Hannah Just Explained The Real Reason She Kept Luke P. Around On 'The Bachelorette'

We've all been wondering all season why Hannah didn't send Luke home earlier on The Bachelorette, and on Monday night's Men Tell All, she gave a little bit more context as to why she felt such a strong connection to him. She said part of her affection for Luke was born out of her own insecurities about being the Bachelorette. He was the one, in her mind, who stood out immediately as being truly there for her, and not for anything else that the Bachelorette platform could bring.

That made Luke a frontrunner right off the bat, and it was hard for her to let go of that initial feeling, especially in an environment where she was already out of her comfort zone and looking for support.

Here's what she said about it, in her own words:

"With my relationship with Luke, I will never try to say that the feelings that I had for him weren’t real, because they were. It was the closest thing I had to feeling love at first sight. But I think a lot of that came from being really insecure about being The Bachelorette in the first place. I remember when I got the call from you, I was so excited, but I also had this feeling of doubt. Like, ‘Oh my gosh, are the guys going to be disappointed?’ Am I going to be able to this standard that I had I thought I had live up to? On the first night, there is this huge fear of what your intentions are, and that night, Luke made me believe that he was there for me."

Hannah also acknowledged the rest of the men who had been on her season, and said she said she did take their warnings about Luke P. seriously. But she didn't want to have any doubts when she made a final decision about him.

Hannah knew she'd have a feeling of uncertainty in the pit of her stomach if she didn't see it through, and she wanted to make up her own mind. "I needed to feel it and see it for myself. And that night [during the Fantasy Suite conversation], I felt it and saw it for myself," she said. "And that was when it just snapped for me. I was like, I will not put up with this. That is not love, that's not what the person I'm gonna spend my life with is ever gonna make me feel."

In the end, it was clear that Hannah regretted keeping Luke around so long, but that she learned from the experience. "[He] gave me hope from the beginning and I held onto it a lot longer than I should have, but it gave me safety," she continued at Men Tell All. "But you can’t do that in a relationship. Ultimately, I’m really glad that that relationship is behind me and I can move forward. I’ve learned a lot from the experiences that I went through. I deserved so much more than what I put up with."

Hannah even apologized to the audience, and viewers at home, staring straight into the camera and saying she was sorry everyone had to deal watching him these past several weeks. It's great that it seems like Hannah's learned her self-worth, and has grown from her relationship with Luke. But honestly, it's not her fault that he didn't know how to treat her, and hopefully she sees that clearly now that it's all said and done.