Bachelor in Paradise bachelorette Victoria Fuller has denied Johnny DePhillipo's allegation that a hangout with Greg Grippo at a Bachelor-Nation party essentially ruined their relationship.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Johnny -- who couldn't make the party -- said "there was no communication" with Victoria after the party and "it was just done." However, the pair didn't officially break up until mid-September.
"What I have to say about that is if we had already gotten a noise violation at our first Happy Couple three weeks [after getting engaged in June], then we already had problems going into Natalie's party," Victoria said on the latest episode of "The Viall Files" podcast.
Greg, who joined Victoria on the podcast, chimed in, "I didn't even know she was going to be there."
"We didn't even talk," Victoria recalled of the party with a laugh. "[Greg and I] barely spoke to one another. We had a conversation towards the end of the night, but it was very much [innocent]."
Greg added that he was hanging out with Andrew Spencer and Justin Glaze "the whole time."
"It's just wild that this whole party [has been blamed]," Greg noted.
"[People] are like, 'You planned to meet at this party!' And it's like, 'No!' I'm friends with Natalie, Nick is friends with Greg. Everyone is friends in Bachelor Nation," Victoria complained.
"I talked to Justin for two hours by the side of the pool and nobody said a damn thing about that! Everyone is just honing in on the fact we were at the same party, but nobody is talking about anything else that happened at the party, which is f-cking nuts!"
And Victoria insisted that she and Johnny were not even engaged going into Natalie's party.
"We were not engaged. We broke off our engagement three weeks after we got home [from Paradise]. My family knows that, his family knew that, our friends knew that," Victoria claimed.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOWRELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
Victoria revealed earlier in the podcast interview that Johnny had allegedly lied about his career and withheld information from her about his time on The Bachelorette. She felt she was engaged to "a completely different person" after filming Bachelor in Paradise.
Victoria also accused Johnny of calling her "a homewrecker" during an explosive fight they had at their first "Happy Couple" visit. Not long after the fight, Johnny allegedly called her "a f-cking c-nt."
However, Victoria -- who also claimed Johnny questioned her womanhood -- confirmed she and Johnny were still talking in late August.
"At that point, that three-week period, I asked producers if we could get a couple's therapist because I was very much willing to work on it because I wanted to see, 'Is this something we can truly fix?'... I was open to the possibility of seeing where this relationship can go, if we get the appropriate amount of help," Victoria recalled.
"So leading up to that party, the party he thinks was the total downfall of our relationship, he had called me "a f-cking c-nt" two days before I even got on a plane to leave to L.A. So for him to say the party was the reason, like, we had two days of arguing because he had already called me that name."
Victoria said Johnny really wanted to make their relationship work but she didn't really want to see or talk to him.
"He did book a ticket to Nashville to see me prior to going to the party. That was his last-ditch effort, like, 'Hey, can I come? Can we please talk about this?'... And I was like, 'Okay, fine,'" Victoria said.
ADVERTISEMENT
"That's when he said everything switched and my demeanor was off. Well, I'm sorry, but wouldn't your demeanor be off if you had just been called 'a f-cking c-nt' three days prior?!" Victoria vented. "I don't know! I would! I don't want to hang out with you, maybe, if you call me that!"
Victoria confessed she "probably was a little cold" because she "didn't like" how Johnny had treated her.
"At that point, yeah, I did know that it was over, but it was already over before [the party]. We were arguing so bad!" Victoria said.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
Victoria said she and Johnny determined then and there that their relationship was "over."
"He asked me if I would hang out with him on his birthday, which was a couple of weeks later, September 20, and I told him 'no.' I was like, 'Johnny, we're not together. We shouldn't be spending time,'" Victoria told Nick.
Victoria acknowledged how breakups can be confusing and messy but it didn't make sense for them to hang out casually together.
"[I said], 'We are broken up,'" Victoria alleged. "It was a hard 'no' that we were not going to be hanging out."
Victoria said Johnny hung out with his boys in Nashville for his birthday and then she didn't see him again until he allegedly texted her, asking to have another conversation.
"At this point, this was probably our 90th conversation. And that's okay, because some people need extra time for closure," Victoria acknowledged.
Victoria therefore agreed to welcome Johnny into her home and have yet another conversation. But Victoria said Johnny showed up with a suitcase, like he was going to stay over, which she thought was "bizarre" at the time given the circumstances.
"It was a 45 minute conversation, and I said, 'Johnny, again, this is over. And I'm so sorry you're hurting; I'm hurting too right now. But this is done.' And he said to me, 'Well can we just have one last night together?' And I said, 'No,'" Victoria shared.
ADVERTISEMENT
Victoria claimed Johnny then booked a hotel and she's not sure what he told his friends.
"He left, and that was it," Victoria said. "And I think in his mind, that's where the final conversation was, but we had many final conversations. That was just the one where I was like, 'You cannot stay here.'"
Greg then revealed he and Victoria -- who met at Governors Ball Music Festival in September 2021 and became friends -- started talking at the end of September 2022.
When the reunion taped on November 4, Victoria said she just wanted Johnny to "take accountability for the fact our relationship was going downhill prior to Greg and I starting to talk. That's it."
At the Bachelor in Paradise reunion, Victoria was already in a new relationship with Greg, who appeared on Katie Thurston's The Bachelorette season.
Victoria said she can understand why people thought she had behaved so coldly to Johnny at the reunion, which aired November 22 on ABC, and rubbed her romance with Greg in his face.
"I could've handled myself so much better, and I look back and I regret that. But at the same time, I walked into a room where people were calling me 'a cheater' or booing me," Victoria said, referencing how fans had accused Victoria of cheating on Johnny with Greg when the pair was spotted in Italy together in late October.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS)
Johnny, for instance, has claimed he and Victoria were still in therapy leading up to her European getaway.
"And so I walked into an entire audience that was already against me without even hearing my story and my side of things," Victoria said.
They just wanted to believe [Johnny] and take his side, and I get it -- he's upset and he's sad, and I feel for him and I empathize with him."
ADVERTISEMENT
Victoria previously insisted there was "no crossover" between relationships and that she and Greg simply want the same things out of life -- including marriage and children in the near future.
Victoria and Greg spent Thanksgiving together, and Victoria said Greg is thinking about moving from New York City to Nashville to be with her.
Meanwhile, Johnny has been trying to move on after receiving the closure from Victoria that he needed to let her go.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group!
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
