The reality star told ET what bothered her most about the Brendan and Pieper situation.
Natasha Parker doesn't appreciate being lied to. ET's Denny Directo spoke with Natasha amid her very dramatic stint on Bachelor in Paradise, and the Click Bait With Bachelor Nation co-host was quick to slam Brendan Morais and Pieper James for their actions.
The drama began when fellow BiP contestants accused Brendan of a pre-Paradise relationship with Pieper. He assured everyone, including Natasha, his initial Paradise love interest, that things were "casual" with Pieper and he wasn't waiting for her to arrive, but that story fell apart when Pieper showed up on the beach.
Brendan and Pieper immediately paired up, seemingly without sparing a thought for Natasha. While on a date, Brendan explained his relationship with Natasha to Pieper by saying he had been "navigating this in a way to allow myself to potentially, hopefully, be here while you’re here." She, in turn, thanked him for "playing the game."
"Honestly the disregard for a human [was the worst part]. The disregard for me. He literally told her, 'I had to do things and navigate things in a way to stay here.' And clearly, I was the casualty," Parker told ET. "There was never a, 'Well, how do you think Natasha feels?' and, 'Well, what about Natasha?'... That was the most shocking, awful thing, in my opinion."
"I very much was on that beach trying to engage in a meaningful connection. It was like, OK, we have this emotional connection that I felt that I thought he felt as well," she added. "There were just things that I could feel that he was holding back. I just thought that that was because he wanted to take things slow... and I really didn't think that he was waiting for Pieper. That was stupid on my part."
Natasha added, "He's making a mockery of what this can be... He just seems like a very selfish person. And that's my biggest takeaway from who he is: selfish."
While Brendan attempted to justify his actions by saying that Natasha had "zero other prospects" on the beach, she didn't see it the same way.
"I got his rose the first week, the women had the rose the second week, men would've come to talk to me," she said. "But also, I would've been fine going home if I wasn't creating this authentic connection with someone. That's what I was truly there for... If I would've went home, because there was no one there for me, that would've been OK with me. I would've went on with my life and not felt so betrayed, to be honest. And lied to."
At one point, Brendan and Pieper even openly discussed their then-growing follower counts on social media while mic'd up.
"I was very surprised, because for me, it was so much more than that," Natasha said of watching Brendan and Pieper's follower conversation. "... I had been nothing but so sweet to this man. All the little conversations that him and I have had about life, about love, about our families, all the deep things that we talked about, was just for followers? Was just to wait for this person to come? It just felt very empty. I didn't think that's what that was."
Brendan has since lost more than 100,000 followers, while Pieper is down more than 9,000. Natasha, meanwhile, has gained upward of 375,000 followers.
"At first I was like, 'I didn't want any of this. I didn't want this to happen. I didn't want these events to happen the way that it did,'" Natasha recalled of first seeing Brendan and Pieper's dwindling numbers and her growing ones. "... I didn't initially feel the validation on the beach from other people, because they just didn't know all the things that were happening, but for everyone watching... to really feel how I felt when everything transpired, and they really stood behind me, I was like, 'Wow, this is insane.' I'd never seen anything like it before. I couldn't believe it."
That support wasn't something she initially experienced on the beach, in large part, Natasha believes, because she opted to mostly keep her feelings to herself.
"All that stuff that we were doing and saying and talking about, and all the stuff that we shared... You didn't see all the things that we said, but I had to be like, 'That meant nothing to this person.' That's a hard pill to swallow," she said. "So I'm processing things, [and] I didn't just go to people and be like, 'Oh, this happened to me.' It took a while for me to process it, digest it, and then let my friends know."
Eventually, though, Natasha's peers spoke out in her defense, and Brendan and Pieper left the beach together.
While Natasha assumed that she'd be without a rose after Brendan's exit, Master of Ceremonies and bartender Wells Adams awarded her one, and invited her to stay in Paradise for another shot at love, a gesture she tearfully accepted.
"Wells is a very special person in Paradise... You see him being funny at the bar, but I had had a few breakdowns talking to Wells just about life, about love, about the future, about my past relationships, about why this one is so weird, and just so many things," Natasha told ET. "... Wells is the reason why I cried, because I felt like he was speaking directly to me. I was not expecting it... He just really touched my heart in so many ways."
Though Brendan has publicly apologized for his actions and Pieper has released a statement, Natasha said that neither has reached out to her directly.
"I saw his apology on his page, and the numerous attempts that she has said for press, and all these different things. It's like, 'Guys, hi. Again, the person who you're disregarding. Call me, text me, DM me.' They don't care about me," Natasha said. "This happened in June. If they cared anything about me, they would've reached out before. I know that now. Again, it's a hard pill to swallow, because I cared about him a lot."
"It sucks when you're a super trusting person, you can't fathom people being this way, and being dishonest," she added. "... This is what it seems like to me. 'I'm losing followers, I'm losing this, I'm losing that. I should say something now.'"
Natasha noted that she doesn't "wish hate" on Brendan or Natasha, but said that she also isn't interested in hearing from them anymore.
"I am not a person who is vengeful... I just know that you have to keep toxic people out of your life. Once I realized how toxic he was... [I decided not to] engage. That's how I deal with it," she said. "... If they would've just posted a picture together, like, 'Hey, I know this episode sucked. We're sorry, but we are in love, and we love each other, and we wish Natasha the best.' Boom. I would've been right there. Like, 'Go ahead, y'all.'"
"Yeah, it sucked. It was awful. But, feeding into the villain role, just everything that they did, it was like, 'Y'all really don't care that I was the casualty in this," Natasha continued. "They did not care."
Still, Natasha is hoping Brendan and Pieper make it as a couple.
"I really hope they can get through it, and figure it out," she said. "From all of this at least stay together, please. I mean, come on."
As for her own love story, Natasha has been floated by fans as a potential pick for the next Bachelorette.
"It is so overwhelming. It is something that I never, ever even thought about. But it's so nice," she said. "I think that people didn't see much of my personality on Peter [Weber]'s season, and they're seeing a little more of it on this season, just how I am, and how I lead with my heart."
"Dating's not easy for me. That's one of the reasons why I went on a dating show, because it's not easy for me," Natasha continued. "... If something happened in the future where I was single and I got a call, I would [do it] with bells and whistles."
However, Natasha encouraged fans to continue watching BiP to see if she ended up finding love on the beach after all.
"You guys got to see the rest of what happens on Paradise," she told ET. "You do got to stay tuned and see what happens."
The next episode of Bachelor in Paradise will air Tuesday, Sept. 21, on ABC. Check out all of ET's coverage for the latest drama on the beach.
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