Before doing the show, did you get advice from Jake or any of the former Bachelorettes?
Ali Fedotowsky: I haven't spoken to Jake at all, actually, not even 'til this day, but I actually think there's a good chance that I may be running into him and his fiancée Vienna soon, so I hope to talk to them about my journey a little bit. But I did talk to Jillian Harris beforehand, and she really wanted this to be my experience, and so her advice was basically to make sure I had a lot of travel hairspray on hand while we were on the road. She just wanted to wish me luck, and she was really sweet about saying, "I'm so glad that you're the next Bachelorette," and things like that, and that's really good to hear from her. And I haven't actually met her in person, but I hope to in the future.

Now that you've experienced some of what Jake went through on The Bachelor, does it give you an added sense of sympathy toward him?
Fedotowsky: Absolutely. Gosh, I just remember thinking when I was on The Bachelor, "Gosh, why would Jake be insecure about anything? He has all these girls here vying for his attention. He has nothing to be concerned about." Then being the Bachelorette, I was like, "Oh, my gosh, I get it."

People can say to me all day, you know, "I'm falling for you," and, "You're beautiful," and all these words, but to me, I always found myself questioning them -- Is this person being sincere? Do they really care for me? And one thing that's really important to me, and I made it clear to all of the guys as we were going through this, was I'm offering you a rose, but you're accepting it back. Don't accept it if you don't want it. And that was really important to me, that the guys knew this was serious and not just a game. I hope they got that.

But I have so much more respect for Jake, Jillian, Jason, and everyone who has been through this because it's really difficult. It's by far the hardest thing I've ever done, but I would do it again.

Do you regret anything you did on The Bachelor?
Fedotowsky: The only thing I really regret, honestly, is making the choice to choose work over love, I do think that it was the right decision, in a sense that I don't think that I'm supposed to be with Jake. I think he would have ended up with Vienna anyway, and they're happy, and I'm happy for them. But do I think that choosing a job over someone who's potentially the love of your life is the wrong choice? I do. I'm so glad that now I know that I will never ever make that choice again. And I can promise you that I won't.

And then I absolutely regret my relationship with Vienna and how that turned out. I mean, there's no question. Last season-- and I'll say it again, I said it before-- I cannot apologize enough for my behavior then. I lost my cool, and I am glad that I was able to see that on the show because I wonder a lot about myself and how I should treat others. We're both to blame in that situation and I take a lot of responsibility for it. And I do feel bad about it.

And can I say that I don't lose my cool on The Bachelorette? I think I might lose my cool slightly, to be honest, but for the right reason. I mean, I haven't seen all the episodes-- but I'm very proud of the way I handled situations this season. And I think I would do it all the same way again if I had to.

Are there things that Jake did that you wouldn't want to end up doing as the Bachelorette?
Fedotowsky: I've totally respected Jake and all the decisions he made, but I think the only thing that was really different for me was that Jake had a really big heart and he had felt that he had fallen in love with more than one person. And for me, I don't feel like my heart is capable of loving more than one person.

Season six of The Bachelorette premieres Monday night on ABC at 9 PM. Before subjecting yourself to two hours of awkward dudes getting out of limos one-by-one, relive the most memorable moments from Ali's season of The Bachelor.

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