On Monday night’s first installment of the “Bachelorette” Season 16 finale, Brendan Morais eliminated himself before making it to a Fantasy Suite date with Tayshia Adams. The handsome commercial roofer recently stopped by “Bachelor Happy Hour” to tell co-hosts Rachel Lindsay and Becca Kufrin about what went into his “really tough” decision to break things off early.

“Going into this crazy experience and journey, I didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t know if this would work for me. As amazing and beautiful as [Tayshia] was — and that connection was true and really there — I was going to take it day by day,” he explained. “And as I moved farther along into the process, I tried to be as true to myself and not do anything for any other reason or any other outside factors.”

Added Brendan, “I wanted to do something that wasn’t, in the long run, going to hurt her or, in the long run, be something worse than what we saw last night.”

As Bachelor Nation will recall, Tayshia picked Brendan to go on her first one-on-one date of the season. The pair immediately bonded over their shared experiences of being married and divorced at a young age. But toward the end of their final date on Monday night’s episode — which included engagement ring shopping and a meeting with longtime “Bachelorette” jeweler Neil Lane — an emotional Brendan divulged to Tayshia that he wasn’t ready to become a husband again.

Tayshia let Brendan go with grace, imparting her mature outlook on his abrupt exit. “I know what you’ve gone through because we’ve both been married before,” she said. “And as much as I would love to be with you at the end of all of this, if you’re not ready, that’s not something I’m going to push you to do. I’ve already fought for someone to try and love me once. I’m not going to do it again.”

Brendan told Rachel and Becca that although he believes it was the right choice for him to end things with Tayshia, it was still a difficult one to make.

“It was really, really tough. I’m not going to act like it was an easy decision, clearly. I had this beautiful, amazing woman right in front of me. For some reason — that I still wrestle with today — I self-sabotaged the moment,” he said. “I was protecting myself in a sense. I was protecting myself from getting hurt. As corny as that is, as stupid as that sounds, I have been married before and I feel like it would be a disservice to Tayshia, in a way, if I went into an engagement and I got down on one knee and I wasn’t completely 100 percent all in and ready for it.”

Listen to Brendan’s entire “Bachelor Happy Hour” interview below.