Zach and Fianceé Kaity Look Back on Tumultuous Journey for Love and Talk Life After the Final Rose

Monday evening’s finale of “The Bachelor” saw Zach Shallcross and Kaity finally unveiled their engagement after months of the couple being sworn to secrecy, marking the first start of the pair “do[ing] life together,” as Zach puts it.

“You get on one knee for the love of your life and you want to scream from the mountaintop. And you can’t, you can only literally tell your immediate family and your best, closest friends,” Zach told TheWrap. “I want to walk around town, I want to flaunt my girl, I want everyone to know. And finally as of like two days ago, I could finally do life with her.”

Before Zach and Kaity made their commitment to each other — and each other only — official with a ring, the finale saw a devastating breakup between Zach and Gabi, whose struggles started after during Fantasy Suites. Though Zach went into the week committed to not sleeping with any of the women, this season’s leading man decided to come clean about to Kaity that he and Gabi took their relationship to the next level in a move Gabi called a “violation.”

“I wanted to not complicate things, and I wanted to make a rule or make these boundaries that, in my mind, that’s going to help everyone, when in reality, I’m not looking at the entire situation,” Zach said. “I’m not taking everyone’s … point of view [into account],” he said, noting that his commitment to abstain from sex was a “crazy decision.”

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TheWrap: Your two friends were given the rare opportunity to go on an overnight date early in the season. How did this extra time impact your relationship?

Zach: We were able to spend a lot more time in a very unique setting. It was amazing to discover that we became very comfortable with each others immediately. It’s still the first time we really had time together, not just like a quick conversation here and there in the mansion. It was real time … Being in a museum and … [we were] both being like, ‘this is kind of crazy.’ We almost fully bonded on the strangeness of everything going on together. We just fell in love.

Kaity: It was like really nice to have built that foundation so early on in the show, and just to know that there was chemistry and there’s a connection, because sometimes if you don’t have a one on one early, sometimes you get in your head and you’re like, ‘Could this happen for me? I don’t know.’ I felt very competent at the start of our relationship and just hoped that it would all work out, and it did.

Do you remember the feeling of being in your own overnight date at fantasy suites?

Kaity: In the Fantasy Suite, we had a lot more emotional intimacy. It was really nice to just get to know each other on a deeper level because you constantly have a camera in your face, you’re constantly mic’d up from the moment you wake up and it was just nice to feel just kind of like a weight taken off and just be like, ‘Let’s shoot the s–t,’ and … just get to know each other more.”

What was your first night date like? Did you have the same parameters, so that the mics weren’t on and you felt you could get to know one another better?

Zach: I think it was also still so early to where we were still trying to get to know each other at a very basic level … that did help but there were still cameras … yeah, it was overnight, like the date but it was not the same.

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What’s something surprising that you’ve learned about one another after this has all ended?

Zach: Well, I have always known that she’s a compassionate person, but she really is so sweet to me. She loves it, she doesn’t think it’s funny, but my humor, and that’s something that I appreciate. I know I’m not the funniest, but if I can make her laugh, she makes me feel good.

Kaity: He’s very organized. He is able to imitate his uncle quite well. He is honest about everything.

You told Jesse you’re planning a 2025 wedding date. Was that a productive discussion?

Kaity: It’s just because our whole experience on “The Bachelor” was very expedited, pedal to the metal and it’s like, okay, like we have our whole lives together, why are we rushing things? We don’t need to do that. I feel like there’s these expectations in Bachelor Nation that you move in together right away, you should be getting married at this timeframe and it’s like, no, let’s just go at our own pace and do things, what we think is the right way.

Zach: Nothing’s ever really set in stone. No, everything’s flexible with good communication.

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Can you recall the moment when you knew that you were meant to be together the rest of your lives.

Kaity: There wasn’t really a pinpoint moment … there were just multiple times where it just reaffirmed I can see this man as my person, my life partner, somebody that I want to get through the highs and lows with. It was important that my family was involved in the decision-making process.

Zach: I knew from the beginning that we were different. I remember us eating poutine fries on a random date, our doing an overnight, her checking in when I was sick in London and having to have poutine fries at night. Kaity was always in my thoughts and I was attracted to her. It was just when I met her on the last date, the day before she proposed that I realized I was out of my head. I was like, ‘it’s you. You’re all I want, you’re the future mother to my children. You’re my future wife. I know it.’

What’s one decision that you made together as a couple since leaving?

Zach: Moving in together — that was a conversation … that we want an intimate wedding.

Kaity: A smaller kind of wedding — a destination wedding.

“The Bachelor” Season 27 is now streaming on Hulu.

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