Viewers of “The Bachelorette” were stunned when Jen Schefft rejected both of the finalists last week.

Schefft herself was pretty confused by the reaction because she thought she had played fair, and the show didn’t look that way.

Schefft was the first “Bachelor/Bachelorette” star not to make a match. She declined marriage proposals from both Oklahoma entrepreneur John Paul Merritt and — in a live broadcast — Jerry Ferris, an art gallery director from Los Angeles.

But in a recent interview, Schefft said Ferris should not have been surprised by her wish just to be friends.

The two had seen each other a few times since taping of the show ended, and it was clear to Schefft they were not going to be a match.

“I was always honest with him,” she said from Chicago, where she works for a marketing and public relations company. “He did know what my answer would be…. I spoke to him two nights before” the finale.

The producers of the show also knew her answer, she said, and went ahead with a romantic buildup.

“I kind of felt like they were setting me up for failure,” she said.

It also left her as a villain to many viewers, who wondered what it would take to satisfy her. She had been chosen by Andrew Firestone on “The Bachelor,” but that relationship did not last; then she turned down both proposals on “The Bachelorette.”

Schefft does not regret her decision. In fact, she thinks she was more honest than she has been given credit for.

After all, “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” have a horrible record when it comes to making long-term matches.

“People say the show doesn’t work,” she said. “And when I’m fairly honest about it, I’m the problem?”

“I tried to handle myself in a responsible way,” she said, even if the show didn’t always look like it.

But she does have advice for anyone else who goes on “The Bachelor” or “The Bachelorette” looking for love.

“First of all,” she said, “they should have a very thick skin.”