Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon‘s unorthodox Bachelor In Paradise love story is probably one of the most infamous from Bachelor Nation. Their years-long saga of unrequited love finally becoming reciprocated reached a peak when they got engaged on BIP this summer. But let’s not forget that Ashley did have a romance before Jared came back around, with Canadian firefighter Kevin Wendt… who unfortunately had to witness Jared proposing to Ashley in Mexico. 

Life & Style spoke exclusively to Ashley and Jared — who are part of Excedrin’s We See Your Pain campaign — and they dished on how they really felt about that whole cringy experience. 

Jared revealed that he started formulating his proposal plan back in May, before he knew Kevin would be there. And even when he realized Kev was a contestant, he never expected him to be present for the popping of the question. “It was a concern but at the same time, I never thought in my wildness dreams they would want me to propose to Ashley in front of him,” said Jared. “Who would want that?”

Ashley said she expected to give Kevin a date card so he could write his own love story, but things didn’t turn out that way. Jared said he “argued” with producers over keeping Kevin away during the special moment, but he eventually lost that battle. He says there was no way he was going to cancel his proposal just because Kevin had to witness it.

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“We went to the side of the beach and thought we were fine,” explained Ashley. “But to see Chris Harrison be like, ‘Come on over guys!’ And not only invite everyone over but to have Kevin come over too… It’s like, what are you doing? Like, why? What are you doing? It was already awkward enough that we had to go in front and talk about ourselves for a minute and scooted out there.”

Luckily, they swear it didn’t actually feel awkward when Jared popped the question, even though it looked that way on TV. “While we were there, all I was looking at was him,” said Ashley. “It was very intimate to us.” Jared agreed, saying, “we had our moment, that was the most important thing. We are moving forward with it and are super happy.” We can’t wait to see what’s next for this adorable couple!

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