This Bachelor Contestant Admits She "Didn't Feel a Romantic Connection" With Chris Soules!

Fan-favorite Juelia Kinney sounds off on her exit from the ABC reality hit series

By Tierney Bricker Jan 29, 2015 7:00 PMTags
Chris Soules, The BachelorABC/Craig Sjodin

We finally reached the first emotional elimination of The Bachelor this season.

In Monday's episode, Chris Soules made the difficult decision to send home Juelia Kinney, the fan-favorite single mother who opened up in a major way about her heartbreaking history: her husband, who suffered from a mental illness, committed suicide in 2013, leaving her to raise their daughter, Ireland, alone.

While Juelia's exit was an emotional one, as she left devastated and in tears, the 30-year-old now admits, "I didn't really feel a romantic connection and I kind of agreed with Chris when he sent me home because we were both fond of each other, but didn't have that chemistry."

But she doesn't regret coming on the show, as "I would definitely say that I felt that the type of guy that Chris is somebody is somebody I could see myself having relationship with."

ABC/Craig Sjodin

Though she didn't get to go on a one-on-one date with Chris, Juelia told her story to him during a group date, and opened up to her fellow contestants.

"It wasn't something that I planned," Juelia says of how much she revealed about her husband's death. "I obviously knew that that it might come up because I do have a daughter. I assumed Chris would have questions about her dad. You saw me talk to the girls about what happened, I didn't think I would go into as much detail as I did, but Chris shared some things with me and made me feel really comfortable...It's not easy to talk about those things, but, I felt it was important. It's not something that I usually talk about, but when you are trying to get to know somebody you have to share things you wouldn't normally share."

And Juelia admits she's "open to dating," and is even open to going on Bachelor in Paradise (season two airs this summer). 

"I think I would consider doing something else just because the people that I've met are people that I'm going to know for the rest of my life," she says. "It was a really, really positive experience, so I would definitely consider doing something."

NEWS: Chris Soules explains why he's kissing so many girls

While Chris has come under scrutiny for the amount of women he's kissed this season, Juelia says she wasn't concerned by it while filming.

"Chris is a man and he's trying to get to know all of these women and I really don't think it's a bad thing for him to kiss somebody if he's feeling a connection with them," she says. "He's not planning on keeping all 30 women, so whatever he needs to do to get to know people I think is fine."

The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC.