The Bachelorette star Ali Fedotowsky picked Roberto Martinez as her final suitor and he proposed to her during Monday night's sixth-season finale of the ABC reality dating show.
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Ali, a 25-year-old advertising account manager originally from Williamstown, MA, selected Roberto, a 26-year-old insurance agent from Charleston, SC, over Chris Lambton, a 33-year-old landscaper from Dennis, MA, during the finale.
The Bachelorette's sixth-season finale began with Ali individually introducing Roberto and Chris to her family, who had traveled from Massachusetts to Bora Bora, the finale's filming location. Roberto was the first bachelor to meet the family members -- which consisted of Ali's father Alex, her mother Beth, her sister Raya, and brother Michael. Chris then followed the next day.
Both visits went very well and featured the men telling Ali's father they were in love with Ali and asking his blessing to propose to his daughter, which he gave.
However after the visits, Ali's family seemed to disagree over which bachelor would be the better fit for her, with her father favoring Roberto and the rest of her family preferring Chris -- who in addition to scoring points for being from Massachusetts, had also repeatedly matter-of-factly told them he had fallen in love and would defintely be proposing to Ali.
"They're both great guys, but Roberto, there's something about him that was showing that he had a love for you, I could see it in his eyes," Alex told Ali.
"He tells me that, tells me that he loves me," she replied.
"Roberto's more willing to move forward with a relationship with you, that's what I felt. Chris is just a little bit hesitant," he said.
"Mike and I had a different experience," Raya said.
"Me too," Beth added.
"I mean I felt Roberto is very open about how he felt about you, and he seemed very romantic... but I feel very differently [about] my reaction to Chris than you," Raya told her father. "Chris said more than once to Mike and I, 'I'll be proposing to your sister in three days.'"
"There was never a question of whether or not [and] he did tell us more than once that he was in love with you," Raya told Ali. "He didn't say, 'I might be proposing' or 'I could be,' he said it flat-out. He liked that your relationship was progressing at a normal rate and he just feels it's real -- you're real with him and he's real with you. Just the way that he said it made it feel very real to me."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"There's good and bad to falling madly, deeply in love and having the fireworks and the romance," Raya advised Ali. "Sometimes, it doesn't stay that way. So to have someone that's taking things a little more slowly, I don't discount his feelings."
"No... I don't discount feelings at all," Beth agreed. "He just experienced a tremendous loss of his mom, and that changed him completely as a person. I think he's the kind of person that needs time to get to that point. But when he gets to that point of truly being able to say 'I love you,' he's going to mean it. You can't discount him as not being authentic."
"I think they both love you, but it ultimately up to you and what you feel," Beth advised her daughter. 'It's your decision totally."
"And they are both good guys, there's just little differences in them," Ali replied.
The next day, Ali went on her final date with Roberto. After spending the afternoon jet skiing, feeding sting rays, and wandering a small private island, the couple enjoyed a quiet evening in Roberto's private resort hut, where Roberto opened up a bit more emotionally to Ali.
"I feel like I know how I feel about taking the next step. I hope you know -- if you don't know already, I told your dad," Roberto told Ali. "I feel like maybe I haven't made it clear to you. It was like the first thing he asked me, it was funny."
"What?" Ali asked.
"He was like, 'Do you love my daughter?' and I didn't hesitate for a second," he replied. "And then I told him absolutely. So if you didn't know already, I'm definitely, definitely falling in love with you."
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"I love you... you're staying here, I'm sorry," he whispered.
After seeing Roberto open up, Ali decided he was the man for her.
"Hearing Roberto tell me he loves me feels so good," she said afterwards. "So many things he's saying are things I've wanted to hear for a really long time. I feel like for the first time in my life, I'm in a relationship where I feel so safe."
"I love Roberto! I love him. I've never, ever, ever in my whole life felt this good about a relationship and about a person. Everything I came here to find, I found in Roberto, and I hope he feels that way too. I know I have a date with Chris tomorrow, and I should go, but I just can't. I don't want to say goodbye to Roberto."
The next day, Ali met Chris -- who had continued to gush about his love for Ali and plans to propose and marry her -- at his resort hut.
But instead of going on their final date, she broke the excited bachelor's heart by revealing she had decided to pick Roberto as her final suitor and didn't want to hurt him even worse by waiting until the next day's final Rose Ceremony to tell him.
"Oh my god, it's been a crazy week," she began. "I'm like going crazy right now, I don't even know where to start. My heart is racing."
"It's okay," Chris replied chipperly as the pair sat down on a couch.
"It's such a weird place right now, because this is all coming to an end," she said.
"Yep," Chris replied.
"And my feelings have just been all over the place. Like, me and my family the other day, they loved you. I mean they think that you're amazing. I mean all the things I knew they would think about you, those are the things I love about you. And... you know... argh, I don't know."
"It's okay, you can say it," Chris replied as he continued to smile.
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"You're in a tough spot. I mean, I know," he replied.
"I feel like you're all the qualities I want in somebody -- everything. You're one of the best men I've ever been able to meet in my whole life. I mean that," Ali said. "And I think that even if two people really enjoy spending time with each other and hanging out and stuff, I don't know if that necessarily means that it's like, supposed to be."
"Do you understand what I'm saying?" she asked as Chris' smile sank away. "I'm in love with somebody else. I have to let you go here and not wait until tomorrow."
"This wasn't an easy decision," she whispered as Chris sat silent. "It was really hard. I just didn't want to put you through tomorrow. Because I know that it's going to be so hard."
"Thank you," Chris whispered as he nodded. "I am going to miss you. It'll take me a little while to figure this out, it just kind of snuck up on me."
"I know... out of respect for you, I needed to not put you through anything else when I feel like I know what I had to do," Ali whispered before Chris escorted her to the door and they shared a goodbye hug.
"Thank you for being honest," he told her.
"Thank you for being so understanding," Ali replied.
"Good luck tomorrow. Go find out if he loves you," Chris said.
The next day, Ali prepared for the final Rose Ceremony and worried that she was unsure what Roberto would do when he arrived.
"I don't think it's possible to love someone until you can give your whole heart to them. I'm in love with Roberto and that feels so good. But there's always that fear that he won't love me back," she said.
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"The rose I give out today will symbolism my whole heart, my life, my love. And I want to give it to Roberto. I'll be heartbroken if Roberto doesn't want me back in the way that I want him, but I just have to have faith that he will."
However once Roberto arrived, Ali discovered she had nothing to worry about.
"I want to tell you, I came into this, I didn't know what to expect... and you told me how important it was to you for you husband to love you unconditionally and to always be by your side no matter what. I just... you know... I want to be that man for you," Roberto told Ali.
"I want to be that man for you. I want to make you laugh, just like this. I want to make you smile. I want to make sure you wake up every morning for the rest of your life knowing you're so, so loved. The first time that I held you in my arms and we were lying down, I knew right there that I wanted to do that for the rest of my life."
"Roberto, there's so many things I wanted to tell you and [couldn't]. Well, first off, I want you to know you're the only guy here today," Ali replied.
"Wow!" Roberto said.
"I love you so much, I really do," Ali gushed.
"I love you. I want to grow old with you. I want to have a beautiful, beautiful family. I want to share my life with you. Share your life with me, be my wife. Ali Fedotowsky, will you marry me?" Roberto asked as he got down on one knee and pulled the engagement ring he had selected earlier that day from his pocket.
"Oh my gosh. Yes, yes!" Ali replied.
During the After the Final Rose special which followed the finale, Ali and Roberto told The Bachelorette host they have remained happily engaged since the finale was filmed in early May and will be living together in San Diego while considering a wedding for next summer.
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