‘Bachelorette’ Suitor Takes ‘Fault’ For Failed Romance With Jenn Tran: ‘He Couldn’t Get Those Feelings Anymore’ (exclusive)

the bachelorette’s Jonathan Johnson reflects on why he didn’t get the final rose from Jenn Tran.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Jonathan reveals that he was eliminated from the show after fantasy rooms and what he would do differently if he could go back in time.

“I’ve never been good at validating my own feelings – I think a lot of people struggle with validating their own feelings,” he explains. “And I got that on the show, especially with Jenn’s help. So I think, moving forward, I’ll just be like, ‘Hey, do you love this person? Do you like this person? Are you sad? Are you happy? What do you want from this?’ And let myself feel whole.”

Adding that he’s working on being able to “feel my feelings,” Jonathan recalls taking Jenn home to meet his family and trying to find the right way to express his feelings to her — especially when he knew America was watching him.

“That was crazy, pulling up to my mom’s house and seeing this whole team of people that I spent the last six weeks with in my own reality was mind-blowing,” he says. “I’m like, ‘You’re a producer and you’re a producer and you’re a cameraman. And I’ve known you for six weeks, not at home, and now you’re in my space.'”

“But then going there, I think my hometown and introducing Jenn to my family was the eye-opener I needed to help me reach myself,” he says, referring to the word to use “love” with her.

On last week’s episode, after he told Jenn, “I don’t want to say ‘love’ unless I’m fully there” before introducing her to his family, Jenn told him she needed clarity regarding their feelings. In the end, he said, “Jennifer Tran, I’m falling for you,” but he tells people now that by then it was too late.

“It was my fault that I couldn’t take those feelings away anymore,” he says, noting: “[My family] had nothing but great things to say. And honestly, since it’s on the air, and they obviously know I’m not with her, they’re bummed. They’re like, ‘We loved her. She was incredible. We could see you having a wonderful life together.”

This won’t be Jonathan’s last shot at love on screen, though. During the Men In Everything special on August 27, he was the first to be asked to join the upcoming season bachelor in paradise, which he accepted.

“I wish someone had given me their head so I didn’t just sit there and laugh and laugh like an idiot,” he jokes. “Because I literally heard it and I went, ‘Whoa.'”

Jonathan admits he has never seen it BiP, and did not even watch The Bachelor or The Bachelor until he found out that he was cast. Then, he watched Joey Graziadei’s season, which Jenn was in, but says he doesn’t know much after that.

“I guess now in the nation,” he says with a laugh.

Although he doesn’t have his eye on anyone in particular yet, he tells people that he’s going to start doing some research on his new love interests.

“I’m so locked into myself and the season in front of me right now that I haven’t even had a chance to look,” he says.

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The Bachelor on Mondays at 8 pm ET on ABC.