NEWS'The Bachelor' Finale: Brad Womack Proposes to Emily Maynard; Chantal O'Brien Leaves Crushed
March 15 2011, Published 7:00 a.m. ET
On the Season 15 finale of The Bachelor, Brad Womack finally found love and his happy ending. The 38-year-old Texan proposed to Emily Maynard, a 24-year-old single mom and children's hospital event planner from Charlotte, NC. "I want to stutter and stammer along the way of this little speech I prepared, I want to get down on one knee and ask her to be my wife...it is a risk, but it's something I have to do," Brad began before popping the question!
He greeted her with, "This isn't the first time you have taken my breadth away," and continued to gush over his now fiancée!
"I always believed when the time was right, I would find the woman I was looking for," he said. "I knew it would take opening up...All it took was coming here and finding you, you are so much more than a leap of faith, you are the one Em, you're it. You are my once in a lifetime."
"Please give me your forever, please let me be your best friend, please let me protect you and your beautiful daughter and please give me the opportunity for the rest of you life. I love you Emily. I am truly in love with you."
Her response? "I would love that. I would love too. You just made me the happiest girl in the world."
"I wanted to tell you I loved you for so long, I mean this Em I want to spend my life with you. I love you."
But Brad's proposal didn't come without his hard break-up from Chantal O'Brien, 28-year-old from Mercer Island, Wash. who left completely heartbroken.
Catch the below recap of Brad's final days with the last two contestants, ending in a lovey-dovey proposal to Emily!
Meeting the Womacks
Both Chantal and Emily met Brad's mom, two brothers, Chad (his twin) and Wes, and their significant others.
He explained that he was heavily relying on his family's input to help him make a decision.
"Emily and Chantal...I mean I have such a huge decision in front of me I'm praying that my family can just give me advice," Brad said.
After meeting both girls, Emily was the clear frontrunner with Brad's family.
"Emily equals a family wit a white-picket fence and Chantal is fun loving," his twin Chad explained. "Just completely different lives."
His family liked that Emily was a mom.
"I think Emily is the whole package," Brad's mom gushed.
"He has been such a blessing to me and even in such a short amount of time he has been an angel in my life," Emily shared with Brad's mom, making her cry."
At the end of his family time, Brad admitted, "They have made it very clear that Emily is the one for me. But I have feelings for both girls and I have to figure out who is right with me."
Final One-On-One Dates
Brad and Chantal swim with the sharks, reminiscent of their early one-on-one date where they went scuba diving, and she was forced to overcome her fear of the deep ocean.
"Why do I take you on dates like this? Because you are fun and adventurous," Brad reassured Chantal.
"After all this you better be putting a ring on my finger," she quipped back.
Brad voiced his sense of contentment in Chantal's confidence and openness: "Everything I asked her to do, she has done it and excelled at it."
"If I can get this through him, then I can get through anything," Chantal said before she plunges in to swim with the sharks. "This is a great way to test out the waters, before we're married."
Brad continued to praise Chantal for her courage throughout the stunt with the sharks.
"When I look through Chantal I see a life full of excitement and I love it," he said with conviction. "What a perfect date, what a perfect girl, what a perfect experience."
Later that evening, Brad shared with Chantal that he always feels himself in her presence.
"Something I've said about you from day one, I'm always my self, you allow it, you make it so easy," he revealed.
Chantal gave Brad a token of her affection: a "message in a bottle," with a map documenting all of their travels on the Bachelor journey.
"I've really traveled the world for this guy. This shows how I feel for him," Chantal said. "I've never traveled the world for any guy before, Brad is definitely the first, and hopefully the last."
Brad is moved by the note from Chantal.
"Her letter, those words were so powerful and so meaningful."
He leaves feeling confident and reassured about their relationship.
"He better tell me what I want to here, otherwise I'll be crushed," Chantal said at the end of their date. "I'll be absolutely crushed."
On his final date with Emily, Brad took her on a romantic helicopter ride to the Cape of Good Hope, for an intimate talk which he hoped would help him assess his true feelings.
"I just want to make sure today I'm confident in my relationship with Emily," he said at the beginning of the date.
Emily explained how difficult it was for her to get to this point.
"For the first time in a very long time, I'm absolutely falling in love again," she opened up.
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"Whenever I look at Em, I see everything I always wanted in my life" Brad explained. "My family is so excited about the possibility of me not only being a husband, but also a father."
Emily voiced her concern about Brad being in limbo, and expressed that she is "painfully insecure."
"I don't think any girl wants to get their hearbroken and I don't either. I don't want to sabatoge my relationship with him just because of my own insecurites."
Brad voiced his strong desire to become father to Emily's 5-year-old daughter Ricky.
"I want you to give me a chance and I want her to give me a chance to be a father, not a step father," he said. "I guarantee I could love you and your daughter if you give me the chance. All I care about is if you will allow me to be her father, her real father."
Emily fired back with hesitation, "What do you see your role in her life being?"
"Being a father to me, means unconditional love, being a friend when it calls for it and being a disciplinarian. All the good that comes with the bad and all the bad that comes with the good. I'm ready for it."
"I want to make sure their is no surprises...It's not always fun," she explained. "I want to make sure you know what you are getting into."
Brad becomes flustered with Emily's strong attack, taking her tough questions about parenthood to heart.
"I feel like I'm being questioned," he said. "I'm telling you that I care enought about you and your family to be there. I'm seriously having a hard time breathing now. I really am."
Emily is left concerned. "My head always sabotages my heart."
Brad walked away "defeated" and "questioning everything."
The Neil Lane Visit
"I'm looking at these rings with true intent, that's a feeling I have never expereinced before," Brad explained.
After he finds the perfect ring, Brad gushed to Neil Lane: "There is something about her auora I've never met a women like her....it feels so right. I wanted this decision for 38 years, my entire life."
"I can honestly say I've never been happier in," he continued. "To have a ring that actually means forever is huge. I just know that this feeling is right. I'm ready to spend my entire life with this woman."
As for his final thoughts on Emily and Chantal:
"Emily is the quintessential Southern Belle. She is beautiful and engaging. I've let her know I'm ready for the task but I don't know if she is ready to allow someone to take that step," he shared.
"When I look at Chantal I see a life full of excitement. From the very first moment I met Chantal I've been comfortable. When I'm kissing Chantal their is intense passion. I'm picturing my life with Chantal and it makes me very happy."
"These women are both different but both women make me so happy. I used every single second I was given to help me make this decision and it just happened. When you know, you know. I have fallen madly in love. I have found the women I want to spend my life with."
The Proposal
In the end, Brad chose Emily, but not without having to say his goodbyes to Chantal first.
With Chantal he began the obligatory round of compliments, having trouble looking her in the eyes.
"The very first time, I laid eyes on you I felt a connection and that connection has only grown over time. And that's something I always looked for..." he began listing all the wonderful things he liked about her, before dropping the bomb.
"I don't know how else to say it except I have stronger feelings for someone else."
Chantal immediately began crying, forcing out the words, "You're an amazing person and Emily is very lucky. It just sucks that I felt so strongly."
"It doesn't make sense. My heart just really hurts right now," Chantal sobbed. "I feel really stupid. How can I have been so convinced that he was the one. He didn't even love me."
Emily got her happy ending, with Brad proposing on one knee in one of the most romantic proposals in Bachelor history.
Are you surprised Emily received the final rose? Share your thoughts in the comments!
