The Bachelor bachelorette Jess Girod has admitted she was "blindsided" by her breakup with Zach Shallcross and how their relationship came to a fiery and emotional end.
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"I definitely was blindsided," Jess, 23, told Us Weekly at the recent The Bachelor: The Women Tell All taping in Los Angeles, CA.
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During the February 27 episode of The Bachelor, Jess expressed to Zach how she was disappointed, frustrated and losing confidence in her herself and their relationship because Zach had yet to invite her on a one-on-one date.
Other than Greer Blitzer -- who was diagnosed with COVID-19 after visiting London and had to quarantine -- Jess was the only woman who had yet to accompany Zach on a solo date by the time they traveled to Estonia, which was Week 6 of Zach's journey to find love.
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Instead of comforting Jess and validating her concerns, Zach criticized how her focus was on the wrong thing, which led to a tense exchange.
"Throughout our journey, he always reassured me and validated me. He always told me everything's going to be okay and to just kind of hold out, hold on," Jess explained.
"So as time went on and I wasn't getting that special quality time with him, I was definitely in my head of like, 'What am I missing here? There's nothing being communicated, that's wrong.'"
The E-commerce coordinator from Winter Springs, FL, reasoned, "So in a way, I saw it coming because it just wasn't adding it up, but yeah, I definitely was blindsided still."
Jess explained that a bachelorette got to spend a whole day with Zach on a one-on-one and she had been waiting for that time to tell her story and be more vulnerable with The Bachelor star.
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Zach seemed bothered and surprised by Jess' emotion over her string of group dates, which she insisted to Zach was "a big deal" to her and every other woman on the show.
"That shouldn't be a thing," Zach snapped, later adding, "I never want you to think of this as a process, where you can only open up on a one-on-one."
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Zach ultimately pointed out how he and Jess had "a disconnect," and so they seemingly mutually agreed to part ways.
Jess told Zach that she wasn't going to fight for him because she deserved and needed a man -- after painful failed relationships in her past -- to fight for her, and Zach told the cameras that he and Jess were "butting heads" and he never expected their romance would end that way.
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"The exit was frustrating on both ends," Jess said, adding how she and Zach were both "confused" about how things had fallen apart so quickly.
For Jess' part, she left the show in tears and a bit angry, venting in a confessional, "This doesn't feel fair... I have done everything that he has asked, and... all I needed was quality time, and he wasn't processing that."
Jess continued, "Is it the craziest thing to want to go on a date with somebody I could potentially marry? Like, it's the craziest thing that I'm upset that I'm the last one [without a solo date]?"
Jess complained in her final words about how she wanted to feel chosen and it was "crazy" that Zach was so "shocked" by her hurt.
Jess admitted to Us that her tense and emotional departure "wasn't a good feeling to sit with."
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"Because it was like, 'Well, what could I have done better? What could I have said better? Should I have fought for him?'" Jess said.
"But also, I want someone to fight for me. So it was a very weird place that we left off."
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However, Jess confirmed that she believes it was "100 percent" a misunderstanding between the pair.
"I think he's an amazing guy. I think he was doing the best he could in the moment," Jess shared of Zach.
"I was doing the best that I could in the moment. We both just weren't understanding each other, and it doesn't mean that I was in the right and he was in the wrong."
Jess insisted there was actually "no right or wrong," especially since Zach was just "speaking his truth."
"I was speaking mine the best that we could, so I was not ever upset with him. It was more of just, like, I wish we could have understood each other," she concluded.
While Jess didn't seem to think Zach had treated her poorly or acted too harshly, The Bachelor's Season 21 star Nick Viall called Zach "a total d-ck" on Twitter.
"It's literally all about the one on one. Zach knows that. He made Jess feel like she messed up for expressing a valid concern," Nick tweeted.
He later added, "Zach is acting like the guy who gets mad at his girlfriend for not letting him know she wanted validation on her birthday."
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Zach also eliminated Aly Jacobs during The Bachelor's latest episode. That leaves only seven women heading into the next episode, which will feature the cast in Budapest for Week 7 of Zach's The Bachelor journey to find his best friend and future wife.
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