Kevin Wendt Hints That He & Ashley I. Had Sex: 'I'm a Very Monumental Part of Her Dating Life'
The show may be called Bachelor in Paradise, but it’s seemed like anything but bliss for most of the couples lately.
Monday night’s episode saw the destruction of many seasoned pairs, with a few somehow making it out even stronger than before.
With Eric Bigger out on a date with late addition Cassandra Ferguson, Angela Amezcua remains back on the beach crying about how she thought “all in” meant “all in,” and doesn’t understand why her man would go out on a date when they already decided they weren’t seeing other people.
“I just feel absolutely blindsided,” she says.
When Ferguson, 26, confronts, Bigger, 30, about his relationship status during the outing, he tries to explain. “I think at this point she wants to take things slow, but I’m not getting anything in return because it’s off,” he tells her.
They share a few pecks at the end of their date, and upon their return to Playa Escondida, Bigger breaks it down for Amezcua, 29. “I don’t feel connected to you where you’re all in like you said,” he claims. “I don’t feel that.”
Once Bigger decides he wants to keep his options open going forward, Amezcua pulls over Ferguson to tell her side of the story. Ferguson actually empathizes with the model and says she didn’t realize how deep Amezcua’s feelings were for Bigger. So then she tells Bigger, “I feel like you could’ve approached this differently.”
“I feel like you could’ve started things fresh with me, you know what I mean? And it’s not. It’s a little tarnished now,” Ferguson continues. “It just feels all a little icky to me now. It just turns me off.”
This doesn’t stop Ferguson from later accepting a rose from Bigger, though, and Amezcua heads home.
A Saga Comes to an End
Bigger accepting a date from Ferguson after seeming solid with Amezcua sets off a chain of uncertainty among other couples, especially Tia Booth and Colton Underwood. While Booth, 26, says she “can see me and Colton being engaged at some point,” he tells Kevin Wendt differently.
“The more I keep thinking about things, I just don’t know,” the former NFL player says. “I don’t think my heart’s in it right now with Tia. I feel like right now I’m forcing it. I know what she deserves and she doesn’t deserve somebody that’s not all in.”
Underwood, 26, then breaks it to Booth. “I just wanted us to work so band, and it’s just not there,” he says. “You deserve somebody that’s going to be crazy about you every single day.”
Once Underwood assures the Arkansas native he gave their relationship an honest shot, they both decide to leave Paradise.
“I never wanted something as bad as I wanted it to work,” Underwood cries in the van on his way out. “I want somebody I’m going to spend the rest of my life with. I really did give it my all and I really did try. I don’t deserve her. I’m broken.”
John Graham sleeps through the whole thing, and when Jordan Kimball lets him know that Paradise‘s rockiest couple has departed, the former Venmo programmer responds, “Can they do that? What the hell?”
New Additions
Graham might’ve missed some of the action, but soon, he gets some of his own. Chris Harrison sends in Shushanna Mkrtychyan from Ben Higgins‘ season and Christen “Scallop Fingers” Whitney, who competed for a chance at love with Nick Viall, was on BiP last season and most recently tried her hand on ABC’s The Proposal.
Whitney, 26, asks Graham out on her double date with Mkrtychyan, who picks Kamil Nicalek. Mkrtychyan’s choice obviously upsets Annaliese Puccini, as she and the “social media participant” had been spending time together and seemingly solidified themselves as a couple. But Nicalek, 30, tells Mkrtychyan of his relationship with Puccini, “We made a mutual compromise that if somebody comes in, we would explore the option of meeting someone new. We’re in the friendship zone right now.”
So the two couples head out on a double date, another Jorges Tourges production, as Puccini expresses her worry to anyone on the beach who will listen. Despite her anxiety, the 32-year-old says in an on-camera interview, “If Kamil asked me to get engaged, I feel like even right now, it would be a yes.”
Luckily for Puccini, Nicalek comes back claiming he didn’t feel a connection with Mkrtychyan, 30. “I’m kind of happy to be back,” he tells a very relieved Puccini. “I felt like the connection was not there from the start.”
As the rose ceremony nears, Nicalek also explains his feelings to Mkrtychyan, who keeps referring to Puccini only as “the blonde girl.”
“I just felt like we didn’t really have much to talk about,” Nicalek says. “The connection I felt on the date wasn’t there. You had your guard up really high.”
Despite a last ditch effort from Chelsea Roy to also get Nicalek’s rose, he gives it to Puccini and Roy, 29, heads home. Mkrtychyan, however, scores a rose from the latest addition, German stud Jordan Mauger from the Bachelor Winter Games. Harrison brings him in literally one hour before the rose ceremony and refers to him as “Other Jordan,” with Kimball taking the title of “American Jordan.”
Mauger’s selection sends Whitney packing, since Graham, 28, gives his rose to Olivia Goethals. After all the roses have been handed out, though, Whitney breaks down.
“I feel like so lightheaded and like I might pass out,” she tells Wendt from the floor. “I can’t really hear anything.”
The Canadian firefighter calls for a medic, and viewers are left hanging on whether she’ll make it out of Mexico all right.
RELATED VIDEO: Bachelor in Paradise‘s Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon Are Engaged
Love Still Prevails
Wendt, 34, didn’t only try to fix Whitney’s failing health. He tried to mend his heart after his ex Ashley Iaconetti visited Paradise to get engaged to Jared Haibon, the man she left Wendt for after Winter Games.
Though Wendt has found a loving relationship with Astrid Loch, he admits watching a former girlfriend get proposed to hurt. (While Wendt and Iaconetti never confirmed she lost her virginity with him, they did accept an overnight date together on Winter Games.)
“I’m a very monumental part of her dating life, let’s just put it that way,” he tells Kimball. “I’m a big part of her life.”
Getting a date card is the pick-me-up Wendt needs, and he and Loch, 28, embark on a romantic evening together in which they profess their love for one another. “I want you to know that I’ve more than fallen for you and I do love you,” she tells Wendt, who returns the sentiment.
With Wendt and Loch, plus Kimball and Jenna Cooper, and Krystal Neilson and Chris Randone, still going strong, maybe love is still alive in Paradise after all.
Bachelor in Paradise airs Mondays and Tuesdays on ABC at 8 p.m. ET.
