The first cut is the deepest.
While we all knew Rachel Lindsay wouldn't be finding love with Nick Viall on The Bachelor after she was officially announced as the next Bachelorette, her elimination in tonight's episode of the ABC reality hit still surprised us...and Rachel, too.
"I was very shocked," Rachel admitted to E! News of her elimination when we chatted with her at the Women Tell All taping. "It's one of those things where it's out of sight, out of mind, but to watch it and to go right back to that moment, I don't care how many months have passed, it was very, very hard for me to watch, and it made me realize how much I wanted it to work."
And though she's moved on since her heartbreaking goodbye with Nick, Rachel said she was ready to become Mrs. Viall if she had made it to the final two, revealing to us she would've accepted a marriage proposal.
"Yes. back then, I would've," the 31-year-old attorney said. "I've moved on since then and time heals all and to be back with family and friends and work, it's a different situation, but I 100 percent would've said yes back then. That was the mind-state that I was in."
But it wasn't an easy place to get to, as viewers saw Rachel was skeptical about the process, and finally telling Nick she loved him was a huge moment for her. "Nick opened me up and Nick made me a believer," Rachel said.
As for Nick, it's clear sending Rachel home, choosing to keep Vanessa Grimaldi and Raven Gates, was not an easy decision.
"In an alternative world, who knows what could've happened," Nick told us. "But I, for better or for worse, had two other amazing women...even though I sent Rachel it's not as if I felt nothing when I sent her home."
He continued, "She's a lovely person, a magnificent woman, she's going to make an amazing Bachelorette and I wish her nothing but the best."
To hear more from Rachel and Nick about her elimination and her season of The Bachelorette, including Nick's warning to her crop of men, press play on the video above.
The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC, while Rachel's season of The Bachelorette will premiere on Monday, May 22 on ABC.