Peter Kraus has confirmed once and for all why he turned down The Bachelor gig for Season 22.

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"There was never a cold turkey like, 'This is not happening.' I was not ready for this and they agreed," Peter told Us Weekly of his conversations with ABC and The Bachelor producers.

As fans recall, the 31-year-old personal trainer and business owner from Wisconsin, left The Bachelorette absolutely broken hearted.

While Peter loved Season 13's star Rachel Lindsay, he just couldn't wrap his head around the idea of proposing marriage after dating her for such a short period of time. Rachel reluctantly let Peter go before the Final Rose Ceremony because she desired a serious commitment, and now she'd engaged to Bryan Abasolo.

Just weeks after production wrapped, ABC apparently approached Peter with The Bachelor opportunity as fans were swooning over him on social media.

"It was just a loose conversation of, 'Is this something you have ever thought about, something you would do?'" Peter recalled. "I was so distraught [over Rachel] at that time that it was something that I could never see myself doing."

Peter acknowledged the pros of starring on The Bachelor at the time, that he could "hopefully find love" and have "a lot of fun," but the cons also weighed heavily upon him.

"I feel like you lose control, and I'm definitely a control freak. There'd be a lot I wouldn't have final say on, and that would be hard for me," Peter confessed to Us.

For instance, Peter feared guaranteeing the network and fans that he'd get down on one knee at the end of The Bachelor.

"As far as a proposal, yeah I'm worried that at the end of it I wouldn't necessarily be able to, but it's not that I don't want to," Peter explained, adding that he wants to get engaged "once in my life."

"This is kind of part of my thought process: 'If I did get to the end and I do really, truly like somebody but for some reason I can't just say this is for sure that person, I don't want it to be the same outcome again.' People are forgiving once. I don't know if they're forgiving twice."

Peter started feeling pressure to pop the question to Rachel when they were in Geneva on The Bachelorette and their next date was supposed to be in his hometown.

"I hadn't had my second date yet! I was going to introduce her to my family, my friends, but most importantly my niece and nephew. I wanted to make sure our relationship was cemented as a real relationship, not just one being built on a reality TV show," Peter told Us.

"I don't think I've ever had a commitment issue. It was unfortunate that people took it that way. I'm ready for a lifelong love. It just wasn't enough time for me. It wasn't what I needed for myself... [But Rachel] has a very special connection with Bryan, [so] I don't think I would have been picked had I been ready."

When Peter was nursing his broken heart and debating whether to accept a starring role on The Bachelor, he revealed that Nick Viall, who is also from Wisconsin, reached out to him with some advice.

"He happened to call me and say, 'Hey, I know you're going through a hard time,'" Peter told the magazine.

"I was like, 'What do you think of this? Do you appreciate the experience?' He was appreciative and happy for it. Gave some really great words of advice that I'll keep between he and I. It was good. It was a good conversation with him."

In the end, ABC gave The Bachelor role to Arie Luyendyk Jr. from Emily Maynard's eighth edition of The Bachelorette, and Peter will be appearing on the new The Bachelor Winter Games spinoff.

But Peter has made it known there's still a chance he'll be the franchise's leading man in the near future.

"If it were to come up again, I would definitely consider it," Peter noted of The Bachelor.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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