The Bachelor Finale: Gabi's Biggest Bombshell About Zach Revealed

He made his bed... of roses.

Gabi Elnicki was just as surprised as the rest of Bachelor Nation when Zach Shallcross revealed to America that he broke his no-sex rule with her during the season 27 Fantasy Suites week. In fact, the Bachelor runner-up didn't know he was going public with their private moment until the episode aired March 20.

"I actually didn't know you had told everyone until I watched it last week," she admitted in the After the Final Rose special March 27. "So, for me to see that, it was beyond a TV show for me. I feel ashamed."

Additionally, Gabi revealed she was also "humiliated" and "disappointed" after he broke up with her in favor of fellow finalist—and Zach's now-fiancée—Kaity Biggar.

"In that week, I felt so connected to him and I felt very in love and safe," she told host Jesse Palmer. "We made a decision together because we were feeling in love. That's a part of me that I'll never get back, that I shared with him. It's extremely violating that the entire nation knows everything."

Thankfully, Gabi did get a chance to confront Zach following their breakup in Thailand.

"It was consensual, and it was what we wanted," the 27-year-old said. "We decided that it was going to be between us. We said that that night, and I remember I was brushing my teeth, you came up behind me, you kissed me on the back of my head, you said, 'This is just between us.' And I said, 'Yes, this is just between us.'"

Unfortunately, that's not how their story unfolded—with Gabi admitting she was "blindsided" by Zach's decision to tell Kaity and the cameras (but not semi-finalist Ariel Frenkel) about their physical intimacy.

"However, what I wish would've happened was that you warned me that you were going to use my name and that you were going to tell everyone what had happened," she shared. "Because, I didn't know you were going to do that."

Gabi continued, "I get it, sex sells, but now I've become a narrative and it's really painful."

Elsewhere in the finale, Ariel also got to share her side of the story after her Fantasy Suites elimination.

"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 shared with Jesse. "I was really disappointed in the way the whole week was handled."

As Ariel then explained to Zach, "By putting sex off the table, you made the entire week about sex, and it didn't need to be like that."

For his part, the titular Bachelor star apologized for his actions, saying, "There's no excuse for the way I handled things."

But in the end, Zach swapped out his roses for an engagement ring, with Kaity leaving Thailand as his fiancée with a 2025 wedding on the horizon.

Plus, see 4th place contestant Charity Lawson look for love in The Bachelorette season 20, this June on ABC. 

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