These suitors are salty. Bachelorette finalists, Luke Pell and Chase McNary, are the latest men to be cut from JoJo Fletcher‘s shrinking list of top contenders. Both of the gents made one notable mistake… They waited until the eleventh hour to tell JoJo that they loved her.
Although Luke continues to be disappointed by the outcome, he’s not placing the blame on JoJo. After holding back from saying, “I love you,” during his hometown date, he attempted to make up for it by uttering those three important words just before the rose ceremony.
“That was the not the best moment to say that and I knew that,” the 31-year old war veteran told ABC News. “I knew by the look in her eyes [that something was off]. That was the first time she looked at me that way versus any other day,” Luke recalled. “It was something that I should’ve been more direct about, and I didn’t embrace how quickly the process happens.”
“It’s a lesson learned,” he explained. “This is my first time through that [process], so I don’t know when you say things. It makes it tough and kind of mind-boggling, and you get wrapped up in the moment,” he shared.
“What do you say? What do you not say? When do you say this or that?” he asked, clearly consumed with unanswered questions. “We had our first date and I could’ve said it, but I was like, ‘You can’t say that on the first date!’ Hindsight’s 20/20.”
Chase’s reaction to JoJo’s rejection has resulted in regrets. After learning that JoJo’s feelings didn’t match his own during their time in the fantasy suite, he became visibly angry.
Chase questioned why he opened up to JoJo and admitted that he loved her. Then he stormed out of the fantasy suite, opened a can of beer, and jumped in a vehicle to ride away.
“I think it’s any man’s reaction that as soon as something like that happens, you’re just like, ‘I’m gonna have a beer and make the best of the situation,'” the 27-year old medical sales representative told ABC News. “I think at that moment I was ultimately just in so much shock and despair and confusion – because the whole day prior to that and the whole hometown prior to that went so well that why would it go so wrong? So for it to be on such a high note [and] to end on such a hard note, I was in shock, and I reacted in a way I wish I wouldn’t have.”
Chase, who describes himself as a “calm, understanding” guy caught wind that JoJo was struggling following her decision to send him home.
“I definitely woke up the next morning just not feeling right,” he explained. “[The producers and I] had a long conversation about it, and I just knew some more closure needed to be had – and I didn’t want to wait until the Men Tell All [taping] for that to finish,” Chase told the news channel.
He may have regrets, but having that final conversation with JoJo isn’t one of them. Chase apologized for his reaction to JoJo’s decision and told her he didn’t expect a second chance.
“I’m grateful that they let me do that,” he said of The Bachelorette producers. “That last conversation was important to me so JoJo knew I wasn’t mad at her – so she knew I was impressed by her and proud of her.”
“I just didn’t want her to have that on her shoulders going into one of the biggest decisions of her life,” he shared.
JoJo has narrowed it down to her final two suitors. Don’t miss tonight’s Men Tell All special and the Monday, August 1, Bachelorette finale airing at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
