Juliana Pasquarosa wasn’t a fan of how runner-up Litia Garr handled the aftermath of her breakup with Grant Ellis.
“I think my feelings were the most hurt by Litia,” Juliana, 28, said on the Tuesday, April 1, episode of “The Viall Files” podcast when asked whose behavior she was most “shocked” by after season 29 The Bachelor. (In the finale, Litia, 31, suggested that Juliana should have “a lot of questions” for Grant, also 31, before accepting a proposal.)
“I don’t think that that was expected in any capacity. I think we’ve talked between filming and even when this whole show was airing. I did my best to check in with her,” Juliana continued. “I thought there was a good relationship but it seems like actions since AFR and moving forward have not been the kindest and that took me by surprise and my feelings were hurt by it for sure.”
After host Nick Viall asked Juliana whether Litia’s actions felt almost “mean girl” — leading their fellow contestants to feel like they have to pick sides — Juliana replied, “Definitely.”
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“I think the first stab that I felt was when she brought my name up in the breakup. I think that that was uncalled for,” Juliana said of the aforementioned comment Litia made on the finale. “Then to continue to make kind of those jabs on stage, saying she is glad that this isn’t a part of her love story and that she deserves a man that’s not so confused up until the last second, when Grant and I know the reality of it and that was strictly a jab at me, I think that those things took me back.”
She continued, “I want her to be supported. I’m not saying by any means that I don’t want her to feel like she has a girl gang behind her lifting her up because I can’t imagine what it’s like to get to that point and maybe have your heart and your ego bruised. But I think at the end of the day, I had relations with a lot of the girls and at no point were they making digs at him or our relationship. Where now it’s like, maybe that’s a platform that’s being used for whatever purpose it is but it’s hurtful and it’s not anything I want to surround myself with at any point in my life.”
In addition to bringing up Juliana during their breakup on last month’s finale, Litia made a somewhat shady comment about Juliana and Grant’s love story and engagement on the live portion of the show. Litia told Grant and the audience that she was “glad” that the events were not a part of her “love story,” adding, “I know that I deserve someone waking up one morning and knowing without a shadow of a doubt that they are going to choose me.”
While recalling the events on Tuesday, Juliana said she feared that the engagement would cause a strain in her friendships with the fellow contestants — which she hinted had happened.
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“It’s been interesting. I think when we finished filming and we kind of came back to regular day life, it took me a minute to start engaging with the girls again. I had expressed to a couple of them that that right there was my biggest fear, because of the end circumstance, that my relationships with them were going to be not as great as I had hoped for. I was reassured in the moment that it would be fine and that the girls were fine compartmentalizing relationships, but I think after AFR and kind of just some things that have come up from that, I have seen the reality of it,” she said. “It definitely hurt my feelings at first and I didn’t quite understand it but it was a quick bounce-back. I hate to say I didn’t come in there to make friends, but I was excited about the friends that I had. At the end of the day, I had 30 plus people fly out from the East Coast to the West Coast just to celebrate me. I’m good, I’m chilling. And I love Alli Jo [Hinkes]. Me and her are BFFs.”
When asked whether there were any comments that had hurt her feelings, Juliana said, “It was just kind of actions and the avoidance of it all.”
“I wasn’t super reached out to by a lot of the girls that I, maybe, thought I would have been reached out to by. I think when the AFR came and I had reached out to a few girls from my season that were gonna come to the actual live filming of it, I was told that they were coming in support of Litia,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh s*** I didn’t know sides were being taken like that.’ I tried to phrase it in a way that was like, ‘The more the merrier.’ That’s when I think I kind of learned the reality.”
While Grant and Juliana watched the season back, she shared that there were a “couple moments” where she “shot him an evil eye for a minute for saying certain things.” However, Juliana said there “wasn’t anything” that came as a surprise to her. While she opted not to tune-in to the finale last month, Juliana shared that she has now watched it back.
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“It was just that night, I knew emotions were going to be high. I knew that it’s kind of a quick turnaround from when he has this conversation with her to when I come out. And I didn’t want my head to be in a head space that felt frustrated with the reality of what was said,” she explained. “Because obviously things that Grant and I have talked through, and I know that I can get a little defensive for him, and I didn’t want to come out there with anything other than, like, excitement for my moment. So I just was like, I’ll be in my dressing room, call me when you need me, and then I’ll have my moment, and then I’ll go home and watch it on my own time.”
One thing Juliana saw while watching the episode back? Grant kissing Litia minutes before their breakup — which is something Juliana had previously said would be a tell-tale sign that she was The One.
“I was like, ‘What the hell?’” Juliana said while laughing. “I just say, for future contestants, don’t think that that means anything, because it clearly doesn’t.”
