EXCLUSIVE: Bachelor in Paradise’s Connor’s awkward and confusing response to “ghosting” Shannon

Shannon Baff and Connor J Obrochta seemed to be one of the only Bachelor in Paradise couples destined to stay together.

And after the 26-year-old American made a grand romantic gesture, asking Shannon to leave Paradise with him early, the two seemed destined to ride off into the sunset together and give their relationship a red hot go.

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But now in a shocking turn of events, Shannon has taken to her Instagram to explain that the pair are no longer together.

In a heartfelt post on Thursday afternoon, she wrote:

“Here I go. I’m sorry I haven’t got back to everyone earlier. Myself and Connor are not together, we spent one day after Paradise together, outside the whirlwind environment.

“I got home, we continued to talk and planned to see each other again but after a week I felt as if the effort to make that happen was not reciprocated and the communication was becoming one-sided.

“I struggled in Paradise because my feelings towards Connor were so genuine and real – with everything constantly changing it brought out a raging anxiety for me because I was so afraid of being hurt – it really is hard to tally whose genuine and not in that environment. I am so thankful for my experience and that I had the opportunity to meet Connor and feel what I felt.

The 25-year-old Melbourne local has now bought herself a van called “Poppy” and is “currently travelling around Australia being the best version” of herself, for herself.

“I am happier and more fulfilled than ever- my days are filled with everything that fuels my soul and makes me smile😊”

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But in an interview with Now to Love direct from his home in the US, just before the finale aired on Thursday night, Connor revealed his side of the story and he seems quite … confused.

Here’s exactly what he had to say for himself.

Hi Connor, great to chat! What made you do Australian Bachelor in Paradise?

It was something new. I’d been to the point where I had relationships and they didn’t work out and I was just interested in opening myself up to girls from different countries and see what else was out there and expand my horizons.

Knowing a long distance relationship may not work, why did you still decide to go on the show?

Obviously, I know long distance is hard. Long distance was hard with one of my exes in a different state. With this being said, going through The Bachelorette (US) and Bachelor in Paradise, I understood how this process actually worked and that as long as your open and honest, you could expedite that relationship process in that short while.

So I knew falling in love or being with someone at the end wasn’t far off.

Disregarding the long distance, I thought I could maybe find my soulmate out there and make it work.

What made you fall for Shannon?

Straight up it was her laugh, it was a done deal right there. I love to laugh and I love to be sarcastic and her smile. Obviously she’s a drop-dead gorgeous girl and it wasn’t too hard to be attracted to that.

Why did you decide to leave Paradise with her?

Well, Shannon and I had a lot of conversations that were off camera, with her and I, it was difficult for her to open up in that setting, to open up about things in her past – I needed to hear what really makes her, her, and what her life is like on the outside. What are her family and friends like.

I take all of that information and see if that girl is right for me and see if it matches up.

So going through the whole process together, we kind of had conversations about ‘Why don’t we just get out of this perfect bubble and really have time to spend with each other without the cameras?.

Her mental side was kind of checked out and she really wasn’t doing well mentally in that environment and I think it was best for her to get out of it.

We’ve heard that you ghosted Shannon, what is your side of the story?

Ghosted is the word that keeps coming up. I don’t like to use the word “ghosted”, I think it’s a very one-sided term, it’s a very hurtful term.

To be completely honest, when we left Fiji we were promised a couple of days with each other outside of the Paradise resort so that we could really have that time we could spend with each other.

Just relax and not worry about the cameras and everything, really just focus on each other and find out a little bit more about each other.

Continues…

Again, I understand that it’s a difficult thing to do. I don’t want to use the term ‘ghosted’, I think we understood each other to just get out of here and have the couple of days we were promised.

Moving forward we didn’t have that time and they kind of shipped us out on the first flight in the morning and moving forward it has just been a tough time, and get out and see each other because of where we left off.

I’m not the type of person to just get on a flight for whatever type of connection we had, it was a pretty big connection, but it just wasn’t what I needed it to be. So it was difficult for me.

We got to be with each other in the couple of hours since leaving the show and we’ve been in contact since.

We’ve been texting and Facetiming here and there. There’s still that plan for me to grow that relationship but it needs to be a continual grow and hopefully I can get out to Australia for things to progress further.

I don’t want to say that we haven’t spoken but we have kept in contact at least weekly, checking in on each other.

Like I said, she was invested and I was invested. It’s just one of those things where we didn’t really understand what would happen when we left the show.

We were naïve to think that we’d have these couple of days and so it was hard for both of us to split ways and not see each other.

Shannon said you were supposed to meet up in Hawaii. What happened to those plans?

We had plans to go to Hawaii and meet half way. I just don’t know, I don’t want to say that it just kind of fizzled out but it wasn’t planned and umm, it just didn’t happen.

We heard that you went on Bachelor in Paradise to raise your profile. What do you make of that?

Who said that? I know who I am, I know where I come from and I know the type of person that I am. For me to say that I am going on a show to up m y social media is completely outrageous.

Did this happen? Yes. Am I mad about it? No. At the end of the day I go on these shows completely naïve and to truly find love and if any of that gets in the way, like building social media, people are going to see that on TV and see that the relationships with the girls is not real and it’s just going to show through.

In answer to your question straight up? No.

Was there anyone else on the island you were keen on?

Cass caught my eye early, she was kind of that tomboy but a girly girl at the same time.

In the beginning we had something there and I was keen on finding out more, but her and Richie sparked that relationship quickly and again, me and Shannon sparked our relationship as well. There wasn’t any more time to find out if this is something there.

Are you single?

I would say I am single, to give you a straight answer.

But again Shannon and I are in contact and I want to see where that friendship/relationship – I want to see if that friendship blossoms into a relationship, until then I am single I guess.

**The finale of Bachelor In Paradise airs on Channel 10 tonight at 8.30pm after MasterChef.