'The Bachelor' finale recap: Peter chooses Hannah Ann, and then Madison
Peter Weber did not end his journey as the Bachelor an engaged man.
In what was billed as the most shocking finale of all time, Peter proposed to Hannah Ann Sluss — though he ultimately broke things off with her and chose Madison Prewett.
Peter did not end up proposing to Madison, and the two said in a joint interview they’d take their relationship day by day.
"We’ve both been really hurt, extremely hurt and been through the ringer with all of this," Peter said. "I know there is a lot of healing that both of us have to do but I know the love and the respect I have for you, and that has never changed. And like I said, I’ve made more mistakes than you can make, but I’m still sitting on the couch next to you right now, but through everything, that makes me happy."
Looking back on Monday night's drama
In the first part of the season 24 finale, which aired Monday night, Peter, 28, introduced finalists Hannah Ann and Madison, both 23, to his family. After meeting both women, Peter's parents and brother clearly preferred Hannah Ann, especially his mother, who made an emotional — and later, viral — plea to "bring her home." However, Peter's heart was clearly with Madison — for the moment, anyway.
The next day, Madison told him that their differences were too much to overcome and she needed to walk away "so that you can get what you came here to find."
"We see things so differently. We expect such different things. There’s always going to be this level of misunderstanding, and I don’t want us to feel like we have to work into overtime to love each other," she told him. "I want this so badly, but when you want something so badly, a lot of times you can’t see clearly. And as much as we want this, I don’t know that we can give each other what we need. Being a great warrior and being a good fighter is knowing when to surrender."
Although Peter admitted he didn't understand her line of thinking, he escorted her to a waiting vehicle, and off she went.
Meanwhile, Hannah Ann reiterated to Peter how much she loved him, and asked for a bit of clarity as to what she could expect at the final rose ceremony.
"It's hard being so certain and so sure of someone and just not getting that in return," she explains. "You just seem not ... completely there like I am."
Much to her chagrin, Peter did not say anything encouraging in return, though he did repeatedly thank her for being his "rock."
Hannah Ann gets engaged, and then dumped
Tuesday night found Hannah Ann still apprehensive, so much so that she almost didn’t show up to the final rose ceremony. However, she changed her mind and Peter proposed to her just after he told her that Madison had left.
"My heart chooses you forever. I love you, Hannah Ann."
"My heart chooses you forever. I love you, Hannah Ann, and the love that you've shown me is all that I have ever wanted. And I never want to let you go," he told her.
But, when Hannah Ann came to visit Peter in Los Angeles a month later, he confessed that he was still struggling and couldn't be the partner she needed him to be. Hannah Ann was understandably upset.
"All I’ve ever asked for is for someone to give me their whole heart like I’m giving mine to them," she said. "And you took away from me my first engagement. You took that away from me."
When the two came face-to-face for the first time since the breakup, Hannah Ann tore Peter apart and expressed her frustration with how things ended between both of them.
"I was blindsided because you knew exactly what to tell me to keep me with you and one of the more important things that you said was that letting me walk away would be the biggest regret of your life, and those were — words are powerful, Peter," she said. "Either you don’t mean what you say or you don’t understand the weight of your words and how they impact people, so which one is it?"
Hannah Ann also questioned why he strung her along.
"I was the only girl left. I was placed on the spot in the middle of our proposal. I was excited in the moment but you downplayed it," she said. "The most hurtful part is that you didn’t respect me enough to sit me down and just have that open conversation with me, to tell me exactly where your heart was at prior to saying ‘yes’ to something that I had no idea I was walking into."
"If you want to be with a woman, you need to become a real man."
Though Peter apologized to her, Hannah Ann also offered some words of advice to him: "If you want to be with a woman, you need to become a real man."
Peter's mom weighs in, and she's not pleased
One person mourning Peter's breakup with Hannah Ann was his mom, Barbara "Barb" Weber, who wasn’t shy about expressing how she felt about Madison.
"As a mother, that wasn’t what we were expecting," said Barbara. "When I said I wanted Hannah Ann so badly, it’s because we just clicked right away. Unfortunately, we did not have that connection with Madison."
"Hannah Ann embraced me with love and she was so organic and she was so loving toward me," Barb continued. "The next day we met Madison and it started on a rocky road because she made us wait three hours because she didn’t want to meet us. We had just flown across the world and we were exhausted, we were just getting used to the time there and we had to wait three hours, and when she did come in, [the whole family] we didn’t get an apology from her. And when I proceeded to ask her if she was madly in love with my son, she said no and that she would not accept a proposal in four days."
Madison had the chance to speak after and said, "I can’t change the past, and there is a lot that is out of my control. I came into this journey and I said I was going to be unashamed of who I am and undeniably be myself. And that is something I’ve done throughout this entire journey."
Peter, who tried to defuse the situation, wanted his parents to understand his feelings toward Madison. But they were unconvinced.
"I have to tell you, completely two different people, one who is willing to compromise, the other has not," Barb said referring to Madison’s ultimatum last week. "To me, you need both to compromise."
With some drama in the way, will Peter and Madison be able to move forward in their relationship? We’ll just have to wait and see!
