"I don't want to use the word ghosted." What happened when Shannon and Connor left paradise.

The last we saw of Connor Orochta and Shannon Baff, they were skipping off into the sunset, after choosing to leave Bachelor in Paradise together to explore and grow their relationship on the outside.

But post-reality life wasn’t exactly what the pair had in mind, and it has resulted in heartbreak for Shannon, 26, and unfinished business for Connor, also 26.

“I was genuine [in wanting to explore something]. We were told we would have a day or two to be together on the outside in Fiji and spend time together without cameras and all that stuff. Unfortunately that didn’t happen,” Connor told Mamamia.

You can watch Connor ask Shannon to leave with him here. Post continues after the video.

Instead, within eight hours of leaving the rose ceremony they were on separate planes to Australia and America.

“That truly made me upset, it made me almost break down in tears. We left the show, and we had to leave. You know, until one of us bought a plane ticket to the other. So we never got that time to be with each other,” he said.

In tonight’s Bachelor in Paradise Tell All which will follow the finale (prepare yourself.. there’s 2.5 hours of Bach coming our way), Mamamia can reveal Shannon tells Osher she was ghosted by her reality TV beau and left completely heartbroken.

But Connor has another side to the story.

“I was hoping to be at the Tell All to see her and speak to her, and relive all that stuff together and see if that flame is still sparked. It’s one of those things where I don’t like to use this as an excuse… but being on two different sides of the world is truly difficult to build a relationship,” he said.

“I don’t want to use the word ghosted because that sounds like I just cut her out of my life and didn’t want anything to do with her. Like I said, throughout this short condensed process, you need a set up rate in terms of growing with that person and understanding about that person, because again – me being in America, and her being in Australia – if I don’t know anything about her, in terms of what I am looking for.

"I know it sounds like a lot of pressure. But if I don't know a lot going out of the show, and out of this perfect bubble, then it's going to be very difficult for me to progress a relationship over the phone.

"And it's going to be difficult for me to go 'hey let me buy a plane ticket to fly over to you' from just a friendly vibe. I wasn't looking for that, I was looking for something serious," he explained to Mamamia.

But Connor and Shannon, from where we were sitting, had more than a "friendly vibe".

They were coupled up from quite early on in the show, and spent every waking second together.

"We definitely slept over," added Connor.

In Shannon's eyes, she was ready to commit, musing as she left, that she "might move to America".

But according to Shannon, conversations ran dry as soon as they were apart.

"At the end of it, it just wasn't truly enough for me to be like 'I am absolutely head over heels in love with this girl.' It could have gotten there... but I think we were in two different spaces, and she was having trouble opening up," said Connor of the way they left things.

He insists, he has in fact been in talks with Shannon in the four months since filming, and is even considering a trip Down Under.

"We've been exchanging texts, DMs all that stuff. There's still something in me that's interested in finding out more about her, to see if our relationship could work."

"Hopefully there's something in the future here, where I will make a trip shortly to Australia to see her, and spend some time to figure out where we need to leave off or pick back up," he said.

Ahead of tonight, he wants us to know he wishes he was flown over for the filming.

"I am not saying she was lying about anything, I am sure she told everything straight up in how she was feeling. But it would be good to get some closure for people and to understand both sides of the story," he told Mamamia.