The Bachelor: Peter Weber ends up with Madison Prewett despite his mother Barbara’s disapproval

Peter Weber ended up with Madison Prewett after first proposing to Hannah Ann Sluss on Tuesday’s shocking finale of season 24 of The Bachelor. 

The 28-year-old pilot, however, did not get engaged to Madison, 23, saying instead that ‘taking it one step at a time, one day at a time is possibly the smartest way to go with this.’

The show’s ending previously was billed as ‘unspoilable,’ since not even Peter knew if Madison would stay with him until they spoke at the finale’s live show.

Three months before, the pilot seemed thrilled to ask Hannah Ann, a 23-year-old model from Knoxville, Tennessee, to marry him in Alice Springs, Australia.

Peter had second thoughts almost immediately, realizing that his feelings for Madison hadn’t disappeared, despite obvious ‘compatibility’ issues.

After breaking up with Hannah Ann, Peter told Madison that he still loved her, and they announced live in front of a studio audience that they would reignite their relationship.

Hannah Ann, whom Peter had previously described as ‘the biggest sweetheart you ever met,’ was understandably furious, chastising him for stringing her along.

‘Words are powerful, Peter,’ she emphasized. ‘Either you don’t mean what you say, or you don’t understand the weight of your words. So which one is it?’

Peter’s mother, who called Hannah Ann ‘an angel from heaven,’ glared at Madison.

‘All his friends, all his family, everyone that knows him knows that it’s not gonna work,’ Barbara Weber declared, as the foster parent recruiter squirmed in her chair.

‘I am telling you that I love Madison, and that should be enough,’ Peter told Barbara. ‘Please, please. Listen to me.’

As the two-hour finale opened, Peter prepared to propose to Hannah Ann in Australia, calling her his ‘person’ and saying that she was ‘the most beautiful spirit I’ve ever met.’

‘I am so incredibly in love with Hannah Ann,’ Peter insisted. ‘I am choosing Hannah Ann because I am 100 percent certain, and I want to choose her every single day.’

Peter picked out a pear-shaped Neil Lane ring and called Hannah Ann’s father to get his blessing, though he nearly passed out when he heard that Hannah Ann might not show up.

The model sensed Peter was ‘torn’ between her and Madison, as he’d told her the night before that his heart was in two places, and she didn’t know Madison had left.

When Hannah Ann arrived, Peter made a romantic proposal that had them both crying.

Peter told her that he cherished their time together, and knew he had to follow his heart, offering, ‘You’re thoughtful, you’re caring, you’re selfless, you’re passionate, and above all else, you’re one of a kind. And my heart chooses you forever… I never want to let you go.’

Hannah was surprised that he picked her, exclaiming, ‘So you love me? Oh my gosh!’

‘Of course I love you,’ Peter said, beaming. ‘I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.’

He got down on one knee, and held out a ring, adding, ‘Hannah Ann, will you marry me?’

‘Oh my word, yes!’ Hannah Ann replied, as he slipped the ring on her finger. ‘I can’t believe you’re all mine. I get to love you forever. This is amazing!’

When Peter returned to Los Angeles, he told his nervous parents the news, dragging it out at first to suggest he chose Madison, then revealing it was Hannah Ann.

Barbara screamed and sobbed, calling Hannah Ann ‘my daughter’ as they spoke on FaceTime.

During the Los Angeles  live show, Barbara’s face was tight as Peter confessed that he still loved ‘Madi.’

His break-up with Hannah Ann, which happened a month after their engagement, was then shown.

In an uncomfortable conversation, Peter told her that he didn’t doubt his love for her, but was ‘struggling’ because he couldn’t give her his ‘entire heart.’

It wasn’t just because of Madison, he later clarified, but because Hannah Ann felt more for him than he did for her, and he knew she deserved better.

Hannah Ann told him she had always seen them ‘working through things together,’ but affirmed, ‘if you can’t give me that love in return, then that’s not a relationship.’

‘I never intended to give my heart to two people,’ Peter swore, grateful for the fact that Hannah Ann had always stood by him.

‘You took away from me my first engagement,’ the model noted. ‘I trusted you, and that’s what you have continued to ask me to do: ”Be patient with me, have faith in me, trust in me”.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Peter repeated. ‘This is not what I ever, ever envisioned, ever.’

‘Imagine me,’ Hannah Ann said, holding up her ring. ‘I said ”yes,” and I get this? Why didn’t you just let me go? Instead of taking this away from me.’

When Peter said he was sorry again, she asked, ‘For what? For not being man enough to follow through with your words?’

‘I can’t even look at you anymore,’ Hannah Ann concluded, handing the ring back to Peter. ‘I don’t need anything more from you. You’ve done enough damage.’

Peter tried to make things right again before she left, but Hannah Ann said she couldn’t trust him, explaining, ‘I feel betrayed enough. You betrayed me. And you know it, right?’

Peter nodded, and Hannah Ann said that acknowledgment was enough for her to ‘get my life back on track now. Where it originally was before.’

Her ex-fiance walked Hannah Ann to a car, and stuck his head inside, saying, ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Peter, leave,’ Hannah Ann protested, holding up her hand. ‘Bye.’

Hannah Ann during the live show confessed she had known something was ‘off’ with Peter, and claimed he had manipulated her into trusting him.

She said Peter told her that letting her walk away would be one of the greatest regrets of his life, and after their breakup told her parents that he wished he had met her outside reality TV.

Peter also did not give her any indication that he still had feelings for Madison and did not disclose until the moment of the proposal that Madison had left the show.

‘I had no idea to what I was saying yes to,’ Hannah Ann pointed out.

Peter said he had been ‘grieving’ Madison’s departure and wanted to be sensible about choosing Hannah Ann, whom he knew loved him so much.

In response, Hannah Ann sniped that she should have seen ‘red flags’ when Peter said he wanted to reach out to his ex, Bachelorette star Hannah Brown, 25, to ‘find closure with her.’

‘Word of advice,’ she said. ‘If you want to be with a woman, you need to become a real man.’

After Hannah Ann left the stage, show host Chris Harrison, 51, revealed that he had flown to Madison’s Auburn, Alabama, hometown to see if she still loved Peter.

Madison affirmed that she did, and called leaving the pilot ‘the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,’ telling Chris she couldn’t eat or sleep in the days after her decision.

She said she wished she’d done things differently, and when Chris told her that Peter was single again, she immediately agreed to meet with him in Los Angeles.

When she saw him, Madison told Peter she still had ‘so much love’ in her heart for him, and he said the same, acknowledging that he had made ‘a million and one mistakes.’

On the live show, the two of them testified again to their love, even though they had been ‘hurt’ and put ‘through the wringer’ for it.

‘I’ve made more mistakes than you could ever make as the Bachelor, but I’m still sitting on a couch next to you right now,’ Peter told Madison. ‘Through everything, that makes me happy.’

In the crowd, Barbara looked on stonily, telling Chris that she ‘clicked right away’ with sweet Hannah Ann, while her interaction with Madison had been ‘rocky.’

She said Madison made the Webers wait three hours to meet her in Australia, ‘because she didn’t want to come in,’ and never apologized to them.

‘When I asked her if she was madly in love with my son, she said no, and that she would not expect a proposal in four days,’ Barbara added. ‘How do you expect a mother who loves her son with all of her heart to take that?’

Asked for a response, Madison kept mum out of ‘love and respect for Peter’s family.’

‘At the end of the day, it is what it is,’ she opined. ‘Can’t change the past, and there’s a lot that is out of my control. I came into this journey and I said I was going to be unashamed of who I am and undeniably myself, and that is something I have done throughout this entire journey.’

Peter agreed, recognizing that his family’s concern came from ‘a place of love.’

‘I know how she feels for me, and I know how I feel for her,’ he told his parents. ‘And I just ask that you guys can give me that chance. And trust me.’

‘This is my journey, too,’ Madison insisted. ‘This isn’t just Peter choosing me. This is me choosing Peter.’

Chris asked Barbara how the family could ‘turn the page’ on their relationship with Madison.

‘He’s going to have to fail to succeed,’ Barbara said as the audience gasped, adding that none of Peter’s family members and friends thought it would work.

Chris asked Peter’s father for his thoughts and Barbara leaned over and told her husband in Spanish to also say something bad about Madison to help her.

Peter’s father focused on the obstacles facing them and noted that it wasn’t the right way to start a relationship. 

‘Honestly, this is about me and Peter, this is about our journey, this is something just he and I should be talking about,’ Madison reiterated.

As the show ended, Chris introduced Claire Crawley, 38, who will make her debut as the new Bachelorette on May 18, after previously being featured on four Bachelor-franchise shows.