Gabi Reveals Zach Wanted to Keep Sex Private: ‘He Had Doubled Down on it Being a Secret That Morning’

The Bachelor season 27 runner-up is opening up to the world about her side of the story — and what really went down in the fantasy suite with Zach.

“It’s gonna become a he-said, she-said thing here and I don’t want to do that. And ultimately, at the end of the day, like, he has a relationship he’s trying to protect,” Gabi said on the “Click Bait” podcast. “I’ve seen some of his interviews and if he wants to look at things one way of, like, ‘She asked can we keep things a secret?’ I felt like he asked me that. And I agreed — I was like, ‘Yes, I obviously want to keep this between us.’”

“Ultimately, at the end of the day, what happened happened, and I thought we were in a place where it was coming from a place of love,” she continued. “And I looked at this as way more than a TV show. And I felt like we had connected on that throughout the season of what’s going to happen after we leave this bubble. I just felt like we had an agreement, ‘This is going to be between us because this is our relationship.’”

She then recalled what went down after their fantasy suite date.

“When he came to speak to me the next morning, I had no idea who was coming in my hotel room. I was completely blindsided,” Gabi said. “He had doubled down on it being a secret that morning before the camera crews came in. I said it on After the Final Rose. I remember I was brushing my teeth, he came up behind me, he kissed me on the back of the head, and he said, ‘This is just between us.’

And I said, ‘Yes, this is just between us.’ It was probably the second, third time we had said, ‘This is just between us, it’s our relationship.’ And so when he came into my hotel room, what he said to me was, ‘I don’t want to start a relationship up with secrets.’ And I thought maybe at the time, ‘Maybe, he’s giving me space to be able to speak to my support team about this. He wants me to not feel like I have to keep a secret.’

And it left some room for interpretation because [according to him], ‘Sex of any kind is off the table.’ People can interpret that however they want to. What I was not aware of is the conversation that was being had with Jesse and his interviews where he was using my name speaking — what I think is in detail — about what had happened that caught me very off guard watching it back.”

“I’m OK with [Kaity] knowing and the people that should have known being made aware of it. But I think that there could have been some discretion used to when speaking about it, which is where I think that that hurts me.”

Zach also went on to admit he was “completely wrong” for how he handled things.

“In my mind — which was wrong — I felt like I needed to let everyone know that I went against my word,” he said. “In my mind, it was just the secret that I had to not have. … The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you like that. … From the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry.”

“It was very special, it was important and it was both what we both wanted and needed for the relationship. I feel terrible because, obviously, I’ve gone against my word and I have fears with how Kaity would feel, how would Ariel feel,” Zach said during the fantasy suite episode. “I have a guilt about the whole week now.”