“I don’t have any resentment — it was a little confusing,” Joe, 34, exclusively told Us Weekly during a joint interview with Serena, 23, on Wednesday, October 6. “The timing, I would say, wasn’t the best. I was just really focused on Serena and getting to that moment. I had a ring in my back pocket. So it was more like, ‘OK, I get that you’re here, you know, I wish you the best, but it’s not the time. Now is not the time.’ But I hope she’s happy.”

After struggling to see Joe and Serena together during the season, Kendall, 30, who dated the Chicago native for nearly two years, seemingly left Mexico solo during the September 21 episode. During the Tuesday, October 5, finale, however, fans learned she was still there when she arrived to talk to Joe before he proposed.

“When I first came here, I knew you were going to be here. And part of me thought it would be really easy to come here and have a closure talk, and to work toward finding a new relationship and hopefully love, but that’s not what happened,” Kendall said on the episode. “I came down on this beach and was completely, like, surprised by how it made me feel and how overwhelming it was. And I think ultimately, what ended up happening is, I ended up coming here to fully let you go.”

She added, “I’m really excited for you and Serena, and I felt like I couldn’t leave the beach without fully, like, expressing that to you.”

Serena, for her part, learned about Kendall showing up just before Joe got down on one knee.

“I definitely feel the same way as Joe,” the Bachelor season 25 alum told Us on Wednesday. “I mean, I hope she’s happy. I wish her the best. And, you know, we’re just happy to focus on our relationship now and kind of keep those special moments between us and keep them private and special in their own way.”

When asked whether they’ve heard from Kendall since the show aired, Serena added, “We haven’t heard from her since. I haven’t heard from her since …”

Joe then quipped, “I mean, we’re in Canada, we’re going to go to dinner tonight, so hopefully, like, one of your exes doesn’t show [up] at the table.”

As for their next steps, the grocer added that they are “taking it slow” when it comes to walking down the aisle and debating where to live.

“We’re going to focus on the move and just really focused on our relationship and let it happen like we do,” Joe said before asking Serena what their go-to line was on the ABC series. “What did we do, we opened up our hearts?”

“We followed our hearts!” she said with a laugh. “We did things out of order, we’re going to do the move and then, you know, maybe in a year we’ll start talking about wedding stuff.”

Joe concluded, “We threw logic out the window. Now we’re bringing it back [and going to] take our time.”

This story originally appeared on: US Magazine - Author:Sarah Hearon