'She was intentional, but that's different.'
Peter Weber is defending one of his front-runners.
Following the premiere of his season of The Bachelor on Monday, the 28-year-old reality star sat down for an interview with Bachelor Happy Hour, the podcast hosted by former Bachelorette stars Rachel Lindsay and Becca Kufrin.
During the podcast, Rachel compared Hannah Ann, the woman who got Peter's first impression rose, to a controversial Bachelorette contestant, much to Peter's dismay.
"I’m going say something. Don’t get mad at me. We've only seen one episode," Rachel told Peter. "But you know who Hannah Ann reminds me of in the way you talk about her? Everybody say it with me now: One. Two, Three! Luke P!"
“No, not even close. Not even close. Don’t even go there. No," Peter quickly responded. "She was intentional, but that’s different."
While Becca said that Hannah Ann "was maybe intentional, not manipulative" in her approach, Rachel disagreed.
"Listen. You know him outside of all of that. You know him past the first episode. I’m only talking about first episode," she explained. "We didn’t know he was like that. First episode it was like, wow, he’s really into this girl. He knows exactly what he wants. He’s very intentional in exactly what he wants to do. And she feels it as well. I’m just saying. We’ve only seen one episode."
"Disagree, but that's fine," Peter replied. "Hannah Ann brought me up, we to, like, the couch. She had drawn out this beautiful painting for me with her dad. Immediately starts going into her family and how important her family was to her. She's so not like that."
As fans of the show know, Luke Parker came under fire during the first night of Hannah Brown's season for being intense and continuing to steal her away from other conversations, much like Hannah Ann did to Peter. As the season went on, though, the controversy with Luke grew, before coming to a head when he criticized Hannah for sleeping with Peter.
For Peter, though, he counted Hannah Ann's forwardness as "one of the reasons" she walked away with the first impression rose.
"There's nothing wrong with that, being that kind of forward," he said. "... That girl knew exactly what she wanted coming into this and never let me question that. And I literally mean that from the beginning. She was the first person to steal me away for the first conversation. She was the first kind of normal kiss. Not from like the first entrances. We clicked immediately."
In an interview with ET's Lauren Zima, Peter reiterated his defense of Hannah Ann, who Jimmy Kimmel recently predicted will be the Bachelor's final pick.
"She stuck out to me so much, and some people, they have their opinions, but I love the boldness. I loved her being so intentional and showing me exactly why she was there," he told ET. "And I think it's important to note that she's the most sweetest person. She was doing it the right way. She wasn't being mean about it, or necessarily disrespectful to any of the women. She's the sweetest person and it worked, and I appreciated it."
As for what fans can expect from the end of the season, Peter told ET it's "a little bit unique of an ending."
"It's not comparable because it's completely unlike those stories the way it unfolds," Bachelor host Chris Harrison told ET of how Peter's finale stacks up against Colton Underwood and Hannah's seasons. "This will stand alone and be epic for a completely different reason. It's not for an athletic event or feat, and it's not for the topsy-turvy twists and turns that was Hannah. His is more of an emotional ride and roller coaster at the end."
The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. See more in the video below.
RELATED CONTENT:
