The pilot says he had a 'long conversation' about the serious claim.
Not everything that happened during Peter Weber's journey as the Bachelor ended up making it to air.
Fans were shocked when the 28-year-old pilot's ex-girlfriend, Merissa Pence, approached him on the Feb. 17 episode of The Bachelor, alleging that "there's been many relationships broken up" because of contestant Victoria Fuller, a former friend of hers. However, more surprises followed in the aftermath of that bombshell, as Weber appeared to barely question Fuller on the topic. She quickly refuted Pence's claim before she and Weber engaged in a blowout fight about other relationship issues -- leaving viewers wondering how the pair could have possibly fully resolved such a serious allegation.
As Weber told ET's Lauren Zima at The Bachelor: Women Tell All taping on Feb. 21, he and Fuller actually did discuss Pence's claim further, saying, "It just, unfortunately, wasn't able to air."
"We had a long conversation about really what her relationship was with Merissa and the accusations she was making. We talked about the relationships that Merissa had brought up and there's a reason why I made my decision," Weber explained. "I wasn't just going off no conversation there."
"And in regards to Merissa and my relationship, that wasn't very serious at all. I had maybe seen her four times throughout the course of a month, but it was a lot more serious with Victoria. So, when I heard Victoria's side of the story, it was enough for me to make the decision and I felt good about it," he added.
Fuller's response to Pence's claim was brief on The Bachelor. "For her to say that is very disappointing," Fuller said. "I haven't broken up any relationships, so what relationship did she say that I broke up?"
"She didn't give me details, but these are her words. And obviously you can see how that would put me in a bad headspace," Weber had replied.
In an interview with ET, Pence said that she had dated Weber for about six months in 2012 and that they ended their romance on good terms. To that end, Weber appeared happy to see her on the episode. Pence met Fuller in Virginia Beach after she moved there from Los Angeles, years after she and Weber had gone their separate ways.
As for why she approached Weber during the episode, Pence said, "I just did this for the people who don't have a voice. I feel like I have been that voice for them, and that's kind of been my mindset on all of this."
Monday's episode of The Bachelor saw Fuller's elimination. And while she and Weber had communication issues during the season, she impressed fans -- and the rest of the cast -- by eloquently owning up to her mistakes. (She also again denied the allegation she ever broke up any relationships.)
"That was a very beautiful thing for me to see," Weber told ET of Fuller's conduct in the hot seat. "You know, even if maybe you don't find your person throughout this -- it's only gonna work for hopefully two people -- there's a lot to be learned, and I feel like I learned a lot too. But seeing that with Victoria just... it made me so happy to see her in a good spot. She deserves love just like every single person here."
"I think you saw a relationship there that definitely required a lot of work and we could have definitely easily given up early on and it would've been a lot easier for probably the both of us," the Bachelor confessed of his and Fuller's relationship. "But I think there's something beautiful in that we didn't [give up]."
"Even though there's a lot of opinions of people that think we should never have been together, we fought and fought and fought," he continued. "Even though it wasn't us in the end, I thought there was something beautiful [about] that relationship and the point it got to and what we learned about ourselves and just being able to communicate a lot better. I really appreciated it."
The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. ET's Lauren Zima will be recapping next week's season finale, directly after the episodes on Monday and Tuesday. Watch ET Live on your Roku, Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV or you can stream on Pluto TV and Samsung TV Plus.
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