Zach admitted his behavior was 'very selfish.'
Ariel Frenkel is slamming Zach Shallcross' Fantasy Suite week behavior. During the live portion of Monday's season finale of The Bachelor, Ariel spoke out against how Zach handled "sex week," initially telling her that he would not be intimate with any of his remaining women, but later breaking that promise with Gabi Elnicki.
Ariel told host Jesse Palmer that she, like Zach, did not want to have sex during Fantasy Suite week, but was upset that Zach made that decision without speaking to her.
"I was on the same page as Zach. I wish he had waited until we had the conversation the two of us, so we could both get to a conclusion as a couple, but I was in a place where I didn't want to be physically intimate if I knew he was pursuing other relationships," she said. "I didn't know what could happen, so I had to protect myself. I felt like if we were to end up together we could pursue intimacy in a totally different way afterward."
Making the situation worse was that Ariel didn't learn about Zach and Gabi's liaison until she watched it on TV, unlike Kaity Biggar, who Zach told a day after it happened.
"I'm really hurt. It really hurts to find everything out on TV when everyone else does with a partner that you've shared so many intimate moments with," she said. "I was really disappointed in the way the whole week was handled. I was disappointed in the way that I was left completely not knowing anything from Zach."
Ariel reiterated those feelings when Zach himself joined her on stage, telling him, "It was really difficult to see that you weren't honest with me."
"I committed to being in an open relationship... When the parameters of an open relationship change, I should be the first to know," she said. "... I just really want to know why the other women were given grace and honesty and that's something that you really pride yourself on and why I wasn't given that same respect?"
Zach responded by expressing "regret" over the week in its entirety.
"My actions in setting those parameters for the week were not the right way to go about it. You're right, I should have told you, probably first," he said. "... I do owe it to you, an apology for not telling you at all. You found out when the rest of the world did and that's on me. There's no excuse for it."
Ariel certainly agreed with that sentiment and had another bone to pick with Zach too.
"By putting sex off the table you made the entire week about sex and it didn't need to be like that," she said, adding that him making the executive decision "took away my agency."
"Looking back at it, it pains me, the hurt that it caused," he said. "It really made it one-sided and that was very selfish of me."
Things between the exes ended on a cordial note, with Zach telling Ariel, "I have so much respect for you and the relationship we shared together... I did mess up and I wish I could make that better."
"I still look back on our relationship fondly," Ariel answered. "... I appreciate your apology. I appreciate you coming out here."
Zach Shallcross' journey for love has come to an end. You can relive the season with all of ET's coverage. Next up for Bachelor Nation is Charity Lawson's season of The Bachelorette, which will premiere June 26.
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