Bachelorette Jillian Harris Opens Up About Wes, Her Experience On The Show, And The Final Two Guys

For Jillian Harris, the search for love has been nothing short of exhausting.

But the 29-year-old star of The Bachelorette has just about reached the end of her 10-week journey, which so far has seen the Vancouverite travel to L.A., Western Canada, Spain, and Hawaii, all the while whittling down the number of bachelors vying for her attention from 30 to the two men who remain.

Fans are divided over whether Harris should choose Ed or Kiptyn, and some are still rooting for dark horse Reid, eliminated in the ninth episode, who apparently returns to profess his love for her. CityNews.ca spoke with Harris by telephone on Wednesday, and while the down-to-earth interior designer couldn’t give away what her decision in Monday’s finale would be, she promised it would be a dramatic episode. In it, her parents meet both Ed and Kiptyn in the lush setting of Hawaii, and they grill the guys on their feelings for Jillian and how they see the future unfolding.

“I spoke to my parents right after the guys met them, and I said to my dad, ‘I really like both of these guys. I’m crazy about both of them, I’m falling in love with them, but in a real life scenario I wouldn’t be ready for a proposal with either one. What should I do?,'” she explained.

“And my dad, it was funny because my dad is very protective over me and he was like, ‘Babe, you signed up for this. Getting a proposal doesn’t mean you’re walking down the aisle right then. Getting a proposal in this scenario signifies: I’m ready. I like you, I love you. I’m happy that we’ve gone from zero-60, let’s have a proposal, get engaged and start a life together, and a year from now, see where things are at and then get married.’ My dad was right. Was I ready to get engaged after that amount of time? Maybe not, I mean who really is? But I was not going to accept a proposal from someone I’m not madly in love with.”

When asked to name the best qualities of the top three guys, Harris pointed to Reid’s sense of humour and quirkiness, Kiptyn’s genuine nature, and Ed’s well-roundedness.

“I’ve never fallen in love with more than one person, so when I started to have romantic connections with the final, you know, six guys even, that was very confusing for me,” she noted. “I wasn’t surprised because I knew it could happen, I’ve just never been that lucky in my life to have that many guys of that calibre in my life before.”

Harris has now had the opportunity to look back at the episodes and see the behind-the-scenes shots she wasn’t a party to, including the diaries of the departed. In the most recent one, Reid admitted he was falling in love with Jillian and blamed himself for not being more open with her about it. Knowing that, would Jillian have reconsidered saying goodbye to the Philadelphia realtor she came to call her ‘Honey Bear?’

“I had felt that from him on the bench, so it wasn’t really a surprise to me,” Jillian remarked. “It’s always hard to hear somebody regretful for the things that they did or didn’t say, but I guess for me . it’s funny, the show, as we were taping was one thing, and it was very emotional for me and very hard on me. Now that the taping is over and I’ve essentially made all of the decisions I needed to make on the show and I’ve been very happy with them, watching it played back to me is just television.”

Harris says the most surprising part of the whole experience has been how much it took out of her.

“I think because I was so serious about it, but I did have fun, and I stayed awake late,” she said. “I also was very emotional, so many highs and so many lows. In normal life I feel like I deal with drama and emotion very well but on the show I felt like I was so exhausted that even the simplest conversation would sometimes get me teary-eyed. I think the stress of it is what surprised me the most. Other than that it was every girl’s dream.”

The Bachelorette season finale airs Monday, July 27 (8:00-10:02 p.m., ET), with the After the Final Rose special airing the following night, Tuesday, July 28 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET).

There was so much Jillian had to say we couldn’t fit it all in one story, so here are the Vancouverite’s thoughts on a number of hot topics relating to this past season.

On the infamous night in the fantasy suite with Ed:

“Because a lot of assumptions were very specific about that episode I’ll just paint the picture of what that day was like. We were both stressed out, I think that Ed was almost on the verge of a nervous breakdown from all the stress of what he was going through. His parents were there. We both got sunburns, I’m talking blisters, the next day. I was nauseous, I wasn’t feeling well. There was no A/C in the room because the A/C makes noise so they have to shut it off in order to film. It was probably in the 90s in that room, or in the 80s, it was swelteringly hot. And I was talking to him about ex-girlfriends, and just really uncomfortable conversation, and I think he was ready to throw up. When I was rubbing oil on him, they made it look really sexy, but I’m telling you there was nothing sexy about it. It was aloe vera, and we were both so awkward. By the time the cameras left, we both just passed out. In the morning we were stressed out that we hadn’t used our time to see if we had a physical connection.”

On her dream wedding:

“Totally the same picture (today). I have this dream wedding of being somewhere in the Canadian Rockies or the Okanagan, in a field, and there’s mountains all around us, and gingham tablecloths, a live band, hopefully the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and just tons of people but nothing really fancy. I’m talking cabbage rolls, and ham, that my Auntie Becky would probably make. Lots of kids running around, just very down to earth and nothing over the top.”

On who she’d like to remain in touch with:

“There’s a lot of them that I believe would either make great friends or that are just very unique characters. Michael Stagliano is definitely one of them, Tanner P., I would love to check in with Wes and just see how he’s doing with all of this chaos. He’s still somebody that I respect as an individual whether or not people think he deserves that, I do.”

On eliminated bachelor Wes:

“My opinion doesn’t change of Wes because I’m a super-stubborn girl, and my opinion that I had of him on the show is the same opinion I have of him now. Girlfriend, no girlfriend, career, no career, I let him go not because of my suspicions of why he was there or if he had a girlfriend, I let him go because we weren’t a good match. There was always too much conflict and too much drama and I don’t want that in my life.”

On which of the eliminated guys would make a good Bachelor for the next series:

“I think Michael Stagliano and his (twin) brother would make good Bachelors. They have such good energy and they’re ready to be married and ready to have kids. They’re not big drinkers. I feel like America and Canada is really looking for some wholesome TV. I believe that the Stagliano brothers would make excellent Bachelors and would bring back a different level to the show.”

Read The Single File blog on Citytv.com

Participate in the Bachelorette live blog on Citytv.com during the finale on Monday night — for more information click here.

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