First Interview: Ben Flajnik Talks Break Up: 'We Weren't As Similar As We Thought' - In Touch Weekly

Just 10 months after proposing on The Bachelor, Ben Flajnik exclusively talks to In Touch about why he and Courtney Robertson finally called it quits. “We weren’t as similar as we thought,” Ben says of their break up in the new issue of In Touch — on newsstands now.

And the newly single Bachelor reveals that under their contract, Courtney must return the Neil Lane engagement ring Ben proposed to her with on The Bachelor.

“Sometimes they make exceptions,” Ben explains, however, “We've been together for 10 months. You have to be together for two years to keep the ring.”

And though viewers were always skeptical if their relationship was genuine, Ben insists, “We really did love each other.”

But “things just changed” and after a recent weekend together in San Francisco, the couple finally decided to take a break. A few days later, “We said, ‘Let’s not drag this out,’ ” says Ben. “It was a totally mutual agreement.”

“There are always going to be haters. There were so many naysayers, it was really like us against the world.”

The couple released a statement on Oct. 5 saying they had “started to grow apart because of the distance, time apart and our need to focus on our respective careers.”