Bachelor Winter Games' Ashley & Kevin Explain Why They Split

The Bachelor Winter Games‘ Ashley Iaconetti and Kevin Wendt, the winning couple on the show, are explaining why they have split.

“It sounds a little harsh, but it’s just that lack of — there’s magic. We get along very well, it’s just there’s a little something missing and you can’t really pinpoint what it is. That’s just how I feel,” Ashley, 30, said on her Ben and Ashley I. Almost Famous Podcast with Ben Higgins.

Kevin added, “I feel like that’s normal and I feel like you get those connections all the time where if you take away our outside world and just put Ashley and me on an island together, we’d probably get along really well. And that’s what Vermont was.”

Kevin continued, “I’m very hard at giving up on things. And I’m not saying that we gave up on it … I’m saying I was still ready to come there again. And I know her birthday, I wanted to be there when I had to work and I was planning on coming out as of that week or she was going to come here. I knew we definitely had an uphill battle. I wasn’t 100 percent in yet, but I also knew I wanted to see her again.”

“But now that a few days have passed and we both kind of collected our thoughts and emotions and stuff, I know she made the right call and I know this is the way it should be,” he added. “I feel like I got friend-zoned. Ashley, you friend-zoned me…But I’m okay. I think the more I process it and the more — I mean, I’ve kept it kind of to myself. I didn’t want any comments getting out there without us doing this. I want the best things for Ashley. I just don’t think the spark was fully ignited by the time we had the conversations, but I respect her for at least doing it earlier on. We could have done two or three more trips and then it just would kind of dragged out, so it’s all good. It makes sense.”