Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s Bachelor ending is unlike anything we’ve seen before — and it was all captured on camera. As Us Weekly exclusively reported, after proposing to one of his final two, the race car driver later changed his mind, arriving to her home and breaking things off before reuniting with his runner-up.
While the situation is similar to that of Jason Mesnick‘s — the 2009 Bachelor who changed his mind during the After the Final Rose ceremony, ending things with Melissa Rycroft and reuniting with Molly Malaney — the big difference is it doesn’t happen on After the Final Rose.
In January, the 36-year-old arrived at the winner’s home to end things, with the cameras and crew capturing every moment. “Arie didn’t handle the situation well. He wasn’t very sympathetic or even nice,” an insider told Us Weekly. After the bad breakup, he flew to see his runner-up. Again, he was joined by cameras as he “begged her to take him back … and she did.”
All of this will be shown during the After the Final Rose ceremony, as cameras have been following both Becca Kufrin, 27, and Lauren Burnham, 25, as well as Luyendyk ever since the split. “All three sat down for interviews with Chris Harrison,” a production source told Us. “ABC isn’t worried this will hurt the franchise. They’re excited to have a dramatic ending.”Luyendyk told both Kufrin and Burnham that he loved them during the Monday, February 26, episode of The Bachelor, and told Us Weekly he wouldn’t change anything about how the show ended.
“The finale is going to be very interesting for fans to watch and my journey to get there, but I am very happy and it’s been an experience that I will remember forever,” Luyendyk Jr. told Us. “I really have no regrets doing it. All I can really say is that I’m very happy and it’s going to be fun for me to watch that back.”
The Bachelor airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Jamie Blynn, Carly Sloane and Emily Marcus.
