Tayshia Adams received quite a surprise during the Dec. 21 episode of The Bachelorette when one of her previously eliminated contestants came back for another shot at winning her over. Taysha sent Ben Smith home after the show’s Dec. 15 episode, and she was visibly frustrated when he choked while trying to express how he felt about her before getting in the limo to leave. Ben didn’t want to go out like that, though, so he returned the following week to try and tell Tayshia he was in love with her one more time.
“The last time I interacted with Tayshia, she didn’t give me a rose,” Ben explained. “I was so caught off guard. The way that I saw the relationship going…I was going to marry her at the end. It was going to be me and her. The way that it ended, my brain couldn’t work. I wish I hadn’t shut down.”
Ben met up with Chris Harrison to explain why he wanted to talk to Tayshia one more time. “The last interaction I had with Tayshia was so not like the relationship that I had with her,” he said. “I honestly don’t even know if I’m asking to be back in her life, I just feel the need to express myself. I’m in love with her and I need to tell her. In the moment of the breakup, I didn’t feel it appropriate to be like…oh, by the way, I also love you. Or…please don’t dump me because I love you. When things get emotional or tough or difficult for me, I just shut down. But I’ve thought about it since and maybe she felt the same way and was concerned that I didn’t feel that way. I’d love to just be able to resolve that really weird breakup that happened. I just think I need to talk to her.
Tayshia was speechless over Ben’s confession, and she started getting pretty emotional. The whole thing confused her even more than she already was. At this point, she only had two other men left — Zac Clark and Ivan Hall — due to Brendan Morais eliminating himself earlier in the episode. Tayshia walked away from Ben in tears as she tried to figure out what to do, and we won’t find out how it plays out until part two of the finale on Dec. 22!
From the very first night that Tayshia met Ben, she made no secret of the fact that she was interested in him. Their connection grew over the next several weeks, but Ben had trouble being vulnerable and revealing how he was feeling in front of Tayshia. His sister and a family friend, Antonia, visited during hometown dates, and Ben admitted to them that he was in love with Tayshia. However, when it came time to tell Tayshia herself, he clammed up.
Going into the final four rose ceremony, Tayshia didn’t feel like she’d gotten enough from Ben, and she eliminated him. He then had one last chance to tell her how he really felt, but he froze once again. Ben’s exit was quite awkward, as Tayshia didn’t shy away from making it clear that she was frustrated with him.