A tough breakup went down on the Aug. 7 episode of The Bachelorette. It was fantasy suites week in Fiji for Charity Lawson, and her first date was with Xavier Bonner. The daytime portion of the date went great, but at dinner, Xavier opened up to Charity in a big way…and everything changed. Xavier admitted to being unfaithful to his ex, and since Charity had been cheated on in the past, it was triggering.
“Xavier dropped a huge bomb,” Charity admitted in a confessional. “I’ve experienced infidelity on and off for about six years and it literally breaks you. There’s nothing worse in this world than betrayal with the person you love. How I feel about Xavier, I want it to be a forever thing. I feel like I owe it to us to hear him out.”
Charity wanted more details from Xavier, who she previously said she was “falling in love” with. He admitted to cheating “multiple times” within a five day period. Charity was grateful that Xavier was open with her about his past, but also wanted to know what work he’d done on himself to make sure this wouldn’t happen again.
“I’m just more in tune with why I did this and what made me do this,” Xavier explained. “I think that’s the only way I can develop change is my questioning myself. I realize that I not only hurt her so much, but I hurt myself. It made me question my own character.” Xavier tried to assure Charity that he would never be unfaithful to her, but admitted that it would be hard.
By that point in the conversation, Charity seemed to be okay Xavier’s confession, but still wanted more assurance from him that she could trust him. She wasn’t ready to invite him to the fantasy suite until she had that assurance. “Can you be someone who will show up for me at the end of this if we both feel like this is right in our hearts?” she asked. “Can this be someone that will maintain loyalty to me? I hold this card, not because I doubt you, but because I believe in you and I want this for us. I want this to work. I don’t have any doubts about what I’m capable of giving to you, and I just need to know that you’re going to do what it takes to show up for me.”
Unfortunately, Xavier wasn’t quite there. “In my heart, there’s no f***** doubt,” he said. “But in my mind, there is that doubt. And for me to get to that point, it has to happen tonight.” Charity was not pleased with this response. She didn’t feel like one overnight together would change anything. “Us in a bedroom is not going to determine whether or not you can see longevity,” she ranted in a confessional. “F*** this. I’m so mad.”
Charity ended things with Xavier without having their fantasy suite evening. “It’s just a simple promise of can you trust yourself enough to not hurt me,” she told him. “Maybe that’s too high of an expectation, but at this point, the amount of doubt that you have for yourself…I don’t have that doubt for you. But I’m asking you in this moment, ‘Do you have that doubt for yourself?’ and you couldn’t even give me a yes or not. I don’t want to force you to get there prematurely, I only want you there if you’re fully ready. Because when I choose my person, I want that person to be secure in themselves and I want them to be ready.”
Neither Charity or Xavier expected their date to end this way, but it was officially over. Charity called it her “most disappointing” elimination. As he was driven away, Xavier said, “I know that I just hurt her so much. That woman put her heart on the line every single day and I doubted myself and us. I shouldn’t have done that.”