an emotional conversation, during which she revealed that she hadn't made any other connections during her week away.
"That was hard, to hear that she didn't really have any connections with any of the other guys... Hearing that, it just hurts my heart, and I don't want to hurt Jill in any way," Jacob told ET. "I am the person to not lead you on, to tell you that, 'Well, if you're not my soulmate, then we probably shouldn't be together.'"
Still, Jacob isn't sure if he made the right choice in ending things with Jill when he did.
"If I had one regret from the show, that was one my one regret, was I wish I had actually taken more time to see if there was something stronger with Jill later on," he said. "Because in that same case, we don't have to go and get engaged. We can still end this as just a couple and see what happens from there. I was thinking, if it's not my soulmate, then it's over."
It seems like Jill -- who, while she was driven away from the beach, said of Jacob, "A Lyft driver can break my f**king heart? F**k. He sold his house for cash and I cried over him." -- doesn't hold a grudge.
"Jill and I still have a really great connection to this day," Jacob said, adding that he and his ex "talk a lot."
Romantically, though, in an upcoming episode, Jacob will turn his attention back to Shanae, whom he first kissed during the season premiere.
"Shanae was the first person that I had any intimacy with on the beach. Going into it, she was just about the only person I had known about from The Bachelor," Jacob said. "All I knew was that she was, in a sense, villain-ish. So I was a little bit standoffish. But obviously, as Paradise went on, she became a fun, goofy, energetic person herself."
"I just really clicked with that too. She played sports in high school. She's that type of go-getter type of girl. We were both on the rebound, in a sense, me from Kate and Jill, and her from Logan," he continued. "And at the same time, we just found, we really do get each other in a lot of ways too. I'll let the audience tune in to find out what happens. But yeah, we also had a really solid connection too."
Though the season's long-teased big twist is now behind us, Jacob told fans that "there's a lot of twists and turns that are going to come... so, be prepared."
"It's going to be a wild ride," he promised. "Myself, nobody expected what happens with my relationships, to be honest, even me. I left things on a great note. I felt like even if things work out or if they don't work out, I was very happy with how I pursued [them]."
Season 8 of Bachelor in Paradise airs Mondays and Tuesdays on ABC. Follow along with ET's coverage of the show to stay up to date on all the drama on the beach.
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