Celebrity news tabloids love to play up heartbreak, real or imagained.

We've seen it so often in our five years in the business, it's hard to take seriously - but the emotional ransacking of Ashley Hebert on The Bachelorette this week certainly qualifies as "stabbed in the heart" material.

Ashley thought Bentley Williams was her Prince Charming. It turns out he was anything but. The divorced Utah businessman led Ashley to believe he adored her, only to trash talk her behind her back, then exit in despicable fashion.

Before appearing on The Bachelorette, Bentley was inching closer to a reconciliation with his ex-wife, Suzette Davis, the mother of his daughter, Cozette.

They were married for two years but divorced in 2009.

“They were together all the time and looking for houses, to start again,” a friend of Suzette reveals to OK! this week. “He was saying he loved her.”

Suzette, who's a practicing Mormon like Bentley, was shocked when she heard through a friend that Bentley had signed on to do The Bachelorette.

When confronted, he tried to convince his ex that he was only doing it to promote his business, a sports center called Airborne Trampoline Arena.

Explains a source close to the former couple:

“Before he left, he promised Suzette he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her - he wouldn’t kiss Ashley or be a disappointment to their family.”

“The fact is that he did kiss Ashley and he did act like he liked her - Suzette was heartbroken and disappointed and felt very betrayed.”

We can imagine. It also makes sense why Michelle Money, Suzette's friend, tried to warn Ashley Hebert about the sleaze from the start.

[Photo: OK!]