‘The Bachelorette’: Becca Revisits Controversial ‘Bachelor’ Breakup With Arie

Now that some more time has passed, Becca Kufrin seems to understand the criticism over how Arie Luyendyk Jr. handled their on-camera breakup on The Bachelor.

“Watching it back, I didn’t realize that I said, ‘Just leave’ or ‘Get out’ that many times,” Becca told franchise fan Ellen DeGeneres on her Thursday show, referencing Arie ignoring her requests and loitering around after breaking her heart. “I felt like in the moment, my brain just kind of shut off and I was so shocked that I didn’t take in everything. But watching it back now I’m like, ‘Tell him to get out faster!'”

She then added, “But — that was a lot of Get outs.”

Speaking on The Ellen DeGeneres Show now two months after she was blindsided by both Arie and producers when the Bachelor called off their engagement with cameras rolling, Becca admits that she went through all the stages of grief over the split, but insists that she is ready to move forward as the next star of The Bachelorette. Though the Bachelor finale aired on March 5, the post-show breakup was actually filmed in January.

Becca, who is already in Los Angeles for production on the new season of The Bachelorette that airs in May, says her first rose ceremony films on Friday. She anticipates a long night when her batch of suitors make their limo entrances and first impressions, telling DeGeneres that filming her first night on The Bachelor lasted from 8:30 p.m. until 8:30 a.m. the following morning.

Though she says she doesn’t have a physical type, Becca — in a jab to Arie — says she is most interested in someone who is “honest and loyal.” And if her ex who made waves when he surprised her with a visit on The Bachelor shows up? “Please get back in the limo. Get out!” she says she would tell him.

When speaking to ABC’s new star, DeGeneres struggled to understand what many critics of the latest season of the long-running franchise are also likely wondering: Why, after everything she went through, would she sign up for this again? The choices made by producers to ambush Becca and by ABC to air the breakup footage — unedited and for nearly an hour — turned off some fans of the franchise, spurring think pieces and takedowns in the week that followed.

Though Becca appears to have forgiven production, she hasn’t spoken to Arie since their reunion on the live After the Final Rose special, and she doesn’t anticipate that they will speak again. “Just out of respect for Lauren and that relationship, I don’t think he will [ever call me again] — which I understand,” she said, referring to Arie’s now-fiancee, runner-up Lauren Burnham.

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The Bachelorette premieres May 28 on ABC.