The Golden Bachelorette star Joan Vassos has reacted to Pascal Ibgui quitting the show before their overnight Fantasy Suite date.
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RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Pascal said he viewed Joan more like a friend, and so he bowed out of the competition instead of seeing if their connection could develop into something more.
Joan said on the show that she had strong feelings for Pascal and could see a future with him, but she told Katie Couric Media in an interview that she wasn't exactly shocked by Pascal's choice to leave.
"There were hints before [the Fantasy Suite] that things might not be great," Joan explained.
"At his hometown date, he said, 'I've had some heartbreak in my life, and I just need to move slowly.' It seemed like a little bit of a red flag, but not a final thing -- he was keeping the door open."
Pascal had been in a relationship with a woman he truly loved about a year before his The Golden Bachelorette stint. The couple almost got engaged, but Pascal said they often fought and broke up multiple times, which resulted in him ending the romance for good.
Joan therefore said she actually considered eliminating Pascal after her Final 4 hometown dates with Pascal, Jordan Heller, Charles "Chock" Chapple, and Guy Gansert.
"When I needed to make a decision about the last person I was going to take to Tahiti, it came down to Pascal and Jordan, and Jordan seemed less sure about us," Joan recalled.
"He was fairly certain he wouldn't make it to the place I needed him to be on the last day. So I decided to bring Pascal, knowing that it was a bit of a risk."
Joan said she felt like she and Pascal "were in a good place," however, when he accepted a rose at that Rose Ceremony.
"At that last Rose Ceremony at the mansion, he whispered to me, 'My walls are coming down,'" Joan recalled.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWJoan began her Fantasy Suite date with Pascal with optimism and high hopes as a result.
But their date was not exactly thrilling or fun-loving. The pair, instead, had a cultural experience in which they tried new foods and watched locals dance.
Joan shared how Pascal seemed "more at ease" in the beginning because he could understand the language and translate for her.
"But that also put the burden on him to be hosting the date when it's usually my job," Joan explained.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
The pair then participated in a traditional Tahitian bonding ceremony, which appeared to be similar to a wedding.
The serious, romantic wedding-like atmosphere rocked Pascal's world and made him "freak out" that he wasn't ready to commit to Joan, nevermind get engaged to her at the end of The Golden Bachelorette process.
Joan admitted she and Pascal were both "awkward" and "way more uncomfortable" during that portion of the date.
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"He clearly was uncomfortable. He was sweating. I could tell things weren't good, and by the end of it, I felt like he couldn't get out of there fast enough. He was done. The ceremony was fairly long, and it was emotional, and neither one of us felt comfortable doing it."
Joan added, "So I knew, as that date ended, we were not in a great place."
Joan explained how the ceremony "scared" Pascal and she was also "not ready for that kind of vibe" at all.
"So when the date was over, we were not in a good place, and I knew that," Joan reiterated.
Once Pascal left the show and broke Joan's heart in a clearly tense moment, Joan was left crying, feeling "unlovable" and pretty hopeless.
"I thought that I was choosing, and the men were automatically going to like me. I thought it would be way harder for me to have multiple relationships and try to figure out my heart. It shouldn't have been as hard for them, in my mind," Joan confessed to Katie.
"I thought that when I got down to the Final 4, they would want to be with me, and that they would be as far along in their emotions and the journey as I was. I found that they weren't, and that was really shocking."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
Joan had told her bachelors throughout the process that it was a two-way street and they could reject her roses at any time, but she admitted she was "surprised" when a couple of her Final 4 guys -- Pascal and Jordan, namely -- weren't sure about her.
"I thought, at that point, I could be confident that they felt the same way about me as I did them," Joan said. "I certainly didn't expect it!"
On The Golden Bachelorette's latest episode, Pascal could sense that Joan was very hurt and wasn't okay, and so he snapped in a confessional that he wasn't okay either. He even swore at production and shooed the cameras away.
"I hate hurting people. I am hurt right now. I'm hurting because I hurt her, and I feel terrible about that right now -- terrible," Pascal explained in a confessional.
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Joan whispered to Pascal, "I love you," on his way out, and he replied -- but in a platonic manner -- "I love you, too. Goodbye."
Joan admitted the breakup was hard for her and she felt "like a failure."
Joan, losing hope, cried to The Golden Bachelorette cameras, "I might leave with nobody. That could happen. I was afraid coming into this, but then my fears started getting better. And now I am afraid again."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
