The Bachelor runner-up Gabi Elnicki has admitted she felt extremely violated by Zach Shallcross considering he had shared their sex secret and then brutally dumped her at the Final Rose Ceremony.
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Zach had set a no-sex rule for himself going into Fantasy Suites with his Final 3 bachelorettes -- Gabi Elnicki, Kaity Biggar and Ariel Frenkel -- but he slept with Gabi and then bashed himself for being a failure and a disappointment.
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Gabi, a 25-year-old account executive from Pittsford, VT, therefore complained she felt like she had a "Scarlet Letter" on her chest, and then Zach made matters worse by spilling their sex secret to Kaity Biggar as well with the world watching at home.
Zach ultimately eliminated Gabi as his runner-up and got engaged to Kaity, and Gabi expressed in her final words how she felt "strung along" by Zach and "humiliated" on The Bachelor's Season 27 finale that aired Monday night on ABC.
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During Gabi's appearance on the live The Bachelor: After the Final Rose special hosted by Jesse Palmer, she was visibly upset and emotional when recalling how she and Zach had sex in the Fantasy Suite.
"I think we were feeling in love, and that's... a part of me that I'll never get back that I shared with him, and it's extremely violating that the entire nation knows everything," Gabi told Jesse.
Gabi recalled how Zach had been supportive and made her feel protected during The Bachelor season, and so she was "disappointed" by how he "aired" everything about their Fantasy Suite.
Gabi insisted there was so much more to their behind-the-scenes night together that went undiscussed, such as their conversations about emotional and mental health, therapy and their insecurities -- which ultimately led to consensual sex.
"We decided it was going to be between us," Gabi claimed of her sexual encounter with Zach.
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Gabi, wearing a sexy low-cut black dress, told herself going into AFR that she was going to be strong, but she had tears streaming down her face as she watched back the footage of her breakup with Zach.
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Gabi pointed out how reliving the Final Rose Ceremony all over again was even "worse" than being dumped in the moment.
"I had chosen him, and he didn't choose me back," Gabi lamented. "I want to be chosen first by my partner every day."
Gabi admitted she had a little bit of hope going into the Final Rose Ceremony.
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"I never thought a man who said he was falling in love with me would make me go through that," Gabi explained.
"When you're in this environment, you know what goes into every date and every day. That last day, you prepare a speech and you have hours and hours and hours of interviews. You get ready and you spend all morning waiting and waiting and waiting," Gabi said.
Gabi suggested Zach should have broken up with her earlier and in a more private and refined manner.
"I remember having the thought in the back of my head, 'Zach would never make you go through this.' So even though I had that gut feeling [I was the runner-up], I didn't think somebody who cared about me would make me go up there and go through all of that stress and anxiety and just the entire day. I mean, I felt humiliated," she complained.
Gabi shared how she was still healing from the split because she felt so connected, in love and safe with Zach during the process.
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When Zach and Gabi reunited live on the stage and engaged in a bit of an awkward embrace, Jesse asked Gabi what she wanted to say to Zach.
Gabi admitted that she felt sad and hurt -- and was "still hurting, even more," after watching the season back on television.
She went on to reveal what hurt the most about Zach revealing what had happened behind closed doors between the two of them.
"We connected that night. It was a moment we shared together and we both were happy about that... It was what we wanted. And we decided that it was going to be between us," Gabi claimed.
"We said that that night. And I remember I was brushing my teeth that night and you came up behind me and you kissed me on the back of my head and you said, 'This is just between us.' And I said, 'Yes, this is just between us.'"
Gabi said that when Zach came to her hotel room to say that he wanted to tell his other Final 2 bachelorettes about their sexual encounter, she was "blindsided."
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Gabi noted how she understood Zach was trying to be honest and was thinking about everyone's feelings, but she wished he had warned her that he was going to use her name and spill the intimate details about what happened.
"Because I didn't know that you were going to do that. And even when you talked to me in my hotel room, it was just, 'I don't want there to be secrets. I don't want to start a relationship with you based on a secret.' And it was never, 'Hey, [I'm going to announce] this is what happened and it was with Gabi.' I actually didn't know you had told everyone until I watched it last week," Gabi told Zach.
"And so for me to see that -- and it was beyond a TV show for me. I feel ashamed from a moment that felt like love to me, and it's very painful."
Gabi accused Zach of only telling Kaity, and not Ariel, about their night in the Fantasy Suite.
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"And I didn't know until watching that back. I wish you just would've sent me home and saved me all the pain that just went on and on. I'm reliving it all over again, but way worse than it was when I left Thailand," Gabi explained, wiping away her tears.
"Because I'm seeing it from a different point of view. I just thought it was between us. I thought it was love. I thought it was more than a TV show."
Gabi said while she's well aware "sex sells," she's become "a narrative" and "it's really painful."
Zach also teared up while Gabi spoke, and he said he had handled things "completely wrong" and there was as no excuse for what he did.
Zach said he felt compelled to tell everyone that he had gone against his word, but in reality, it hurt Gabi.
"In my mind, I thought it was this secret I could not have, but in reality, it was much more than that," Zach admitted. "There's nothing I can do to right that wrong, but I want you to know that last thing I wanted to do was hurt you like that. It was just me purely trying to be honest, and it doesn't matter."
Zach acknowledged how his actions had consequences that affected everyone on The Bachelor.
"From the bottom of my heart, I'm very sorry, and I hope you know that our relationship that we shared, that's something I will never forget, and that doesn't discredit what we shared," Zach concluded.
Jesse concluded the segment by telling Gabi she's an "amazing" person, and then Zach confirmed he is still together and happy with his The Bachelor winner, Kaity.
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