The new 'Bachelor' thought he was 'ready and moved on' before Brown walked back into his life.
Peter Weber thought he was 100 percent over Hannah Brown -- but then she showed up on his Bachelor season.
The trailer for the show's upcoming season shows the former Bachelorette getting cozy with the franchise's new lead, as he asks her to join the other women in the house. While Brown's schedule with Dancing With the Stars this fall implies she didn't take Weber up on his offer (she seemed to hint as much to ET), Weber said "real emotions" were definitely there.
"That was unexpected for me. I did not know she was coming that first night. She shows up, opens that door. I didn't even realize it was her at first and then I noticed it's her [as] she's kind of walking closer out of the car," Weber told ET's Lauren Zima.
"I genuinely thought when I decided, 'Yeah, I'll be the Bachelor,' that I was in a spot where I could do that. I was ready and moved on. I really did think that. She shows up that first night and I start to question that," he confessed. "Just real emotions came up and it was all real. It was a real relationship we had."
Weber placed third on Brown's season of The Bachelorette; she sent him home after their memorable fantasy suite date in a windmill, where she later revealed they had had sex four times. He was crushed by their split.
"Yeah, she did [break my heart], but you guys will just have to see what happens," Weber teased, quipping that despite everyone's belief she couldn't have joined his season while filming DWTS, they "could be" a couple right now.
The 28-year-old pilot had "instant chemistry and connection" with several women starting on night one. "I wanted to do a good job of not letting that [lead to] closing off from relationships that started off a little bit slower. That was some advice I got from previous Bachelors, and I wanted really to take that to heart. I'm happy I did," he explained.
His greatest fear before his season started was that he would be fooled by a woman who wasn't as committed to a lasting relationship and marriage as he was. Weber said his season doesn't experience a scandal quite like Brown's final pick, Jed Wyatt, having a girlfriend back home. "I had relationships it took me a little bit longer to truly find out that the complete truth of what we had or where we were," he noted.
As for whether things reach windmill status in the fantasy suites, Weber said he's actually "very private with my intimate life." "If you look back, I never said anything about the windmill. That was... not one word came out of my mouth about that. That's truth," he declared.
"I'm comfortable talking about it, but I like to keep that stuff private. I do," he continued, before joking that he might have "already" joined the mile-high club.
"I can say I am very happy with how everything ended. I'm excited that there's a reason no one's gonna find out the ending," Weber said. "I'm excited about that."
The Bachelor premieres Monday, Jan. 6 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. See more in the video below.
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