'Bachelor' couple Travis Stork and Sarah Stone admit they've split up

After a week of silence, The Bachelor: Paris couple Travis Stork and Sarah Stone have admitted that their romantic relationship is over, with Travis citing The Bachelor's requirement that its couple remain apart until after the show's finale episode airs as a reason for their breakup.


"You're in Paris and you're part of this incredible experience, this fantasy world, and then suddenly you come back to Nashville, and living in the same city I think we thought was going to be a great thing," Stork told his local The Tennessean newspaper during a Monday joint telephone interview that represented the couple's first public comments since last week's The Bachelor: Paris finale aired and rumors that they'd already broken up began to surface.

"But instead, you're forced to pretend you don't know someone, for essentially the last four months," the 33-year-old Vanderbilt Medical Center emergency room doctor continued. "The reality is that we were in this fantasy world. And now that we're back in Nashville, over time when you're not allowed to see someone, you grow apart."

Sarah, a 26-year-old Nashville elementary school teacher, also agreed that the couple's relationship would likely have fared better if the Nashville neighbors had happened to find each other prior to appearing on The Bachelor. "I definitely think it would've worked out differently," she explained to The Tennessean. "We wouldn't have had all the baggage that comes from being on this show. It would just be the two of us being able to hang out and get to know each other in a normal situation."

According to Travis, the fact that both of them happened to live within walking distance of each other made his attempts to comply with the terms of the show's contract significantly more complicated. "I remember one day Sarah was running down the street, and I walked out my front door on my bike and I instantly saw this person darting across the street, through traffic. I'm like, 'That's Sarah. Do I look, do I not? What do I do?' Of course, what do I do? I bike in the opposite direction. It's strange to have to live that way."

Former The Bachelor: Paris couple Travis Stork and Sarah Stone in happier times. See more The Bachelor: Paris finale pictures in our The Bachelor: Paris finale photo gallery (photo credit ABC/Craig Sjodin.)

Travis did admit that he and Sarah got together in Nashville once after returning from Paris, however neither of them revealed any details about the encounter. According to Travis, any rumors about the couple working out together or being seen enjoying dinner together were false. "Obviously, if we were to do anything of that nature, we'd be in huge breach of contract," he stated.

"I think the difficulty is, it's one of those things that, over time, as you see all this playing out, and you continue to talk it through, and you start to realize how much not only your life has changed, but how much your relationship has changed from where it was back when you were in Paris and everything was great and we were having so much fun together."

According to The Tennessean reporter Brad Schmitt, Sarah "said little" about the demise of the romance during the interview, however she has fond memories of her The Bachelor experience and expects that the couple will remain close friends.

"Through this time, we realized that it was a great experience in Paris and that we're so lucky to have met one another in Paris, and we'll never forget that," said Sarah. "And we both agree and know that we'll be friends forever."

Both Sarah and Travis told that paper the they are currently "single and unattached," with Schmitt apparently declining to directly ask Sarah about her relationship with Nashville businessman Matt Lauderdale, who Schmitt had reported her to be dating in an article he published last Thursday.


Travis and Sarah both say they have no regrets about appearing on The Bachelor: Paris but laughed off Schmitt's suggestion that they might eventually romantically reconnect once the publicity from the show has died down.