It's perhaps the biggest question coming out of The Bachelorette finale: Why did Kaitlyn wait until the very last minute to break up with Nick—when he was already starting to propose?
The answer is…Pretty much what any savvy Bachelor Nation fan probably expected. The producers wanted it that way.
"I didn't really want to," Kaitlyn tells E! News of waiting til the last minute to dump Nick. "But I think I had gotten away with so much throughout the whole season as far as breaking the rules, that they said, ‘Well, this is the show. Usually two people propose.' Andi didn't really give him a chance to say how he was feeling so I just kind of went with the format of the show and let him talk."
Andi Dorfman, of course, was the previous Bachelorette, who also broke up with Nick in the finale.
"It was hard to do," Kaitlyn added.
According to insiders, the breakup was even more harsh than what we saw. "When Nick first started proposing," a source tells us, "he got emotional and choked up. Kaitlyn actually took his hand and said, ‘Keep going.' They didn't show that. It was a small moment, but an important one. It made Nick think she was encouraging him."
See what else Shawn and Kaitlyn have to say about Nick and the breakup in the video above!
Tune into E! News tonight at 7 and 11 pm for more from Shawn and Kaitlyn.