'Bachelorette' Ali Fedotowsky: I just couldn't focus on Chris Lambton

The Bachelorette star Ali Fedotowsky says she wasn't absolutely certain Roberto Martinez was the man for her until their final date together -- just as last night's sixth-season finale broadcast which ended with the couple getting engaged showed.


"I knew for sure, with 100% certainty, that it was Roberto during our last date together.  You know, when we're in the rain together and everything was just so perfect and wonderful.  And I felt so good, and I didn't want to be with anybody else," Fedotowsky told reporters during a Tuesday media conference call that followed Monday night's The Bachelorette finale which featured her deciding she was in love with Martinez and eliminating Chris Lambton prematurely.

"At the end of the night, normally, I'd be like, 'Okay, I need to stop focusing on this guy and I need to focus on the next guy, I need to end my date with Roberto and focus on Chris.'  But I couldn't focus on Chris, I just wanted to spend more time with Roberto.  That's when I knew for sure."

However in hindsight, The Bachelorette star admits her heart may have decided on Martinez well before her head did.

"In retrospect, looking sort of back to the first night, that feeling that I had when I saw him was like nothing I've ever experienced.  So I don't know, I kind of think I fell in love at first sight," she said.


While she was worried whether Martinez felt the same way about her, Fedotowsky said she had faith he would propose after she eliminated Lambton and decided to have Martinez be the only suitor at her final Rose Ceremony.

"You know that was definitely a fear of mine, but my relationship with Roberto was so strong that I felt -- I had faith that if I took that risk and he was the only man I brought to the end, I had faith that he felt the same way about me," she told reporters.

"And yeah, it was a fear, but I think what's so great about me sort of overcoming that fear is I overcame it in the best possible way.  I didn't have two guys at the end, I just had that one.  So I feel really good."

Once engaged, the pair took different approaches to sharing the news with the parents.

"As soon as I got back to Tampa after the finale was taped I told my parents right away.  And they were nothing but excited.  They loved Ali when they met her and now they're looking forward to spending even more time with her," Martinez said.


Fedotowsky took a little longer to share the news with her parents.

"I waited a little bit to tell my parents,' she said.  "Not because they wouldn't be thrilled -- they loved Roberto when they met him -- but because I didn't want them to feel tempted to share the information, it's such a huge secret to hold onto."

However they weren't very surprised when The Bachelorette star finally revealed she had gotten engaged to Martinez.

"When I would them they were like, 'Yeah, we already knew, it was so obvious!'  They're so happy for me and they love this guy," she said.

Although some reports have questioned the sincerity of Fedotowsky's decision to participate in The Bachelorette, she insisted her motives were pure.


"I feel like I've been [misrepresented] -- you know, my reason for being the Bachelorette was 100% real.  I don't care what anyone says, my reason was to find love," she told reporters. 

However that doesn't mean Fedotowsky will be resuming her advertising sales career with Facebook now that her The Bachelorette experience is over.

"Being the Bachelorette, there's all of this media frenzy and all this publicity that, you know, has brought a lot of good things into my life and given me opportunities to do things for charity that I'm so grateful for.  So yeah, I don't think I'll be going back to Facebook but who knows," she said.

"I definitely have some people that are advising me right now and helping represent me so I can figure out what's the best move.  I want to do this right -- I want to do this right for my relationship, for Roberto, for me -- and just make the best of this blessing we've been given to I guess just do good in the world.  And I want to do more of that."

Fedotowsky admitted a desire to stay in the "entertainment world a little bit" was behind the couple's decision to relocate to San Diego -- which is only about a hundred miles south of Los Angeles -- and rent an apartment there together.


"We wanted to stay outside of the hustle.  I think that's one of the things, in terms of making our relationship work.  Roberto was offered to start an [insurance] agency by his company right in L. A. --  Beverly Hills, L. A. -- and we didn't want to do that because we thought that would put a lot of stress on our relationship," she told reporters.

"You know, walking out of our apartment [there would be] potential paparazzi following us everywhere -- so we knew that we could still stay involved in the stuff up [in L. A.] but be removed, because San Diego is so beautiful and peaceful.  It's just going to be such a nice place for us to start our life together."

Fedotowsky also said she isn't worried her showbiz desires could damage her relationship with Martinez in a similar way that The Bachelor star Jake Pavelka's recent Dancing with the Stars participation allegedly impacted his relationship with now-former fiancee Vienna Girardi.

"No, it really, really doesn't.  I think the limelight and Dancing with the Stars and all those things -- that's not what tore Jake and Vienna apart.  What tore Jake and Vienna apart is something within the relationship, the relationship was already broken," she said.

Instead, Fedotowsky compared Martinez and herself to Live with Regis & Kelly star Kelly Ripa and her husband Mark Consuelos.


"I don't know -- we've been compared to the bigger version of Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, so look at them," she laughed.  "They are both in show business and, I mean from what I know about the relationship, they're super in love and make it work.  I think if you have a string foundation and relationship, you make it work.  And we talk about it all the time."

Fedotowsky also admitted she's hoping to follow in Pavelka's footsteps and compete -- along with possibly Martinez, as well -- on this fall's Dancing with the Stars edition but said they haven't been approached about the possibility yet, despite rumors claiming otherwise.

"We sat down with [Cameron Mathison] on Good Morning America and he was on Dancing with the Stars -- and we haven't been asked, but we know it could be a possibility, hopefully -- and we asked him, 'You sort of did that, and you're happily married, give us your advice, we want to make sure we put each other first and we make this work,'" he said.

"And we're just going about it in the best way that we know how, and I think honestly, right now for me, I know that this is sort of in terms of staying active, I guess, and staying busy -- me staying sort of in this entertainment world a little bit, as much as I guess people would want me to, will keep me busy and he's going to be super-busy with his insurance company.  So anything, if I was sitting home all day doing nothing, being a housewife, I probably wouldn't like that too much.  So I feel it would be healthy for us to both say busy but always put each other first."

Later, the couple admitted they are also interested in following in the footsteps of The Bachelor couple Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney and The Bachelorette couple Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter and having ABC broadcast their wedding.

"I think we're definitely open to that idea.  I think the money we can save we can use to invest in our lives and our life together, and you know what, it'd be kind of cool to share that moment with everybody as well and being able to have my family there and experience that with us is what I think is really important," Martinez said.


"Roberto has a big family and his mom told me he was thinking along the lines of 700 people at the wedding -- that can get expensive," Fedotowsky laughed.  "So we were thinking it just makes sense for us to just take the money we'd have spent on a wedding and invest it in our future and our home and our potential  children's future.  We feel like that's what's really important and that's what we should be focusing on."

However the couple admitted they aren't sure whether they will actually get married by the Summer 2011 timeframe they mentioned during Monday night's After the Final Rose broadcast.

"We've said possibly spring or summer of next year, but we also are like, 'Well, if we say that and then we get really busy and we don't get married people are going to say something is wrong.'  So we're like, 'Oh god, maybe we shouldn't even say that.'  We've just happy," Fedotowsky said.

Although they met on The Bachelorette, Fedotowsky and Martinez said they don't really consider themselves to be a 'Bachelor couple' and aren't focused on the reality dating franchise's poor relationship record, which has produced only two marriages in its 19 previous editions.

"In terms of failed [The Bachelor and The Bachelorette] relationships, we realize there's been a few [but] one of the ways we've talked about it is we don't consider ourselves a 'Bachelor couple.'  I mean we are, but we don't lump us into a category, we just realize we're in love.  To us we're just a normal couple, we're not to be categorized, I guess we feel like," Fedotowsky said.  "I think we're both really simple.  We appreciate the simple things in life, so we don't want the helicopters and the crazy lavishness of all the dates.  We just want to hold hands walking down the street."

"We're a normal couple and we're in love and we're happy and there's no reason for us to think that it won't work."


Martinez agreed.

"I think for me, [Ali] will always be a priority for me.  She'll always be at the top of my list, she's what makes everything else worth it and to me that's what life is about -- sharing your life with somebody special and she's that special person for me.  so she's always going to be at the top of my list," he told reporters.  "Other than that, I don't know,I haven't really followed too many of the other couples so I don't really think in terms of 'we're a Bachelor or Bachelorette couple.'  I just think of it in normal terms."

"For me, throughout the whole show -- and we had all these amazing dates and went to all these cool places -- but I always kept it in perspective [that] this is not what our normal life will be like... going on all these lavish trips all the time.  So early on I just pictured my life with her doing simple little things, and honestly I couldn't wait for that.  And now that it's finally here, I'm just so excited," he added later in the call.

During the call, the couple also denied Us Weekly's recent reports that they may have previously known each other because he played in a collegiate baseball league near her Williamstown, MA hometown the summer after her high school graduation in 2002. 

"We definitely didn't know each other before the show... he did play baseball for the Steeplecats, which is in the town next to my hometown," The Bachelorette star said.  "And as we've been talking, it's funny, my sister even wrote me and said, 'Oh my gosh, I think Roberto actually met this guy whose a friend of ours at this place' and I think when we actually go home to my hometown it will be interesting to see how much overlap there is in our lives there that we never even knew about."

"I wish we did, I wouldn't have needed to go on the show, I'd have fielded her up right there," Martinez added.


In addition, Martinez also briefly commented on a recent In Touch Weekly report in which Gabrielle Ortiz, an alleged ex-girlfriend, accused him of being a "player" and letting her think he "was dead" by canceling his cell phone and deleting his Facebook and leaving for The Bachelorette without telling her.

"I'll say this, I thought she was a friend, and I was just kind of disappointed in the whole thing," he said. "There's not really a whole lot more I want to say about that, but the whole thing was disappointing to read about."

Fedotowsky and Martinez both recommended that Lambton should serve as the star of the next The Bachelor edition.

"I think the obvious choice is Chris," Martinez said.

"I completely agree with Roberto," Fedotowsky added.  "If Chris chooses to do it, I think it's his, the experience.  I just want him to be happy and we wish him the absolute best."






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