Though Ashleigh admits she was catching feelings for the handsome pilot, she's thankful for the way her time on The Bachelor ended.
"I mean I was crushing hard, he’s the Bachelor so of course I’m going to be keen but he wasn’t feeling the same way and the chemistry wasn’t there for him," she explains.
"I was going off how nice things felt between us just in general and I think the way he did it was because there was so much respect there and I respect him so much for not taking the easy way out and actually doing the harder thing because it felt right."
Ashleigh adds: "I actually went into this experience going ‘This is going to end one of two ways – you’re either not going to get a rose and that’s brutal or you’re going to be standing there at the end’ and neither of those things eventuated."
However the biggest surprise came when Ashleigh watched her elimination and saw how delighted her co-star Sierah Swepstone was to see the back of her.
"I didn’t realise that Sierah felt that way, I didn’t realise that she felt so strongly," Ashleigh admits.
"I was so shocked when I was watching it but I could only laugh. You can’t sling mud with clean hands and I don’t want to get my hands dirty but we’re all a bunch of girls living under the same roof in a really high pressure situation so it’s natural that there are always going to be people that you clash with so it’s just one of those things."
The only downside to leaving the show pre-rose ceremony meant that Ashleigh couldn't say goodbye to her fellow contestants which left her "devastated".
The speech pathologist says that whilst she got along with most of her co-stars, she had a connection with Lily seeing as they're from the same town.
"We didn’t actually know each other which is astounding because we’re from such a small town but the connections we have are just bizarre," Ashleigh says.
"I was at a baby shower the day before I went that her housemate and best friend were at and I was spending time with her housemate before I went on The Bachelor and yet I’d never I met Lily but I knew exactly who she was. And then we became really good friends while we were there."
Jimmy and Ashleigh may not have had the romance she came on the show to find, but she does have an idea of who could be standing at the end.
"I always saw the frontrunners as being Jay, Brooke or Holly. They were the ones that stood out as being the frontrunners," she says.
"Watch out for Carlie as well, they’ve got a really nice connection as well so I do have my thoughts around her as well."
As for Ashleigh, she's still waiting for Mr Right and isn't opposed to another shot at reality TV romance.
"I think that you do see people fall in love and we’ve seen it on The Bachelor multiple times. I really thought that that could be my love story, I had a good feeling about it. You know, crazier things have happened in my life – who’s to say I can’t find love on a reality TV show?"