The teacher also told ET if she'd consider being the Bachelorette.
Serene has no hard feelings toward Clayton Echard. ET spoke with the teacher after the taping of Monday's "Women Tell All" special, and she opened up about her exit from The Bachelor, and why she accepted Clayton's apology during the reunion show.
When they were reunited, Clayton apologized to Serene for making her wonder if he was ending things because he couldn't reciprocate her confession of love.
"I really feel terrible and I want to apologize, because I hope you don’t close off going forward," Clayton told Serene. "You did everything right. You did. I just wish I would’ve opened up to you instead of having you be the person to teach me that."
"I really appreciated hearing that from him," Serene told ET, after admitting during the episode that she felt like she "gave everything" during her relationship with Clayton "and it still wasn't enough."
That uncertainty going into the taping made Serene feel "pretty nervous," though she told ET that, after the fact, she was feeling "good about everything."
"I wasn't sure how I would feel. But, as time passed, I did find my own closure in that. I didn't really have much to say," Serene said. "But I didn't really have anything that I went in wanting to say."
Clayton, meanwhile, told ET that he and Serene left everything "in a very cordial manner."
"I'm just happy that the two of us were able to be cordial and understand that, 'Hey, we gave it our best, but it just wasn't meant to be,'" he said.
While it didn't work out between them, Serene called Clayton "a great guy," and the Bachelor said that he "can't say one bad thing" about the teacher.
"She is going to be more than fine. She's going to be happier than she has ever been. I know her heart's in the right place and she's going to find somebody incredible if she chooses to do so," he said. "Her hardest thing is going to be having to fend off all the bachelors going after her. I'm really excited for her because I know that she had her heart in the right place and she's going to be totally fine."
As for if she'd try to fend of those bachelors as the Bachelorette, Serene told ET that she's "definitely still open to opportunities for finding love."
"I did a lot of work with my breakup and going home to make sure that I'm not like putting my walls back up," she said. "I definitely feel ready to find that person. If the right opportunity presents itself... and I feel like it's something that's meant for me, then I would definitely be open to that."
Clayton Echard's season of The Bachelor airs Mondays on ABC. The Fantasy Suites episode will air Tuesday, March 8. ET has got you covered throughout the entirety of Clayton's season with all of our Bachelor content.
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