Bachelor in Paradise alum Aaron Clancy has dished about his relationship with Genevieve Parisi and addressed rumors the pair had allegedly hooked up before filming Paradise.
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Bachelor in Paradise Season 8 previews show Aaron will be arriving at the beach in Mexico soon, and Genevieve is already there hoping to meet her match in the coming days.
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While fans have yet to see if Aaron and Genevieve will get together and date in Paradise, Aaron responded to the claim Shanae Ankney had made at The Bachelor: The Women Tell All earlier this year that Genevieve had slid into Aaron's DMs and the pair hooked up off-camera.
Genevieve previously denied Shanae's accusation, and Aaron, 28, told Us Weekly that he was "shocked" to hear it as well when he watched The Women Tell All for Clayton Echard's season in March.
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"I didn't think that my name would be mentioned. I thought I was completely irrelevant," Aaron said on a recent episode of the magazine's "Here for the Right Reasons" podcast.
"Essentially what really happened was I just met Genevieve -- I had met her twice, but just in passing randomly at a bar. [We] said a couple of words to each other, hugged, but [were] completely platonic. I didn't really even know her."
The hookup rumors were fueled several weeks later when The Bachelor fans caught Aaron and Genevieve sitting next to each other at Clayton's After the Final Rose taping in March.
"The seating arrangement isn't random. They did that on purpose, [it] wasn't our choice. Nothing changed [between us]," said the San Diego-based insurance agent.
However, all of the speculation apparently made Aaron contemplate what dating Genevieve may actually be like.
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"It made me really kind of look and see -- is there potentially something [there] or why not give it a shot? We're both on the beach, that' what it's for," Aaron shared. "I definitely figured, 'Why not?'"
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Aaron recalled entering Paradise with an "open mind" when he filmed Season 8, adding how he didn't plan on "targeting anyone" in particular.
"Obviously, you know, I did find love with James the previous season," Aaron joked about his bromance with James Bonsall on Bachelor in Paradise's seventh season last summer.
"But it didn't really work out the way I had hoped. You try to find a romantic connection, so figured why not give it one more shot."
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Aaron, who found fame when he competed for Katie Thurston's heart on The Bachelorette's seventeenth season last year, said he learned "not to be so impulsive [and] reactionary" over the last year.
"I think that the first time I was a little bit more emotionally driven than this next season. So yeah, just really maturing and understanding how the process works a little bit better," Aaron noted.
At The Bachelor: The Women Tell All, Genevieve, 26, was taken aback when her enemy on Clayton's season, Shanae, announced to the world how she had allegedly slept with Aaron.
When Genevieve bluntly and firmly denied it, Shanae pushed in front of the audience, "You never f-cked him?"
And Genevieve, a Los Angeles bartender originally from Massachusetts, shouted in reply, "Never!"
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Genevieve told Us in March of the scandal after it aired, "I think I was more shocked than when Clayton asked me if I was an actress."
Genevieve was referring to how Clayton had questioned the bachelorette's sincerity and intentions on The Bachelor's 26th season.
"I saw Aaron at a bar and I posted a picture with him... I didn't even kiss Aaron. And that's why I was just, like, 'What?'" Genevieve insisted.
Genevieve said she didn't know Aaron "that well" at the time.
"I met him once at a bar for five minutes, so I don't know his personality," Genevieve explained.
"He seems really nice, and he is very handsome. I'm not saying no. But there definitely hasn't been anything between us and that's scary because I don't want it to be a thing. I don't want it to be an issue."
Bachelor in Paradise's eighth season just premiered on Tuesday, and the show will continue to air on Monday and Tuesday nights on ABC.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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