Jake Pavelka has revealed he still had feelings for Gia Allemand and envisioned the possibility they could still end up together.

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"Did you fall in love with her on The Bachelor?" Dr. Phil star Phil McGraw asked the former The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love star during his appearance earlier this week on the syndicated daytime program.

"Yes, and I never fell out. But the timing was off," Pavelka replied.

"You made a quote which I thought was very reflective... you said, 'I stayed out of Gia and [boyfriend Ryan Anderson]'s way but always held hope that one day I would end up with Gia," Dr. Phil noted.

"I exercised respect for Ryan. I was not in love with Gia but I loved Gia," Pavelka said.

Allemand was reportedly found by Anderson hanging on the staircase in his New Orleans home on August 12, and after remaining in critical condition and on life support for two days, she passed away when her life support was withdrawn due to the fact she had a loss of brain and organ function.

Allemand competed for Pavelka's heart during The Bachelor's fourteenth edition, which aired in 2010. Allemand was one of the last three bachelorettes in the running to receive his final rose, however, he eliminated her in favor of Tenley Molzahn and Vienna Girardi at the season's penultimate Rose Ceremony.

"Gia was just out of a really bad relationship and was just not ready for another relationship," Pavelka explained of their romance on The Bachelor.

"Gia and I after the show continued to be really great friends. Our relationship just blossomed into something amazing. She truly is one of the most amazing friends I've ever had, so any romantic feelings I had after The Bachelor, I put on the shelf and started rooting for Gia and Ryan... She had insecurities in some of the same things I did. She wanted to be married. She wanted to be a mommy. She expressed that."

Pavelka then re-lived the moment when he first learned Allemand was in grave health.

"On August 13, I was on a layover and a media source started calling my phone and then I got a text and it said, 'Gia's in trouble. She's had a serious medical condition. She's in the ICU and it looks iffy.' That was a very long 24-hour period. I found out Gia died through mutual friends," Pavelka told Dr. Phil.

"I don't remember a whole lot. All I remember is just I cried for three days. I just want her back, but right now, I'm just trying to accept that she's gone. I'm waiting for this to just turn into anger. I'm waiting to get really angry with her and go, 'Why did you do this? Why? You did this and you were gone in 60 seconds after you came off that banister and now I have to deal with it for 20 years. I'm going to be 70-years-old and I'm still going to think about this.'"

Added the pilot, "If you had told me three weeks ago that I would fly out from Texas and talk to Dr. Phil about Gia committing suicide, I wouldn't have believed it. I miss her. I miss her so much."

However, Pavelka was thankful he was able to have his last moments with Allemand and her family at the funeral.

"I was scared that I wasn't going to get to say goodbye," Pavelka said.

Following Allemand's stint on The Bachelor, she returned to compete on the first and second seasons of the reality dating show's Bachelor Pad spinoff, which aired in 2010 and 2011 on ABC respectively.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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