Obviously the show has seen a lot of breakups. Do you have a theory on why so many of these relationships fail?

"There are so many factors that come into play when you are introduced to this life. I don’t fault anyone for breaking up. You come from different worlds; you have 10 weeks together, which is probably equivalent of, like, three dates; and now you’re tied to this person who you don’t know. You get their phone number after you have a ring and you have to pretend for four months that you aren’t with that person. So you’re living this very weird life where one person is out doing media, touring, and talking to all these really pretty people and being the center of attention and you could potentially feel forgotten. "There’s a lot of animosity that could come up in that situation and it’s really hard, especially with being the girl and the guy's getting all of this girl attention. I mean, the fan base of The Bachelor is women. The women watch it, they fawn over the guy, and there’s more competition after the show ends. So you think it’s done and it potentially is not, and if the guy is not making you feel secure about your relationship then it could go south very quickly. The amount of attention that you get, you could take it one way or the other. You have to figure out how you’re going to live your life. In any relationship you have to sacrifice a lot to make it work, and usually that doesn’t mean you’re staying in the same city. So I had to move and that was a huge issue. I had to give up my career and my family and my friends and if you’re not feeling like you’re being supported on the other end...well, you’re not married yet. Who cares if you break up?" So better to break up than get divorced. You mentioned pretending not to be with Sean while the show was airing. Were you able to tell your family about the engagement?

“Yes, for sure. You’re able to tell a very limited few [people] that you can trust, but still you’re walking around and let’s say ex-boyfriends call you and you’re like ‘Oh sorry, I can’t see you because of blah blah blah,’ or you can’t go on dates for four months but you have to make excuses. ‘Oh, it’s in my contract.’ You have to go back to work and not talk about it and you feel very isolated because the life that you had before is just a little bit altered and it feels like a dream. I’m going through magazines seeing how much my ring was worth and I can’t say a thing, I can’t celebrate this engagement. It’s just super-strange.”