Demi Burnett says she regrets how she behaved while she was engaged to former fiancee Kristian Haggerty last year.
The Bachelor In Paradise alum, 25, told Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti’s Almost Famous Podcast that she was the bad person in the relationship.
Fans may recall that just before she headed to Mexico for Bachelor in Paradise last summer, Demi — whom fans first met during Colton Underwood’s season of The Bachelor — began an off-camera relationship with Kristian, which she claimed was her first romance with a woman. Cast members on Bachelor in Paradise are usually supposed to be single.
In a controversial move, producers for the ABC dating show broke protocol and flew Kristian to Mexico where the couple’s relationship blossomed and culminated with Demi proposing to her lady love on the beach during the season finale.
But in the new interview, Demi revealed there was trouble in paradise after she and Kristian left Paradise .
Demi said that a few months after exiting the show, she “just wasn’t feeling it anymore” with Kristian. While she revealed that her ex was “very loving” and “the best girlfriend,” Demi admitted that she did a bad job of reciprocating.
“I wasn’t as good to her as she was to me,” the Bachelor alum said. “I was kind of distant…. I was freaked out.”
Demi added that the guilt she felt over Kristan’s unreciprocated feelings for her made her feel “like a garbage human being.” She admitted that she wasn’t “anywhere near ready” to be in a public relationship with a woman, especially without the support of her family.
During the podcast interview, Demi also said she became “angry” after Kristian proposed to her during the Bachelor in Paradise reunion last September. Demi admitted that she was put off by the move because that had been her “thing” when she proposed to Kristian on the beach in Mexico.
“People don’t propose to each other like that normally,” Demi said of the re-proposal. “I didn’t like the ring at all.”
Demi said she feels “bad’ about acting like ” a brat” over her former fiancee’s sweet gesture.
The reality TV veteran also laughed off a question about if she would have gotten engaged to Kristian had they not appeared on Bachelor in Paradise together.
“Definitely not,” Demi said.
Still, the Bachelor Nation star added that she does feel bad for how her relationship with Kristian played out and wishes she could do it over.
“I wish I could go back and do it better,” Demi said. “Treat her way better. Like she deserves because she deserves way better than what I gave her.”
On social media, some Bachelor in Paradise fans have said that they think Demi’s relationship with Kristian was fake from the start, but in the podcast interview, she does sound remorseful over how things ended.
Demi is currently in a relationship with musician Slater Davis, while Kristian is dating singer Taylor Blake.