Nick Viall has no regrets. Which is not to say he wouldn't have done anything differently on The Bachelorette if given the chance.
"You certainly have to be ready for the unexpected and everyone knows how skeptical I was, but I did try to have an open mind and allowed myself to fall in love," the man who did not end up with Andi Dorfman on the show's season finale this week told E! News' Ali Fedotowsky. "But you know, I think love can be found anywyhere. I didn't really go there looking for love! I was very clear with [Andi] about that."
But lo and behold, he did fall in love and he was left with a broken heart, a blindside that prompted him to pointedly confront Andi about their night in the infamous Bachelorette Fantasy Suite during the After the Final Rose special on Monday.
Asked if he really had no regrets, especially regarding him bringing up in front of millions of people that he and Andi had "made love" that night, Nick rolled his eyes.
"I love how people say that ['no regrets']," he said. "In hindsight you can always go back and change things. But again, over all, I was true to myself and I'm proud of that. I suppose I could always have said things differently or bit my tongue sometimes—without question maybe you'd go back and do things a little bit differently, but I certainly have no regrest about putting myself out there, no regrets about focusing on her and doing what I thought was best for our relationship."
And apparently, at the time, having sex seemed like the logical next move. But asked what he meant by saying he and Andi had "fiancée-type discussions" with each other, he insisted that more than physical intimacy transpired between them.
ABC/John O'Hara "I said fiancée-type stuff," Nick clarified. "I probably divulged enough information, so I won't get into too more detail now that I'm not caught up in the moment, but I mean it was a level of intimacy that was far beyond just the act of sex for me, which obviously was part of it."
"It was just very passionate, intimate, personal and emotional, just with the fact that an engagement was on the line, and that was understood by both of us and I was very clear about my feelings, and she was very clear about where she wanted this to go and I was very clear about where I thought it might be going," he said frankly. "I think that's kind of what I meant about it, in the situation."
Ultimately, Andi ended their relationship before the final rose ceremony, clearing the way for Josh Murray to be the only one proposing at show's end.
In the above clip Nick reveals whether Andi ever told him she loved him, and hear him talk about how the Bachelorette's body language made him feel that they would end up together.