Justin Glaze has a lot to say after the world saw his pursuit for Katie Thurston's affection end in heartbreak on The Bachelorette's season finale.
During the episode that aired on Monday, Aug. 9, Justin learned he wouldn't be going on his fantasy-suite date after the show's lead told Blake Moynes she had fallen in love with him. The following day, Justin appeared on the Almost Famous podcast, where he spoke to Bachelor Nation favorites Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti about his stint on the ABC dating series.
When asked for his thoughts on Blake's apparent reluctance to actually propose to Katie in the moment, Justin made it clear that Blake seemed very focused on finding love with Katie from the get-go, even if it meant thwarting the efforts of his longtime friend Brendan Scanzano, who was among Katie's final seven contestants.
"From the second Blake came in, it did feel like his objective was to make it to the end and propose to Katie," Justin shared. "He's very close with Brendan from the house. Some of the guys were skeptical [of] Blake coming halfway through, and Brendan was kind of the guy that reassured everyone [that] even back home, he always talked highly of Katie."
Understandably, Ashley was confused of the nature of Blake and Brendan's friendship, given that the show didn't make it clear to viewers that those two guys had a long history. And while Justin said he wasn't sure whether Blake helped Brendan get a spot on the show, Katie's runner-up was indeed surprised that Blake felt comfortable showing up late in the process to compete against his buddy.
"It's weird, right?," continued Justin. "Because I think about my friends, and in the real world, if one of my friends pulled up on me when I'm trying to date a girl..." He then broke into laughter as he trailed off, although he did make it clear he thinks Blake's a good guy.
Last month, Bachelor Nation's Wells Adams chatted with E! News about the fact that The Bachelorette never addressed Blake and Brendan's pre-show friendship. "Blake suggested to Brendan to go on the show," Wells said at the time. "And so when he shows up later, he's like, 'What are you doing here? You told me to come here!'"
On July 21, shortly after Brendan was eliminated from the show, he took to Twitter to clear the air and shared a photo of himself with Blake. "Life long friendship on and off the ice with this guy," the fellow Canadian wrote. "He is awesome and like a brother to me. Guess we had to address the elephant in the room."
For his part, Blake responded to Brendan's tweet by quipping, "They call me c--kblock Blake."
Elsewhere in the podcast interview, Justin was quite candid when asked how he would have felt if he had been in Blake's shoes when Katie said that Greg Grippo's departure almost led her to quit the show for good.
"I imagine it was tough for Blake to see because I know how I felt watching everything back, feeling like I was potentially there by default," he said. "I know I said [previously that] this expedited timeline is one that only people that go through this experience can relate to. But even that seems like a very expedited timeline, in terms of potentially wanting to book the flight and go home, to a few days later confessing love."
As for his own feelings, Justin said he was ready to propose to Katie at the time, but he sees now it's for the best that he didn't go through with it. When asked whether he would take on the role of the Bachelor, Justin said he would be open to the idea if it were offered but that he's "not sitting by my phone waiting for that call."