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The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love

'The Bachelor' creator: Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi split "painful"

By Christopher Rocchio, 06/24/2010

Mike Fleiss apparently believed Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi were a perfect match and is taking their recent split hard.

"It is painful," said The Bachelor creator in a Wednesday statement to Entertainment Weekly. "This break-up caught me totally by surprise. I really feel bad for Jake and Vienna."

The former The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love couple issued a statement late Monday night confirming their split.

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It was subsequently reported Pavelka initiated the split because he felt Girardi was cheating with Greek actor Gregory Michael, who she was seen kissing in public over the weekend, however she claimed that she ended their relationship because they hadn't been "intimate" in four months.

Regardless of who was responsible for it, Fleiss said the news was upsetting because of the recent run of success The Bachelor and The Bachelorette's last few seasons have enjoyed.

"We've been on a roll lately with a bunch of happy couples in succession," he said in the statement. "Mr. and Mrs. Jason Mesnick, [Ed Swiderski] and [Jillian Harris], [Ali Fedotowsky] and ???... Strong relationships are even emerging from Bachelor Pad."

Mesnick and Molly Malaney -- whom he originally rejected during The Bachelor's final thirteenth-season Rose Ceremony for Melissa Rycroft before he dumped Rycroft during the subsequent After the Final Rose special in favor of Malaney -- wed in February.

Harris and Swiderski got engaged during The Bachelorette's final fifth-season Rose Ceremony and have remained together despite two former girlfriends' allegations that Swiderski was dating and sleeping with them before, during and even after the show's filming.

Fedotowsky's The Bachelorette journey is currently airing -- although she is rumored to have rejected both of her Final 2 suitors when the finale was filmed this spring.

(Photo credit ABC)

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