Bachelor in Paradise bachelor Joe Amabile has set the record straight on the extent of his previous relationship with Kendall Long, insisting they were never engaged.
ADVERTISEMENT
While Joe and Kendall hashed out their history on Bachelor in Paradise's Monday-night episode, fellow cast members could be heard referring to Kendall as Joe's former fiancee.
RELATED LINK: MICHELLE YOUNG'S 'THE BACHELORETTE' SEASON 18 BACHELORS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED BY ABC -- MEET THE MEN! (PHOTOS)
"I wasn't engaged #bachelorinparadiseabc," Joe, 34, tweeted during the episode.
Joe subsequently "liked" a tweet poking fun at Kendall's Bachelor in Paradise entrance, Us Weekly reported.
ADVERTISEMENT
When Kendall stepped on the beach in a stunning red crop top and skirt during last week's episode, she approached Joe while he was lounging on a daybed with Serena Pitt and other cast members.
"Hey butthead," Kendall said.
"Hi," Joe replied.
"Want to go talk?" Kendall asked.
"Yeah," Joe responded with a smile.
ADVERTISEMENT
The tweet read, "That 'hey butthead' line made me wanna cut my eyeballs and ears off #BachelorInParadise."
When Kendall and Joe sat down for a chat -- with Serena, Joe's BIP Season 7 love interest, watching from a distance -- Joe admitted to his ex that staying in Paradise was a tough decision to make because they were "really in love" and happened to fall in love on that exact beach.
"It's difficult for me to not have you be a part of my life. I do want you in my life... in some capacity, and it's hard to not have that," Kendall said with tears in her eyes.
"You try to move on, but for some reason, it doesn't feel right and it's hard to... At first, I was absolutely terrified of coming."
Kendall explained their early 2020 breakup was difficult for her because they never fell out of love -- it was logistics that broke them apart, meaning Kendall wanted to continue living in Los Angeles, CA, and Joe desired moving back to his hometown of Chicago, IL.
ADVERTISEMENT
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
"I still love Joe," Kendall told the cameras in a confessional, "and I hope he still has love for me."
Kendall explained how she couldn't accept having zero communication with Joe after he was her "everything" during their relationship.
"What happened was we broke up, we fought... we had our differences... but then I came back to [Los Angeles] four months after and I was pushing to have that conversation," Joe recalled.
"You were pushing to have me move to Chicago," Kendall argued.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I was pushing to have you try -- yeah, to come move to the city where I grew up in, where my friends and family are. I think if you just would've tried, we could've figured something out," Joe explained.
Kendall said things probably would've ended the same way because she had made it clear from the start of their relationship that moving away from her hometown was "a dealbreaker" for her.
"I wasn't going to change my mind and I think you were hoping I would," Kendall said.
"Your thing was that you didn't want to move anywhere for a man... I should've been more than just 'a man' at that point, and we could've tried it," Joe said.
Although Kendall suggested she may want to get back together with Joe, she also said she just needed closure from him so that she could move on with her life, which left Joe feeling confused.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
"I don't know if I still love Kendall. I'm telling you the truth... I have something going on with Serena that I don't want to just throw away. I don't. This is messy. I need to figure out what to do," Joe lamented in a confessional, adding that he felt "confused" and his reunion with Kendall was "going to be a problem."
Joe ultimately determined he wanted to continuing pursuing his romance with Serena, even though Kendall would begin dating other men on the same beach.
Joe wasn't exactly sure what Kendall's intentions were, but he assured Serena -- who broke up with Matt James on The Bachelor's 25th season after her hometown date -- that she was his "main priority."
Joe first competed for Becca Kufrin's heart on The Bachelorette's fourteenth season and then met Kendall on Season 5 of Bachelor in Paradise in Summer 2018.
Kendall and Joe fell in love on Bachelor in Paradise, but she began questioning whether things would work out long-term and self-sabotaged, and so they both left the show single and brokenhearted.
ADVERTISEMENT
Believing she had made a mistake, Kendall flew straight to Chicago after the show wrapped to talk to Joe again in-person and apologize, and she expressed to him on-camera, "I am in love with you."
The pair therefore resumed their relationship in the real world, but Kendall and the former grocery-store owner announced their "amicable" decision to split back in January 2020 after more than one year of dating and even talking about an engagement.
Kendall and Joe announced their breakup last year after moving in together in Los Angeles in April 2019.
It made sense for Joe to live in L.A. for at least a period of time because he competed on Season 27 of Dancing with the Stars in Fall 2018.
The pair attempted to remain friends after calling it quits.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group!