“I thought we were going to come out and just be super strong,” she explained. “I know there’s always going be problems. I knew there were going be things said. I just wish we both could have handled it with honesty together.”
At the reunion, which aired Aug. 19, Nicole called out the “f–ked up” leak and emphasized the “nobody deserves that.” However, she took issue with what Kendall telling her it was a video from years ago, only for her to learn from costar JaNa just days later that it was filmed in a hotel right before he entered the villa.
For his part, Kendall took ownership of the situation. “I 100 percent should have been honest with Nicole in that moment,” he told his fellow islanders and host Ariana Madix at the reunion, “but I honestly wasn’t ready. Literally, my life was turned upside down.”
Reflecting on how he “couldn’t talk to his family” about what he was going through in the wake of the video leak, he told Nicole that simply hadn’t known what to say. And amid the emotional back and forth, Kendall expressed frustration for how their dynamic halted in the wake of the video.
“I’ve been trying so hard for us,” he told Nicole. “That’s why I hate this f–king s–t happened and it led to this domino effect of us not being able to communicate.”