WARNING: This story contains graphic language.
SPOILER WARNING: This story contains major spoilers from Monday’s Bachelorette finale.
The Bachelorette has made her choice at the final rose ceremony in the Maldives and accepted the marriage proposal of her now-fiancé.
Becca Kufrin — who was famously rejected by Bachelor Arie Luyendyk Jr. one season prior on The Bachelor — celebrated her engagement to Garrett Yrigoyen, capping Monday’s three-hour finale on ABC following the usual tears and drama.
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It came down to Yrigoyen and Blake Hortsmann.
She told Hortsmann he made her “hopeful again” and knew he’d be a partner and teammate. But she thought there was “just a better fit for us out there.”
She told Yrigoyen he was the first guy whom she wrote about in her journal and that he reminded her of her dad.
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Yrigoyen received the first impression rose on night one, but as episodes went on, Hortsmann appeared to be catching up.
Ultimately, she accepted a proposal from Yrigoyen, breaking Hortsmann’s heart in the process.
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“You’ve made me know that I can fall in love again, but through all that, because we were so constant, I think I was overlooking other relationships,” she explained to Hortsmann, after letting him finish almost all of his planned proposal. “There’s just one piece with somebody else that I’m not ready to say goodbye to yet. Quite honestly, I pictured this moment with you standing here the entire time for so long. I think we could be right and we could be partners, but there’s just a better fit for us out there.”
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“I didn’t expect this. I don’t know what to say,” he replied to Kufrin. “I don’t think anyone can make you as happy as I can.”
After Hortsmann broke down in tears, he said to the camera: “I can’t believe this is happening. I have to go through all of this alone afterwards now — I f***ing knew it. I did love her, I just thought she loved me back.”
Not knowing what had just happened, Yrigoyen was up next.
“I love you so much, not just now, but forever. You’re my world,” he said, before getting down on one knee.
Kufrin accepted his proposal and gave him her final rose of the competition. “You reminded me of home and you reminded me of one of the most important men in my life, and that was my dad,” she said, before finally telling him that she loved him.
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Not all of Bachelor Nation was happy with Kufrin’s choice due to controversy erupting early in the season over racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic Instagram posts that Yrigoyen had liked.
The posts Yrigoyen had “liked” on Instagram had made fun of transgender people; mocked feminists; claimed Parkland, Fla., school shooting survivor David Hogg was a crisis actor; and joked about throwing an immigrant child over the border.
https://twitter.com/Kaseyyy333/status/1026627691137646592
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The couple discussed controversy over Yrigoyen apologizing and deleting his Instagram account after liking posts that mocked transgender people and feminists.
“I’ll just take the time now,” Yrigoyen said. “Some stuff came out about my social media and I didn’t realize the effect behind a double-tap or a like on Instagram, so I put out an apology. I didn’t mean to offend anybody. I apologize for that still, I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt anybody’s feelings or do anything like that, so I stand by everything that I posted in my apology.”
Yrigoyen continued, “And I’m just trying to grow as a person and be a better person on a daily basis. She’s helping me through everything. We’ve been honest and open and transparent with one another since the beginning and when that all came out we attacked it because I feel like when I was liking things, it was going against things she stands for and that made it really hard on us as a couple. So when we started talking about that, we got through that together and we’re growing, we’re progressing and we’re moving forward.”
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Kufrin said she didn’t condone the situation, but she said Yrigoyen stands by his apology.
“The Instagram situation, I don’t condone that,” Kufrin said. “I know he stands by his apology, and he feels so bad for everyone that he did offend. And, you know, he didn’t mean it. But I just want to move forward and to learn and to grow and to continue to educate ourselves.”
Before becoming this season’s Bachelorette, Luyendyk Jr. chose Kufrin to be his bride in the previous season of The Bachelor in March.
But during the After The Rose show immediately following the Bachelor finale, Luyendyk Jr. revealed that they were no longer in a relationship together.
He called things off with Kufrin and rekindled his romance with the runner-up Burnham.
—With files from the Associated Press
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