The most dramatic reunion ever? You be the judge...
Back in 2017, Bachelor star Nick Viall and fiancée Vanessa Grimaldi officially announced the end of their engagement with an exclusive statement to E! News. They went on their separate journeys, finding new love—Vanessa recently announced her engagement to businessman Josh Wolfe—and success without ever crossing paths.
That is, until now. On Nick's new Patreon series, Nick V Talks Trash TV: A Bachelor and His Exes Tell All, the duo have finally come face-to-face for the first time to candidly discuss the demise of their relationship. "We just weren't able to match or meet each other halfway," Vanessa recalled, "although we thought we were."
And while they survived the ups and downs while their season aired, they assumed their rosy future would begin once their new reality set in. "We would always hear, everyone fights while it's airing, everyone does," Nick admitted. "Once the season's over, it's going to get better. And it just didn't for us."
The engaged duo did find some joy during his stint on season 24 of Dancing With the Stars, however, it was fleeting. "That was a brief, enjoyable period for us," Nick said. "That was the one thing we both enjoyed. Once Dancing with the Stars was done, we were like, ‘Oh it wasn't because of The Bachelor that we can't get along.'"
Neither therapy nor a last-ditch trip to Mexico for Evan Bass and Carly Waddell's wedding could save them. "I actually thought, 'Huh, maybe like a romantic getaway is going to have us reconnect to one another other," Vanessa admitted. "I was really hopeful that it was going to...and it didn't."
In fact, according to Nick, their relationship had gotten so rocky, they nearly skipped out of their friends' August 2017 vows, which were being filmed for Bachelor in Paradise. "We were just like, we're going to break up instead," he recalled to his ex. "Both of us didn't want to go down there and try to be happy and have it be filmed. But for whatever reason, we weren't ready to end it."
But weeks later, they finally were ready to throw in the towel. While Nick stayed back in L.A., Vanessa went home to Montreal. And that was that.
Well, almost. About a month after their split, Vanessa reached and asked Nick to grab coffee, but he politely declined. "I was starting to let it go," he confessed. "I was pretty much afraid all it was going to do is bring it back up."
Today, there's no bad blood and it's clear they just weren't meant to be. But, that won't stop them from spilling more tea about their relationship and experience on the ABC love hunt. For all juicy details, check out Nick's Patreon.