Bachelor in Paradise bachelor Johnny DePhillipo claims Victoria Fuller gave up on their relationship after she hung out with Greg Grippo at a Bachelor-Nation party that he wasn't able to attend.
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"I didn't think it was necessarily over until [Victoria] went to that party in L.A.," Johnny told Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti on November 23.
He added, "There was no communication [after that]. It was just done."
Johnny said all the cheating rumors that surfaced while Bachelor in Paradise was still airing stemmed from Victoria's time at the party, which Greg Grippo from Katie Thurston's The Bachelorette season had also attended.
"That was Nick Viall's party... And that's when her attitude kind of switched," Johnny claimed, recalling when his relationship with Victoria truly felt like it was over to him.
"And that's when I was like, 'She's not going to work on anything,' like, 'She's gone.' But up until that point, I thought we were able to work on whatever it is we were doing."
Victoria claimed last week that she and Johnny had ended their engagement a few weeks after they got engaged on Bachelor in Paradise's eighth season, which filmed in June, but Johnny thought they were still together and didn't officially split until mid-September.
Johnny said he and Victoria were in therapy and they were "still talking every day" leading up to that party.
"We were FaceTiming and we were making plans. I had bought tickets [to travel] to her house before that party," Johnny said. "At no point was I like, 'Oh, we're done.'"
Johnny insisted he and Victoria "were still very much together" at the time, although they were having problems.
"I think the main thing was, 'Are we going to walk on that stage [at the reunion] engaged?'... So at no point was I like, 'We're not together any more.' I mean, you don't say, 'I love you,' to someone when you're not together."
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Johnny said he really thought things were going to work out with Victoria, especially because he wasn't going to give up.
"We had our fights and then we would make up, no matter how bad the fights were... Relationships are built, and no matter what, I was always going to be here for this person," Johnny explained.
"I felt that she felt the same. And then after everything in L.A. happened, that's when I knew, 'It's not going to work out after this.'"
After the party, Johnny said Victoria's texts messages "got super dry" but he still flew from Arizona to Nashville to see her. (Victoria had also just flown from the party in Los Angeles back home to Nashville).
"I got to her house, and I was just like, 'Yeah, there's something up right now,'" Johnny recalled.
"I just knew it was over. When I got on that plane to leave Nashville [after our weekend together], I was pretty much, like, 'This is probably goodbye.' I was like, 'This is not the same person that I left the beach with. This wasn't the same person from three days ago.'"
Johnny confirmed Victoria and Greg had spent time at that party together, but he told Ben and Ashley that he didn't want to "completely throw [Victoria] under the bus."
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"And [Andrew Spencer] and all of them know that her and Greg were talking prior [to filming]. And I don't know what happened with them, but it didn't work out and she came down to the beach."
Johnny therefore said when he saw evidence of Victoria and Greg hanging out together at the party in L.A., he had a "gut feeling" Victoria had already moved on.
"When I saw them together and she stopped talking to me, that's when I was like, 'I don't like this'... and then everything just kind of got confirmed after, when rumors started surfacing. I hadn't told anyone about it. I was just like, 'Now there are rumors and I [already] had a gut feeling. So what the hell?!'" Johnny explained.
While Johnny was in Nashville, he made plans to visit her again in September for his birthday. At the time, Johnny planned to split time between Victoria and his Nashville friends.
Leading up to Johnny's birthday, he said Victoria was "super busy" traveling for work.
"I had called her and said, 'You need to kind of figure your stuff out because you're not texting me anymore and it's kind of making me go crazy -- sitting by your phone and waiting for someone to talk to you,'" Johnny said.
"I didn't like that feeling, especially coming from where we were. So I made the decision to say, 'Take the next couple of weeks. Work, travel, do what you've got to do, figure your stuff out, and I'll be in Nashville in the middle of September, and we can talk then.'"
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Johnny said that's when he and Victoria had "an official talk about everything" when his birthday came around and he realized she was "gone."
"It was cold," Johnny recalled of his second Nashville visit amid their breakup. "I already thought she was with someone else. I'm not an idiot. You just know these things, you know? So I was like, 'I never should've came here. It sucks.' But I was not perfect."
Johnny claimed he and Victoria spoke a little here or there leading up to the reunion special and he's been dealing with "classic heartbreak" symptoms ever since, trying his best to move on.
On Bachelor in Paradise's Season 8 reunion last week, which aired five months after the finale taped in Mexico in June, Victoria and Johnny revealed they had broken up and called off their engagement -- and Victoria was already in a new relationship with Greg.
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But Victoria insisted she had only begun seeing Greg romantically in late October once her engagement ended, with "no crossover" in the timeline, and Greg claimed at the reunion his trip to Italy with Victoria was their first date.
Johnny said he never reached out to Victoria once he saw the photos of Victoria and Greg together in Italy and it was "tough" to have such restraint.
Victoria told Us last week that Greg officially asked her to be his girlfriend on Halloween.
While Victoria has said in the press Johnny is "an amazing guy," she alleged Johnny had changed into a "completely different person" when they returned home from Paradise. The Nashville-based model said she checked out of their relationship once Johnny allegedly called her demeaning names, such as a "f-cking c-nt."
Victoria also claimed at the reunion that Johnny had criticized and questioned her womanhood because she doesn't cook or clean. Johnny countered that he was just joking and would never say such things to a person or a woman.
Victoria admittedly questioned whether Johnny was truly ready for an engagement, but she believes Greg wants marriage and children in the near future and so they're on the same page.
"I think Greg might move to Nashville for me. We'll see. I own a house, so I'm not going anywhere," she told Us of the New Yorker last week.
Although Johnny appeared devastated on the reunion, Victoria and Greg flaunted their connection and giggled about their relationship and the fact they got matching "Ciao" tattoos while in Italy.
"No one has to understand it or get it, and that's okay. But everyone can hate us if they f-cking want," Victoria told fans. "I don't give two sh-ts because I've got this m-therf-cker."
Prior to appearing on Paradise, Victoria competed on Peter Weber's The Bachelor season. She also had a brief romance with former The Bachelor star Chris Soules.
Greg quit Katie Thurston's season of The Bachelorette in 2021 because she didn't give him the validation he needed after his hometown date.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
