LOS ANGELES - She accepted the ring. He accepted the final rose. So, now we get a glimpse into the lives of the newest Bachelorette love match, Emily Maynard and Jef Holm, on the post-finale special After the Final Rose.
But, first, let's bring out the man she dumped on national TV: Arie Luyendyk. Because that's not awkward at all.
Before being subjected to facing Luyendyk for the first time since she tearfully told him that Jef, and not he, was the man for her, Maynard tells host Chris Harrison that she was having mixed feelings about the reunion.
"I'm so happy that I found my best friend, but I'm also sad," she admits. "I learned that I'm not very good at being direct and I'm not very good at being the bearer of bad news."
Luyendyk, looking handsome, but still a little shell-shocked, let's Maynard know that seeing their split on the small screen helped -- kind of.
"Watching it really helped. In that moment when you're so in love and you have this whole future planned out and you feel like you can't really see an end to the relationship and that happened, after watching that ... it was good for me. Still at this point, I know that a lot of time has gone by and I still have nothing but love for you and I'm glad to hear that you're very happy, but it was tough. ... I felt like we had such a future planned and I really felt that in my heart."
Emily appreciates his honesty and apologizes for not being direct enough while dumping him. "More than anything, I want you to know I'm still sorry and it was really hard for me to watch that. It put me right back in that moment. ... I've learned I need to be more direct for sure ... even if it will hurt in the moment, I know it will give you closure in the end."
Luyendyk then reveals that his quest for that closure drove him to the extreme. So extreme, in fact, that he booked a flight to Maynard's hometown of Charlotte, N.C. intent on explaining himself to her and hoping that they he'd really know they were done or see if there was a chance. In the end, however, he reconsidered his actions and instead left something special of his on her doorstep.
"I got there, and I have a lot of respect for Jef. Jef was one of my best friends on the show, if not the best friend, and I have a lot of respect for Ricki (Maynard's daughter), and I didn't want to put you in a position," he recalls. "I didn't know where you were at, and I really thought better of it. So, I called her and we talked and I just told her that I would leave my journal and she could just read about my experience because I wrote everything down."
She never even opened the package. "I didn't read it ... out of respect to Arie, and especially Jef, too. . ... These are his memories. It wasn't going to help anything if I read it."
Amazingly, Maynard and Luyendyk also reveal that when the Arizona-based race car driver was feeling his lowest, he reached out to the one friend who could really understand his plight: Holm. "Jef and I we have a great friendship," Luyendyk says. "I'm happy for them. ... I'm in a good place now."
With the ghosts of the past exorcised, it's finally time to bring out Maynard's actual true love. Holm, in a fantastic slim gray suit, but with a questionable amount of foundation and bronzer pancaked on, sits with his bride-to-be and tells the audience that they feel like they didn't even meet on television, despite the public nature of their relationship.
"It didn't feel like we met on a show. She's the most amazing girl in the world. It's weird that I met her the way that I met her because we're so perfect for each other," he gushes.
And, although they were obviously required to keep their relationship secret, Holm says they did, during the production process, spend quality family time together. "We've been able to, pretty much every weekend, get shipped off to secret locations and a few of them, Ricki's come. ... Ricki is Emily's universe and she is very quickly becoming my universe."
As for the future, they have a few things planned, in addition to a wedding:
- A service trip: "I'm going to take Emily to Africa with my company People Water (he's the founder) and build wells," Holm says before joking that they may just get married there.
- A cross-country move: "We think that the best thing is that I move to Charlotte (from Salt Lake City) and the biggest reason for that is Ricki. I don't feel like we should uproot her friends and her family, " Holm says. "I want to move there and I'm fortunate enough that I can work from anywhere. I'm going to move there and get a place separate from her and we're going to combine our lives together and plan a wedding and once we're married, figure out where we're going to be together as a family."
- A wedding: Maynard says they're just enjoying being engaged for now, but she'd like a spring wedding.
(Copyright © 2012 USA TODAY)
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