'The Bachelor' 's Emily Maynard and Brad Womack Split

The single mom tells PEOPLE why the couple's tumultuous relationship is over

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After months of speculation following their enchanted engagement on The Bachelor season finale last March, Emily Maynard and Brad Womack have decided to call it quits.

“We’re no longer engaged,” a teary-eyed Maynard told PEOPLE minutes after taping an intimate interview with Bachelor host Chris Harrison, for a segment scheduled to air during the July 11 episode of ABC’s The Bachelorette.

Hounded by paparazzi and dogged by relentless tabloid rumors, the Charlotte, N.C., single mom, 25, decided to break her silence about the status of her and Womack’s relationship. By doing so, she hopes to put an end to “all the media speculation” so that she and her 6-year-old daughter, Ricki, “can move on and get back to normal.”

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Womack, 38, declined to participate in the on-camera interview with Maynard. He tells PEOPLE in an exclusive statement that “the demise of our relationship was completely my fault.”

But Maynard disagrees, saying that while there’s still an immense amount of love between the pair, “just because we love each other doesn’t mean we’re right for each other.”

For more on Emily’s future plans and her response to rumors that she might be the next ‘Bachelorette’, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday

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