UPDATE: Nick Viall commented on Instagram, "Huh?? That person isn't me. Ashley and Jared's wedding is Ashley and Jared days. Looking forward to enjoying the day with them and everyone they want to celebrate it with."
_______________
Sometimes the most awkward Bachelor drama happens when the cameras are off.
On Sunday night's episode of her iHeartRadio podcast Help! I Suck at Dating with Dean, Vanessa and Jared, Vanessa Grimaldi learned from her co-host and fellow Bachelor Nation star Jared Haibon that she is not invited to his wedding to Ashley Iaconetti this summer. And she did not take the news well.
E! News has obtained exclusive sneak peek audio of the podcast conversation. After Haibon and fellow co-host Dean Unglert discussed how the latter and fellow Bachelor Nation stars Tanner Tolbert and Nick Viall, Grimaldi's ex-fiancé, were going to be groomsmen, Grimaldi said, "Does this mean I'm not invited to the wedding?"
"Can we all just settle down for a minute? We haven't even- we're going through the guest list right now," Haibon said. "we're just figuring everything out."
Grimaldi seemed to take the news in stride at first, saying that while she was "heartbroken," this meant she could embark on a trip at the time of the wedding like she had planned before the couple's date was finalized. She later broke down sobbing.
"I'm just sad," she said. "I totally get it...I mean I assume, I mean, I understand and I guess, I don't want to make an ass of myself by making an assumption, but I assume it's because of a particular person and I get that, and like I said, I'm not mad, I'm not anything, I'm mostly just sad."
Haibon told Grimaldi on the podcast that he and Iaconetti "want to make everybody happy" but also make sure that their wedding day was about them.
"I would never want to make you sad, Vanessa, obviously," he said.
"It's just sad," she said. "it's not like a birthday that happens once a year."
"It's like I vouched for you guys and I know he has too and I just, I don't want this to become about me," she continued. "I want the absolutely amazing wedding day for you guys , and if that means me watching from afar, than like, that's what it is. But I don't want this to be about me. I'm just saying like, of course I would have loved to have witnessed the love that you guys have for each other and be there to see it official, but I guess I don't need to be a part of the wedding day to see it."
Viall has not responded publicly to the podcast. Haibon and Iaconetti released a statement to E! News, saying, "None of our friends or family members have encouraged or discouraged us from inviting anyone to our wedding. We have a ton people in our life and knew that unless we had a massive wedding above our means that some people we care about unfortunately would be left out. Almost every couple getting married will feel badly about someone they had to leave off their list."
"Our invitations haven't even been created yet and therefore our guest list isn't even finalized yet," they added.
The two had starred together on seasons two and three of Bachelor in Paradise in 2015 and 2016 and announced their engagement last June, a month after going public with their relationship. He proposed while they were filming season five of the show in Mexico. They plan to wed this August in Haibon's home state of Rhode Island. In addition to being a groomsman, Tolbert is officiating the ceremony.
—Reporting by Alli Rosenbloom