‘Bachelor’ star Arie says he’ll take the heat for switching fiancées

LOS ANGELES — ABC’s “The Bachelor” says he’s willing to take the heat for dumping Becca Kufrin to find true love with runnerup Lauren Burnham.

“Would I do it all again and face this scrutiny to be with her? Absolutely,” Arie Luyendyk Jr. said Wednesday during a teleconference with reporters.

His decision to break up with Kufrin during Monday’s season finale after he’d proposed drew headlines including the words “horror,” “brutal” and “gut-wrenching.”

Luyendyk defended the spectacle of ending their engagement on network TV.

“I wanted everyone to know that the breakup was on me and that I made a mistake,” he said, adding that the relationship started on camera and it was appropriate to end it there.

He speculated his ex might even be thankful for it.

Although she handled it graciously for the show, Kufrin unloaded afterward about having her romantic dreams publicly crushed.

“It was like a slap in the face,” she told People magazine. But she defended Luyendyk, sort of, saying she didn’t think he threw her over for Burnham “maliciously to break my heart.”

Kufrin, whose consolation prize is starring in the next season of “The Bachelorette,” was to have joined in the ABC conference call but dropped out for scheduling reasons, the network said.