Michael A. Self-Eliminated On The Bachelorette & Twitter Can't Handle The Emotions

The July 26th episode of The Bachelorette started out with a bang. Front-runner Michael Allio, someone fans saw as a clear front-runner for Katie Thurston’s heart, decided to leave the competition at the beginning of this week’s episode. The 36-year-old widower and single father won fans over with his honesty and candidness with Thurston, but he admittedly had a hard time being away from his family, FaceTiming his son whenever he got a chance. Ahead of the Hometown dates, Allio admitted he felt “at war” with himself and expressed concerns over needing to be in two places at once.

The moment that finally sent him over the edge was his son asking, “Why don’t you want to see me anymore?” during one of their calls. He was visibly upset afterward and went to Thurston’s room to talk to her about his feelings in person. He explained why he felt he needed to leave, sharing, “With hometowns coming up, I feel like it’s wrong to give you half of what we could be” and adding, “I’m not leaving because of us, I’m leaving because of my son, he needs his dad.”

Ultimately, the fan favorite headed home, and it’s safe to say fans are devastated.

Most fans felt like it was sad to see someone with such pure intentions going home.

And some fans took to Twitter to call out the franchise, sharing that “he is too pure for this.”

Other fans couldn’t take seeing Allio cry, which then caused them to well up and wish they could give him a hug.

Most members of Bachelor nation agreed that watching him go home so close to Hometowns was hard to watch and a lot to process, especially so early in the episode.

While Allio did go home early on in the episode, he did appear later during the Men Tell All reunion special and told Thurston that he didn’t want to leave during filming and would be there for her if she’s still available at the end of the season. Judging by her response about leaving things in the past, it seems Thurston is happy with how her journey ended and isn’t interested in pursuing anything with Allio at this point. However, Bachelor Nation remains as skeptical as ever and thinks they’re just trying to throw everyone off their tracks.