'The Bachelor' Duo Say Romance Is Over

(AP)  Humphrey Bogart said it to Ingrid Bergman in "Casablanca," and now Dr. Travis Stork can say it to Sarah Stone: "We'll always have Paris."

Stork, an emergency room physician, chose Stone, an elementary school teacher, in the finale of ABC's "The Bachelor: Paris" last week.

The couple told The Tennessean in a joint interview Monday that they are no longer a couple.

Stork, 33, said the rules that prohibited them from dating or being together in public between the end of the show's taping in November and the Feb. 27 finale were hard on their relationship.

The France-set "Bachelor" deployed 25 women to vie for Stork's affections during a series of glamorous dates. The season began in January.

"You're in Paris and you're part of this incredible experience, this fantasy world, and then suddenly you come back to Nashville, and living in the same city I think we thought was going to be a great thing," he said. "But instead, you're forced to pretend you don't know someone, for, essentially, the last four months.

"The reality is that we were in this fantasy world. And now that we're back in Nashville, over time when you're not allowed to see someone, you grow apart."

Stone, 26, said, "I definitely think it would've worked out differently" if she and Stork had met and dated under different circumstances.

"We wouldn't have had all the baggage that comes from being on this show. It would just be the two of us being able to hang out and get to know each other in a normal situation," she said.

Both said they remain single and unattached and that they had no regrets about doing the show.

"Through this time, we realized that it was a great experience in Paris and that we're so lucky to have met one another in Paris, and we'll never forget that," Stone said. "And we both agree and know that we'll be friends forever."

Asked if they might reconnect romantically after publicity has died down, both just laughed.