Why 'Bachelor' Star Jonathon Johnson, 28, Accepted a Rose From April Kirkwood, 67

The 10th season of Bachelor in Paradise has introduced several controversial changes.

The contestants are hanging out at a hotel in Costa Rica, not Mexico, this time. And all it seems to do is rain. The contestants cycle in and out at warp speed, with some having only a few hours to make a connection.

Judging from the commentary on Reddit, some fans wish the show had stayed the way it was.

However, the most significant change is the introduction of the "Goldens" to Paradise alongside the youngsters. Those are contestants from the Golden Bachelor and Golden Bachelorette, and they're old enough to be the younger contestants' grandparents.

Host Jesse Palmer informed the mixed-age group that no one was expected to cross generational lines. "Unless you want to," retorted April Kirkwood, the 67-year-old feisty refugee from the Golden Bachelor.

She soon set her eyes, at least somewhat, on a younger contestant, Jonathon Johnson, 28, who was going through his share of heartbreak on the show, being friend-zoned by his primary love interest.

First, Kirkwood raised eyebrows by telling Johnson how to find her room. Then, she gave him her rose, despite it being sought after by people her age, namely Jack. She told Johnson she wanted to give him another chance for people to see his worth.

A shocked Johnson accepted the rose, and now he's explaining what he thought about it all.

“I have such a love for the Goldens, I didn’t feel fully right taking [the rose],” Johnson told Swoon, since Kirkwood could have saved an older contestant instead.

“You can hear me ask her when I’m up there, I’m like, ‘Are you SURE?’ Because in my mind, I knew that takes away from potentially one of the Golden men getting their chance. I didn’t want to sit with the weight of being like, ‘Damn, did I just take it from one of them?'”

He told Swoon that Kirkwood wanted her rose to go to a “kid” with “such good intentions," and now he "feels great about it." But he admitted he was "thoroughly shook" by the gesture.

He explained that they're just friends.

“Her and I made it very clear that it was purely friendly,” he explained to Swoon. “I think she liked to flirt with me, and I would flirt back in, like, a playful way. It was never, like, this is going to happen kind of a thing. But we always played with the idea that it’s just for fun.”

Johnson also spoke to Extra about the moment.

He said it was "wholesome and like your mom checking in on you and making sure you're okay." But he said there was playful flirting, but not "anything like we're actually going to kiss or anything."

He said he was "genuinely" surprised when Kirkwood gave him the rose. Johnson said, "She just wanted me to have a chance to meet somebody else."

Johnson added that she was "saying the most reassuring sweet things."