Breaking up is never easy – especially in primetime.
The fairytale love story of Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi came to a screeching end Monday, with last season’s smitten “Bachelor” couple reduced to name-calling and tears over bedroom furniture and when to deploy the car’s GPS unit.
In the aftermath of the made-for-TV ex-couple’s war of words in the media, “Bachelor” host Chris Harrison billed Monday’s ABC sitdown with Pavelka and Girardi as a “hopeful attempt to find closure.” Instead the show became a forum for the pair to trade more insults and accusations.
Pavelka explained at the outset of the interview that the relationship was “going downhill but I wasn’t ready to give up.” Girardi's decision to sell her breakup story to the tabloids, struck an especially sour chord.
“I’m so disgusted with you,” he said, looking over at her stone-faced. “You sold me out.”
Girardi came out swinging, accusing Pavelka of “emotional abuse” and caring only about fame.
The first month of dating Pavelka was great, she said. Then he started to withhold intimacy and she attempted to split twice before calling things off for good.
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“It felt like a relationship when the cameras were rolling,” Girardi explained. “There was no emotion with us … I don’t think any woman would stay in a relationship where you have to ask to be kissed.”
Girardi said she went to the media because she expected him to do so first. She went on to accuse Pavelka of taking no interest in her family, forcing her to give up her dog and move to Los Angeles and lying about her having an affair.
“We never had trust issues,” she said. “It’s not true.”
“I don’t know what you did,” Pavelka retorted about the alleged cheating incident.
Pavelka, in turn, accused Girardi of constantly “undermining” and “interrupting” him. He cited as examples her once disregarding his directions during a car trip by reaching for the GPS unit, and another time when she second-guessed a home decorating decision for the bedroom.
“I was brainstorming,” Girardi responded. “You compromise, you make decisions together.”
“She’s like a tabloid. You’re getting about 40 percent truth and another interruption,” Pavelka shot back. “She gets a tape measure! There’s no respect for me.”
Eventually, Girardi apologized for “the way I went about” the breakup. But soon she and Pavelka were at it again, with Pavelka admonishing her not to interrupt him.
“I’m done,” Girardi finally said as she walked off the set in tears.
