Clearing the air...

Bachelor Nation fans saw Pascal Ibgui look for love with Joan Vassos on Season 1 of “The Golden Bachelorette.”

Pascal became one of Joan’s final three men but decided to leave during Fantasy Suites week. Since then, he has been keeping followers updated with his life online as well as the “In My Hometown” podcast. 

Now, Pascal has invited Joan to join him as a guest on the podcast and the two sat down to talk about their “Golden Bachelorette” experience. 

Reflecting back on their journey, Pascal shared, “Joan and I have been in touch and I think we’ve built a very good friendship. But you know, I never had the chance to really say why did I leave.”

He continued and decided to reveal to Joan the real reason of why he decided to leave during Fantasy Suites. 

Pascal said, “I wanted to go into the Fantasy Suite, I wanted to have that conversation with you, which I never had the chance to. I felt like the distance was going to be a challenge for me. And I had, you know, I got an ego and I didn’t want to be rejected because I felt, also, that Chock was the winner. And I knew in my heart that you were going to pick Chock, so I didn’t want to be the one who’s left behind.”

The “Golden Bachelorette” star went on and shared his regret for not telling Joan sooner. “I think I would have loved to sit with you in the Fantasy Suite and have a one-on-one conversation,” he confessed. “I think it would have, I would have felt better.”

Pascal also clarified that he didn’t leave because he didn’t have feelings for Joan. 

“I wanted you to know that I didn’t leave because I didn’t have the feelings for you. I left because I felt like your feelings were much stronger for Chock than it was for me,” he admitted. “I knew you were going to pick him over me and that’s why I decided to leave.” 

Joan replied that she didn’t know she was going to pick Chock at the time and also wished they could’ve had a conversation so she could explain that while she was inflexible about leaving her family, she is flexible about living in two different places.

“I knew that you hated that I compared you to my late husband, but that’s a huge compliment. Because I love him to this day and I always will. And the fact that you live life big is something that I really loved about you,” she expressed.

“I would’ve loved to have had that conversation in the Fantasy Suites because I appear very inflexible when I talk about not leaving my family. And I am inflexible about that. But I also am very flexible about having more than one home. And [when] I found the right person, I will have more than one home. And maybe it would be more living away from my kids but always having a place to go and stay.”

Joan and Pascal both emphasized that they had a great time on the show and are so happy to have built a good friendship, as well as be able to clear the air.