The Bachelor winner Kelsey Anderson has reacted to criticism she was "playing games" with Joey Graziadei when she wrote him a note that read, "We need to talk," in Tulum, Mexico.

ADVERTISEMENT

Once Joey's Fantasy Suite dates with Kelsey, Daisy Kent and Rachel Nance came to an end, Joey said he never felt more confident in himself and in the relationships he had built and established.

RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)

But once Joey returned to his hotel room in Tulum, after all three overnight dates, a note from Kelsey was waiting for him in the door that read, "We need to talk," with no explanation.

Joey became flustered and upset when he read the note, and he cried in a confessional, "I don't want her to leave. I want her to want to be here. I don't know what to do. I'm so done with this."

Joey called the situation with Kelsey his "worst nightmare coming true," and he added, "I am over giving everything I can and feeling like they're not choosing me!"

During the March 27 episode of the "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast, Kelsey gave more insight into her cryptic note and why she had written something that allowed Joey's insecurities to get the best of him.

"I didn't have a whole lot of time to write the note, so I just had to use a couple of words," Kelsey recalled with a laugh in her chat with Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt.

"Mhmm," Joey could be heard saying.

"I could've wrote a little more," Kelsey said. "I could've wrote a little heart, I could've wrote a happy face."

Serena admitted that when she and Joe thought about what they would've written had they been in Kelsey's shoes, it was actually hard for them to come up with a concise and urgent yet positive-sounding message.

Although Serena said she sympathized with Kelsey, Joey's fiancee confessed, "I could've made it a little bit better."

Kelsey said she never anticipated Joey would react to her note so strongly and emotionally.

"I saw him open the door, and immediately my heart dropped because I saw his face. I felt sick to my stomach. I felt like, you know, this looks like I'm playing games, but I'm not," Kelsey insisted.

"And I just wanted to tell him, 'I want to meet your family. I'm excited to meet your family if given the chance.' Because I didn't say that, I think, during our time together previously."

RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)  

Joey clarified how he and Kelsey had a chat off-camera, seemingly during their Fantasy Suite, in which he "slipped up" a little bit.

"I [said], 'I can't wait for you to meet my family,' and she got kind of upset.' She just came off the talk with [The Golden Bachelor runner-up Leslie Fhima], and so she was like, 'You can't promise me anything! I want to take this step by step!" Joey recalled.

Leslie, who had her heart broken by Gerry Turner on The Golden Bachelor, planted a seed of doubt in Kelsey's mind that she may not end up with Joey.

Leslie advised Kelsey to remain hopeful but not proceed in the competition with 100% confidence. Leslie essentially wanted Kelsey to protect her heart in case Joey chose another woman as his winner, and the advice appeared to shake Kelsey to her core.

"So her reaction was more kind of -- it wasn't negative, but it was just, like, 'I can't look ahead to that,'" Joey shared of Kelsey.

"And then when she sat with it, she realized that she wishes she was actually like, 'I can't wait to meet your family too.'"

Joey explained that Kelsey's regret about that conversation is why she was so desperate to talk to him in Tulum before the Rose Ceremony.

"I think it makes total sense," The Bachelor star noted. "And I don't know what else she would've wrote. It wasn't a good note to get, regardless."

Joe gave Kelsey a blank card and the opportunity for a do-over while they taped the podcast episode, and all she could come up with was, "Can we talk?" Kelsey also wrote, "You want to talk?"

Kelsey admitted she should just stick to love letters, and Joey agreed.

During a separate interview on "The Viall Files" podcast, Season 21 The Bachelor star Nick Viall asked Kelsey if producers had come up with the idea for her to write down, "We need to talk."

Neither Kelsey or Joey would confirm or deny that was the case, but Kelsey did claim that it was her handwriting on the note.

Although the note briefly derailed Joey and Kelsey's love story, the pair ended up together. Joey proposed marriage to Kelsey at the Final Rose Ceremony, and the couple is still happy and planning a move to New York City together.

Joey and Kelsey have also claimed that Leslie's warning didn't have a huge impact on their relationship.

RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)

Interested in more The Bachelor news? Follow our Bachelor Nation News Page on Facebook or join our The Bachelor Facebook Group!




About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON GOOGLE NEWS