Fans loved Amanda Stanton and her adorable daughters on Ben Higgins‘ season of The Bachelor, and then again, followed her journey to find love on Bachelor In Paradise for season 3 and 4. On season 3 of the ABC show, we all thought she would have her happy ending when she got engaged to Andi Dorfman‘s ex-fiancé Josh Murray, but after their on-camera engagement, the pair ended things in January 2017 with a “nasty split.” Now, in her new book, Now Accepting Roses: Finding Myself While Searching for the One …and Other Lessons I Learned from “The Bachelor, the single mother of two is opening up about her love life, and the red flags she admits she ignored when it came to her on-screen relationships, specifically with Josh. “I definitely saw things in the relationship, and they are ultimately why we ended up breaking up. I think hindsight is 20/20, and when you’re in it, you make excuses or try to put blame on yourself,” she explained on the HollywoodLife.com podcast. “Definitely, in hindsight, I was like, ‘This was definitely an issue and I probably should have ended things sooner.”
She continued to explain that after the couple came off the show, Amanda notice Josh began to demonstrate behavior that made her “isolate” herself from everybody. “There were just things that I saw. He didn’t really like me talking to my friends and my family. My friends that used to stop by to see the kids, it just became a big ordeal. It was always something,” she revealed.
While they might not have had a clean break, Amanda said that she does “believe people can change” and she “hopes he has.” “I’ve made mistakes that I’ve learned from and I’m sure he’s learned from them, too. I don’t know him anymore, but I hope he has,” she admitted.
Through her new book, which is on stands now, Amanda hoped to help young women navigate the dating world by sharing her own ups and downs. “I don’t want to act like a professional dater, because I’m not! I’m still making mistakes, but I think that’s why this is relatable, because I’m not somebody who has been married for 30 years telling single people how to do it. We’re all in this together,” the former Bachelor contestant said on the podcast. “It’s dating advice, but it’s also learning to be happy on your own.”
Make sure to get Amanda’s book, Now Accepting Roses: Finding Myself While Searching for the One … and Other Lessons I Learned from “The Bachelor, and listen to the full HollywoodLife podcast interview here!