Johnny’s Post-‘Bachelor in Paradise’ Revelations About Victoria, Greg

As fans still recover from the season 8 finale of Bachelor in Paradise, Johnny DePhillipo is opening up about his split from Victoria Fuller — and the role both Greg Grippo and Gabby Windey played in his broken engagement.

Johnny appeared on the “Almost Famous” and “Click Bait” podcasts following the Tuesday, November 22, reunion, claiming on both shows that Rachel Recchia and Gabby’s season of The Bachelorette airing kicked his relationship with Victoria off on the wrong foot.

“She was heartbroken. She was upset that she was engaged and that it was very much the spotlight was on me and someone else,” Johnny, who left after his fantasy suite date with Gabby, told Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti. “And it was hard to be happy as a couple and try to blossom when I had to kind of promote my show.”

Johnny and Victoria have publicly disagreed on the timeline of their breakup. She claimed they split less than one month after they got engaged on the beach.

“There was a possibility for us to potentially work toward something. Breakups are confusing, right? I mean we all know that. I’d be crazy to say that I cut off communication completely,” the Bachelor season 24 alum told Us Weekly earlier this month. “We ended our engagement three weeks after and then shortly after that we were completely done.”

Johnny, for his part, said they didn’t call it quits until September. He further alleged that she’s changing the narrative because of moving on with Greg, who she was first publicly spotted with in late October. Johnny, however, suggested things started going down with Greg and Victoria in late August after they attended the same birthday party. Victoria has denied all cheating allegations.

“That party — that’s when her attitude kind of switched. And that’s when I was like, ‘She’s not going to work on anything,’ like, she’s gone. But up until that point, I thought we were able to work on whatever it is we were doing,” he told Ben and Ashley, noting that there was talk about not being engaged but still moving forward as a couple. “We were talking every day. We were FaceTiming, we were making plans. I had bought tickets to [go to] her house before that party, you know, like, at no point where I was like, ‘Oh, we’re done.’ We were very much still together. … I think the main thing was like, ‘Are we going to walk on that stage engaged?’ … At no point was I like, ‘We’re not together anymore.’ I mean, you don’t say I love you to someone that you’re not together [with].”

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The realtor concluded that the “most heartbreaking” and “crushing” part of the situation was seeing Greg join Victoria on stage at the reunion.

“When I heard that he showed up and she kind of was just all about it —and I was just like, ‘Why?’ I went through two shows, I went through Bachelorette, and now I’m on Paradise. And I did all of Paradise with you. I went through all those times together, and we’ve had our ups and downs and now I was on stage for five minutes,” he said. “I had to sit in my trailer by myself. I was like, ‘This is bulls—t.’ I didn’t get to spend time with the cast who I love. I didn’t get to see Wells [Adams], I didn’t get to talk to anyone. I got to go on stage, have a fight with someone that I truly care about, and then walk away, like, empty-handed from everything. That night sucked. I call my mom crying. I was just like, ‘This is f—king awful.’ I know that we’re not allowed to have our phones, I was like, ‘Give me my f—king phone, I need to talk to my mom right now.’”

Scroll through for more from Johnny:

Credit: ABC/Gizelle Hernandez; ABC/Ricky Middlesworth

The Role Gabby’s Season of ‘The Bachelorette’ Played in Their Issues

Johnny told the “Click Bait” crew that Victoria called him crying “three days” after they wrapped Paradise because of season 19 of The Bachelorette. “I had to promote me and Gabby,” he said. “I was just like, ‘This is heartbreaking to me.’ It’s like, she wants to be happy. And she’s like, ‘I don’t feel happy.’ And it was awful and I think that started a lot of rocky conversations before our [first] happy couple [weekend].”

He further explained the situation on “Almost Famous.”

“I truly do think my season airing had a huge role in this relationship. Try to, like, put yourself in our shoes and it was very much like we’re engaged and this is supposed to be our time and our moment and we want to be so happy, but we were so in the dark and the world knew me as being with Gabby [and] not being with Victoria and that really hurt her,” Johnny told Ben and Ashley. “She was heartbroken. She was upset that she was engaged and that it was very much the spotlight was on me and someone else and it was hard to be happy as a couple and try to blossom when I had to kind of promote my show and it was just a weird thing because a lot of her friends were getting engaged too — a lot of her friends that are not on TV, and they were all, you know, publicly out there. It was heartbreaking. She was really upset about a lot of things.”

He added that a podcast appearance he did about the Bachelorette didn’t help. (While he didn’t get specific, Johnny appeared on “Bachelor Happy Hour” on August 9.)

“I had done a podcast for Bachelorette. And I think that may have been our first big fight where I was talking about Gabby, kind of past tense, but it felt really present to her,” he said. “I think she just felt like, you know, I wasn’t as upfront with her as I should have been on the beach. And she thought a lot of the things I said to Gabby, I said to her, so I think that really threw her off. I think that was honestly one of our first big fights.”

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

What Victoria Told Johnny About Greg in Paradise

“She, you know, truthfully told me about Greg and her at Paradise. Andrew [Spencer] and all of them, they know that her and Greg were talking prior. And I don’t know what happened with him, but it didn’t work out,” Johnny claimed to Ben and Ashley.

He also told Joe Amabile, Natasha Parker and Tia Booth that Victoria called Greg when they got home from Mexico.

“I didn’t know who Victoria was. And I was like, ‘This is my fiancée, I’m going to trust her.’ And then she had reached out to Greg a couple of weeks after Paradise — she called him,” he said. “And that didn’t sit right with me. But I didn’t want to be that jealous person. And I felt like she had to close the door with someone because she left and in 30 days got engaged. And this was something she had to do.”

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

How Things Changed With Victoria and Johnny After Natalie and Nick’s Party

According to Johnny, things took a turn in late August when Victoria attended a party with Greg.

“When I saw [footage of] them together [at Natalie’s party] and she stopped talking to me, that’s when I was just like, ‘I don’t like this,’ you know, you get that gut feeling,” he said. “And then everything just kind of got confirmed after rumors started surfacing. I haven’t told anyone about it. And I was just like, well, ‘Now there’s rumors and I had a gut feeling.’”

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

Not Feeling Good Enough for Victoria

“We’re at two different places in life,” he admitted to Joe, Natasha and Tia. “But at that time in Paradise, you don’t really see a lot of that s—t. … Paradise is a whole different world, you’re secluded. And coming out, you know, Victoria is very established. And that’s part of the reasons why I didn’t want to get engaged on the first show, you know, I was still in paramedic school and I was still doing all these things. And there’s things that Victoria wanted that I couldn’t give her. … It didn’t sit right with her [after Paradise]. … I just didn’t feel like I can take care of in the way that she wanted me to.”

Credit: ABC/Craig Sjodin

When They ‘Officially’ Ended Things, Whether They Kept Talking

Victoria has maintained that things were over between them three weeks after the show finished filming. Johnny, for his part, claimed they didn’t end their relationship until mid-September and attempted to work on things in couple’s therapy. After going weeks without communicating, he saw her again when he traveled to Nashville for his birthday. (While he didn’t say the date, Johnny was born on October 9.)

“I went to Nashville and I think that’s when … we had a talk about where we were and everything was, like, right around my birthday. I went to her house, and we talked about everything,” he said. “She was gone. … It was cold. I already thought she was with someone else. … I just kind of was like, ‘I should have never came here.’ This sucks. I’m not perfect, though. I’m not gonna put everything on her.”

Johnny added that things became “real” when Victoria was seen with Greg in Italy in late October, days before they taped the reunion on November 4.

“That’s when it really, like, got under my skin. And she had reached out right before the reunion. … I didn’t want anything to do with it, so I didn’t answer,” he said. “She [reached out] to just kind of say what’s up, and, you know, ‘How’s this reunion gonna go down?’ And I think she wanted to discuss it. … maybe it would have been better for the both of us, but I was just, like, not happy at the time.”

Credit: ABC

Johnny Denies Calling Victoria the C-Word

During the reunion, Victoria claimed Johnny called her a “f—king c—t” – which he strongly denies.

“Hell no [I didn’t say that],” he told Ben and Ashley. “It’s just one of the many arguments that we, maybe, have said things to each other that, you know, necessarily wasn’t the best thing to say or wasn’t the best choice of words. … I think Victoria just had her back against the wall and she just grabbed whatever she could and twisted it around in some crazy way that made me look bad. So you know, again, I’m not perfect. And me and her have been in plenty of fights where we both have said things to each other. And I’ve apologized to her but that was uncalled for.”

He also maintained that he was joking about her not cooking or cleaning. “It was really just a joke because she hates to cook and clean. And I love cooking and cleaning. So you know, it’s just, like, someone cooks, someone cleans. Someone cleans, someone cooks. And I was like, ‘If I cook and clean, what are you gonna do?’ Nothing like, ‘What do you do in a relationship?’” he said. “You don’t have to cook and clean, this is the 21st century — who gives a s—t?”

Credit: ABC/Eric McCandless (2)

Victoria and Johnny’s Post-Reunion Drama

After their tense onstage reunion, the twosome saw each other at the BiP press day on November 5.

“After the reunion, she actually had reached out, like, immediately after and, you know, we both felt awful. We just felt like we came out swinging at each other. And she was really torn up. I didn’t answer. I just thought it was all bulls-t,” he said. “But I ended up seeing her at the afterparty at the press [event] and kind of ran into each other, didn’t say really anything. And then we talked a little bit after, you know, she said she wanted to speak about everything that went down and I agreed.”

While the pair “hashed out everything,” things were only better between them for a “split second” — until Nick shared the video of Greg kissing Victoria.

“Then she goes to Nick’s house and next started posting videos on TikTok. And I was like, ‘Alright, nothing was f—king genuine.’ You know, it’s just back to the public platform and I was getting tagged in it,” he said. “And I was just, like, you were here crying 20 minutes ago … come on. … I truly do care, but like, I just can’t keep answering and no more talks, like, I’m done. … [I] constantly feel like I’m just getting put down, like, kicked while I’m down. … Nick is someone I met, and now he’s out here posting soft launches? I’m like, ‘Dude, what?’ Like, I get it, whatever. But, like, come on — you know, I’m gonna see that, you know, the public’s gonna see that.”