‘The Bachelor’: Dina on 'Emotional' Reunion with Grant & Carolina Drama (Exclusive)

Dina Lupancu had an “emotional” night seeing Grant Ellis again at the “Women Tell All.”

“Extra” spoke with Dina, who was sent home after her hometown date — which her family opted out of — and she reflected on how that was the “make-or-break” that ultimately broke them.

She admitted, “I was not expecting to be emotional. I wanted to talk to him about… [the] not having my family there aspect and watching back the episode and seeing how I, like, skirted away from kind of, ‘My family’s not going to be here, but my friends will be, let’s do that,’ and he asked how I felt about it and again I evaded the question.”

She continued, “I, like, barely talked about it and then when I watched it back and I saw in his confessional he said something like, ‘It might be a make-or-break situation, given that Dina’s family’s not buying in’ and I was like, ‘That’s the first time I heard that.’ He never told me that it was going to be a make-or-break situation. He never made me feel like it was such a big deal.”

Lupancu went on, “I’m, like, self-reflecting, and I was like, ‘What did I do to make him feel that he couldn’t tell me that?’ I clearly didn’t give him a safe space… to be able to say that to me, so I felt really bad.”

Of their reunion, Dina pointed out, “That’s what I wanted to voice to him tonight and I did and I got emotional because I was like, ‘I feel bad ’cause I know myself, like, I just skirted around the question and I wanted to avoid it.”

Lupancu pointed out that she got emotional since she confronted it head-on even though it was uncomfortable for her to do.

Dina understood why she was sent home, saying, “Not having my family there was a make-or-break. Ultimately, it was a break because he didn’t get to meet them. My family didn’t get to meet him, so how could we move forward with an engagement in two weeks when you don’t have that family meeting, ya know?” 

Lupancu opened up on her “special connection” with Grant, saying, “It was a little bit more unique. I think we were somebody that trusted one another very quickly and I know he saw that in me and I saw that in him. I never felt like Grant was giving me, like… reassurances. Like, I never needed validation from him. Every time we got to see each other, it was just, like, an understanding that were at the same place.”

Dina felt that she got “really far” since they didn’t need constant validation about their relationship. She added, “It was a lot stronger than I think what was really shown on the show.”

Dina also spoke about how she had hoped to resolve things with Carolina at “WTA,” but she felt Carolina didn’t take any accountability.

She said, “I wanted to keep it cute. I wanted to keep it an open forum for her to say exactly how she felt and for me to apologize for my shortcomings… I wanted tonight to be that, and instead of, you know, being able to take accountability for the things that she did, she kind of was just like throwing jabs at everybody else and our shortcomings… I don’t think we really resolved things.”

As for who she hopes Grant ends up with, Dina admitted it's a difficult choice!

She said, "When I went home after hometowns, I even said to him, like, 'You're gonna have a really tough time,' because these women are amazing and they're so incredible. They all bring such different, amazing qualities to the table... So when I saw in the finale he's having a hard time choosing, I was't surprised."

Dina added, "I'm not Grant, so I can't say what would be a perfect fit for him... I mean, I love Litia. She's my girl, so it's so hard to say anyone but Litia. She's a girl after my own heart."

When asked if we could see Dina on the beach for "Bachelor in Paradise," she left the door open, "I don't know. We'll see."