The Bachelor alum Amanda Marsh has opened up about her split with Season 1 The Bachelor star Alex Michel 18 years after their season aired on ABC.

Amanda received Alex's final rose and an invitation to move to California to be with him -- but no marriage proposal -- on The Bachelor's inaugural season, which aired in 2002 on ABC.

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Amanda and Alex's season was recapped on Monday night's episode of The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons -- Ever!, and at one point, Amanda checked in with host Chris Harrison via videochat.

Harrison asked Amanda what happened after the show and what went wrong in her post-The Bachelor relationship with Alex.

"We had to kind of get back to reality and I moved to California and Alex relocated, and I just couldn't get settled in," Amanda admitted.

"I didn't know where to go for work, I turned down some amazing opportunities for Playboy and some other entertainment options."

She continued, "And I had a callback from Kansas City to be a deejay on a rock [radio] station, so I moved back home and we continued to have the relationship long-distance for about a year."

However, the distance apparently presented too many obstacles for the couple to overcome.

"That was difficult," Amanda noted. "We tried to make it work but it was hard. That's a pretty long distance."

Harrison pointed out Amanda and Alex basically became "overnight celebs" after their The Bachelor season aired, which was probably "a rude awakening" for them both.

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"It was," Amanda agreed. "It was overwhelming."

"A girl from Kansas -- this is a dream, right? I was always hearing about celebrity life, and to be featured in magazines that I used to read growing up as a child and I'm going to red-carpet premieres."

Amanda recalled "one exciting moment" at a red-carpet event "when Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were walking towards us and she turned and said, 'Congratulations.'"

"The fact she even knew who I was or watched the show was really surreal," Amanda gushed.

Harrison admitted The Bachelor producers have tried to get ahold of Alex for years, unsuccessfully.

"Have you heard from him?" Harrison asked Amanda, who is now a nurse practitioner and mother of one.

"I have not heard from him," Amanda confirmed.

"It's been about six years since we lost contact. We had a nice breakup actually and kept in touch. We sent emails saying 'happy birthday' over the years, but it's been six years and I haven't heard a thing from him either."

Amanda shared, "I would love to catch up with him. We had so much fun together and I have nothing but fond memories of that experience, and I hope he does as well."

Amanda, now known as Amanda Marsh Caldwell, later married her childhood friend Jay Caldwell and the couple had a daughter named Chloe together.

Amanda is currently engaged to an advertising executive named Chris Evans and lives in Kansas.

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Back in January 2003, reports swirled Alex had written and phoned his The Bachelor runner-up, Trista Rehn, for months after his season ended. Upon learning of the secret relationship, Amanda allegedly dumped Alex.

In an interview with TV Guide, Trista claimed Alex came down with a bad case of buyer's remorse almost immediately after choosing Amanda.

Trista said Alex told her in May 2002 he had "made a mistake" and repeatedly reached out to her while he was living with Amanda in Los Angeles, CA.

"He'll probably deny that he said [that he'd made a mistake], but that's the reason I continued to correspond [with him]," Trista said at the time. "Going by what he told me, I didn't see anything wrong" with writing to him.

Trista insisted she broke off the correspondence with Alex because her family and friends didn't like him and a public appearance by Alex and Amanda at the May 2002 Kentucky Derby added to her doubts, even though she "really wanted to be with Alex" at the time.

Trista went on to star as the very first Bachelorette, and she is now happily married to her The Bachelorette winner Ryan Sutter.

The Bachelor will soon begin production on its 25th season starring almost-The Bachelorette contestant Matt James.