The women competing for Peter Weber’s heart weren’t happy when Hannah Brown appeared on season 24 of The Bachelor for the second time … and the 28-year-old pilot can relate to their grievances.

“I mean I totally understood their frustration. I was just as frustrated, if not more,” Peter told Us Weekly exclusively at the Living Legends of Aviation Awards at the Beverly Hilton on Thursday, January 16. “And the entire time I was talking with Hannah, in the back of my mind, I was thinking about them and what that was going to do to them. And, you know, I knew they had sacrificed their time to be there, and give it a shot with me.”

Peter added that the other contestants’ frustrations were “totally justified.”

“I tried to do my best from that moment on to really show them that I was ready to leave that in the past and just focus on them,” he explained. “And, you know, I feel like I did my best job and that’s all I could have done.”

Hannah, 25, initially appeared to say goodbye to Peter during night one of his season. Before the three-hour premiere ended, however, the former pageant queen returned again and admitted that she made the wrong decision when she didn’t pick Peter over Jed Wyatt and Tyler Cameron. While the pilot gave the former Bachelorette the chance to join the show — and Hannah implied that Peter could leave the series to be with her — they ultimately went their separate ways.

Since Peter was emotionally spent from the conversation, he canceled the rest of the group date during the Monday, January 13, episode — much to the other contestant’s dismay. (While the episode was airing, the Dancing With the Stars champ referred to herself as a “controversial subject.”)

Peter wasn’t afraid to admit to Us that he made mistakes along the way, but made it clear he has no regrets.

“It’s such a crazy, unique experience doing this. And you go into it thinking that you know how it’s going to go. Yeah, it’s going to be hard, but I’ll be able to handle it,” he told Us on Thursday. “And it’s really hard. And I made a lot of mistakes. I was not perfect, whatsoever. But, I just give myself that self grace and I know I’m not perfect, and I’m human, and it’s really tough and confusing dating so many people at once. … So I was going to mess up. And I told them that first thing, all the ladies. I told them to expect that.”

Peter concluded: “I don’t regret anything because, again, I’m human. I’m not perfect. And I learned from, you know, any mistakes I did make.”

The Bachelor airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.

Reporting by Taylor Ferber

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