It looks like The National Enquirer's spoiler was right after all. As first reported by the tabloid several weeks ago, The Bachelor's Byron Velvick selected Mary Delgado over Tanya Michel during last evening's finale of the sixth installment of the ABC reality dating show.
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"I can't see spending another minute without you as my wife, we're going to be together forever," Byron, a 40-year-old professional bass fisherman whispered to Mary, a 36-year-old real estate agent and former NFL cheerleader, as he proceeded to propose to his selected suitor. "You have my rose. You have my heart."
"Finally this is my fairy tale ending," replied the Tampa, Florida resident who had been rejected by bachelor Bob Guiney during the program's fourth installment .
Tanya, a 31-year-old teacher from Plano, Texas, did not take her rejection well. "I'm speechless... I feel like a fool. I feel like I've been lied to... I was falling in love," she told Byron after he confessed to loving "the qualities you've had... the life you've shown me... [and] who are you are a person," but having one small "problem" -- "I haven't fallen in love with you."
"I gave him my heart... and he took it and basically stepped on it," the crushed bachelorette said as her lonely limousine spirited her away from the show's estate. "I'm just a fool... I feel played... it just shows me that I didn't mean what I thought to him," she added. "I kept thinking there was something more and there wasn't." "He broke my heart."
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With the three month post-filming period having already begun to heal her wounds, Tanya was somewhat more reflective during the show's subsequent live After The Rose broadcast, looking for "answers" as to the reason for her rejection, but wishing the couple her best and announcing to male viewers everywhere that she was ready to date again.
As for Mary and Bryon, as reported by The Enquirer's Bachelor insider, the gushing couple claimed to be very much in love and planning to get married within the next year. As a first step, Bryon will be re-locating from Lake Mead, Nevada to Mary's Tampa hometown -- where he admitted, his sponsors are very much looking forward to the publicity that Mary's appearances at his upcoming Florida fishing tournaments will bring them.
Hey, at least you have to give him points for being honest.
Hopefully Mary won't become another Jen Schefft -- who saw her relationship with Bachelor 3's Andrew Firestone fall casualty to the winemaker's subsequent whirlwind of publicity appearances. Like recycled bachelorette Mary, Jen will get another chance at love when her The Bachelorette 3 series premieres on January 10.