Entertainment

This 'Bachelorette' Moment Showed Just How Much Jed Ruined Hannah's Experience

by Lia Beck
ABC/John Fleenor

Well, Hannah's Bachelorette season is over, and it definitely didn't go the way she expected. Not long after Hannah gave her final rose to Jed and they got engaged, they broke up when she found out he was dating another woman when he joined the show. And considering this, it's no surprise that Hannah said her Bachelorette season was stolen from her. I mean, it pretty much was.

During her conversation with Jed — that we would later find out was actually their breakup — Hannah explained that because she ended up with him, a person who wasn't who she thought he was, it ruined the entire experience.

"Nothing is ever like how you plan it to be, but I just feel like this experience has been taken away from me," Hannah told Jed. "Because I didn't know all the details. I was being told half-truths and lies ... I feel right now like my decisions, my choices, were all tainted."

She's right. If she had known everything she knows now about Jed and his previous relationship while she was filming the show, he probably wouldn't have gotten so far in the competition, and she could be happily engaged to another man right now.

As further evidence of this, Hannah brought up how on night one, she kicked off a contestant named Scott because she found out he was dating someone when he joined the show. Jed could have taken that opportunity to come clean and hope she'd give him a second chance, but because he wasn’t upfront about things, he and Hannah both ended up with a very short engagement. Hannah asked Jed what was going through his mind when he saw Scott leave, but he said that throughout the experience he didn't want to bring up the prior relationship because he'd be risking losing her.

ABC/John Fleenor

It was particularly terrible to watch Hannah go through everything with Jed after the season had already been stolen by someone else. Viewers got the "Luke P. Show" up until the episode before the finale, and — even with ample warnings from other suitors — Hannah didn’t see his true colors until Fantasy Suites week. Thankfully, she sent Luke packing when she did, but the outcome still didn't end up favorably for her.

In addition to Jed essentially ruining the show for her, Hannah also noted that he tarnished her experience of getting engaged. "I felt like that was my day and I feel like that was taken from me and how special that was," she told Chris Harrison during the live portion of the episode. "It's been really hard to grapple with that, but I know that what I got is not what I ever wanted for a life partner."

But while Hannah feels the season was taken from her, she’s still holding her head high and learning from it all. And after watching her grow this season, who could expect any less? Hannah really seemed to find herself, and, for her, part of that means recognizing that she doesn't need a man.

"I am really proud of myself, because in the past, I've been in relationships where there wasn't always trust and there wasn't always honesty and I would stick with that," she told Chris. "And I would want— need a man, but then I would forfeit my happiness. But I have realized that I don't need a husband. I want a husband. I don't need one. And I'm really, really proud of the woman that I've become through all this, 'cause I am hella strong."

Hella strong, and going on a very normal, real world date with Tyler C. Not a bad place to be in after all of this. The season might have been taken from her in a sense, but she's going to be just fine.