Disturbing Bachelor Secrets We Were Never Supposed To Hear
The Bachelor and The Bachelorette are dramatic enough on TV, but sometimes the behind-the-scenes insanity actually eclipses any of the action onscreen. These contestants all had melodrama, trauma, and sometimes even crimes in their personal histories, some before, some during, and some after the cameras rolled, making them have a lot more thorns than roses in their personal lives!
Chris Soules
Chris Soules was arrested on April 25, 2017, after he allegedly rear-ended a tractor in northern Iowa, sending his own pickup truck and the tractor each into two separate ditches the night before. Soules called 911 immediately after the accident, TMZ reported, before he fled the scene. The driver of the tractor, farmer Kenneth Mosher, was pronounced dead at the hospital. TMZ reports that authorities will look into Soules' social media and cell phone records to determine whether he was using his cell phone at the time of the collision, for which he could face charges of vehicular manslaughter. TMZ reported that Soules was allegedly in possession of alcoholic beverages at the time of the accident and faces charges of leaving the scene of a fatal accident ... and court documents reportedly indicated that Soules has some past driving infractions on his record, including a 2006 DUI.
Sharleen Joynt
Canadian opera singer Sharleen Joynt was more interested in fame than in Juan Pablo Galavis when she appeared on season 18 of The Bachelor. A source told Life & Style, "She doesn't have real feelings for Juan Pablo. She lives in Germany and always planned on going back there. She doesn't want to get married and have a child. She's putting her career first right now."
Cassandra Ferguson
Cassandra Ferguson, like Joynt, was just not that into Galavis. An insider told Life & Style, "[Ferguson] wasn't looking for Juan Pablo to be the one. She was just there to make her ex [Detroit Pistons' Rodney Stuckey], who has a new girlfriend, notice. She wanted to make him jealous."
Lauren Solomon
Lauren Solomon seemed more in love with reality TV than with Galavis. Before appearing on season 18 of The Bachelor, Solomon found love with ex-fiancee Blake DuPlant on the show Minute To Win It, WetPaint reported. She may have a fetish for competition, as she also reportedly appeared on The Price Is Right and Let's Make A Deal with DuPlant before their split.
Once she appeared on The Bachelor, DuPlant tried selling her engagement ring on I Do / Now I Don't, writing (via WetPaint), "Well.. a little over a year ago, I was going to give this beautiful ring to my ex fiance, and as you see now, we ended up not getting married. And as it turns out ... she was actually just on ABC's show The Bachelor. Crazy right ... her name is Lauren Solomon. I guess I wasn't as good as Juan Pablo ... But anyways ... the ring was never worn, and is 100 percent mint condition, sparkling with beauty!"
Solomon told WetPaint of the re-sale, "I was kind of shocked he wrote that. Believe it or not, he's a really great guy, and this is out of character. I guess he's trying to get more money for the ring? I doubt he will though, but I'm sure he thought I would never see it. Well, I did, real fast." She added, "I haven't said anything to Blake about it because honestly, I'm super happy and busy with my journalism career, so I don't really care. It's not really my business what he does with it. I gave it back to him after breaking off our engagement. I felt so awful about it all, and it was a terrible time for both of us."
Rozlyn Papa
Season 14 contestant Rozlyn Papa didn't get a rose from Jake Pavelka, she still went home with a man: Chris Harrison told People that Papa was booted from the show because she was hooking up with a staffer, who then got fired from the series.
"She had a physical relationship with a producer on our show. You cannot do that. There is no gray area," Harrison said. "Other girls on the show saw it. The producer confessed more than once and to more than one person. I cannot make it any clearer ... We would never go to the lengths we did and take the steps we did, firing somebody and kicking someone off our show if we thought maybe something might be happening. To think we would take these steps either just in make-believe or even on a hunch and open up ourselves legally like we have is just preposterous ... This was a friend of ours and a member of our family. A lot of feelings were hurt; were upset. ... I never witnessed anything like it onscreen or off."
Elise Mosca
Before she competed for Juan Pablo Galavis' heart, Elise Mosca had a bit of a situation ... with Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino. A source told Star (via Radar Online), "Elise knew Mike before he was famous, but she really focused on him after he hit it big. She wanted to be with him for the fame, and eventually it got kind of creepy." The insider explained, "Elise had been doing some work for the casting company behind the series, and she knew Mike from around the Seaside Heights bars. After Mike became a hit on the series, Elise started showing up everywhere he was. It was almost like she was stalking him. She definitely seemed obsessed with him."
Her tactic worked... sort of. "Mike hooked up with Elise on occasion through the years," the source said, "but it was always strictly a booty call. She was dying to be his girlfriend, but he was just having fun. Sometimes Mike would even lead Elise on, telling her they'd meet up at a specific time and place, then he wouldn't show. But I don't think she cared."
Amanda Meyer
When Amanda Meyer competed for Sean Lowe's affections, he may not have known about her colorful record. The National Enquirer reported in 2013 that Meyer had quite a history with alcohol.
"Amanda is more equipped to be on the reality show Cops instead of The Bachelor — or maybe Celebrity Rehab," a show insider told the tabloid. "Amanda is really turning out to be the villain on the show. The other girls don't like her and say she's a witch who turns on a lot of fake charm whenever Sean's around."
Meyer was charged with public intoxication in June 2011, something that likely wouldn't have meshed well with Lowe's Prince Charming rep. The source said, "Sean is squeaky clean, and when he finds out about Amanda's past he's going to be shocked. I can't see him taking her home to meet his parents — if he did they'd have to lock up their booze cabinet!"
Leslie Hughes
Radar Online reports that Leslie Hughes was arrested in 2007 for DUI — and her blood alcohol level was allegedly almost twice the legal limit. What's more, it seemed like Hughes may be more in love with fame than with Sean Lowe: WetPaint reports that Hughes had been trying to break into acting for years and actually appeared on a Fox dating show called Take Me Out before competing on The Bachelor.
Emily Maynard
There's a big reason Emily Maynard and Jef Holm called off their engagement: Us Weekly reports that the blond beauty cheated on Holm with NFL star Matt Leinart! Holm reportedly found out when he saw compromising texts on Maynard's phone. Holm's ex, Kaylee Shepherd, told the magazine that they talked about the rumors, saying, "He said the story was 100 percent accurate. When she put her phone down, [Jef] picked it up and read through everything ... Jef said, 'It was that pro football guy ... She strung me along and was talking to another guy the whole time!'"
Taryn Daniels
It sounds like Taryn Daniels doesn't respond well to authority. Star magazine reported (via Reality Tea) that while working as a waitress in 2003, Daniels flipped out and slammed a salt shaker in her boss's face during a meeting. Daniels' boss reportedly pressed charges, though it's unclear what other consequences she faced from the alleged incident.
Gia Allemand
Gia Allemand was a contestant on season 14 of The Bachelor. In 2013, the brunette beauty committed suicide by hanging. She'd been hospitalized for a few days leading up to her death, but life support was pulled after it was learned she suffered "critical loss of brain and organ function," TMZ reported. Allemand was 29 years old.
Lex McAllister
Season 14 contestant Alexa "Lex" McAllister, who competed for Jake Pavelka's heart, rose, and ring, committed suicide in February 2016. TMZ reports that McAllister overdosed on prescription drugs and passed away after a brief hospitalization. A family member told the site that McAllister suffered from depression and bipolar disorder. She was 31 years old.
Vanessa Grimaldi and Nick Viall
In April 2017, only weeks after announcing their engagement on The Bachelor, Vanessa Grimaldi was said to be jealous of Nick Viall's fame. "[Grimaldi] absolutely hates that Nick is getting more attention than her," a source told Life & Style. "She has a manager and an agent, but her acting career hasn't gotten off the ground ... Vanessa has told Nick repeatedly that if he doesn't help her get more deals, she'll tell the public their relationship is fake."
Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi
Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi's breakup after season 14 of The Bachelor in 2010 was one of the ugliest and most dramatic in the show's history.
As Girardi tells it, Pavelka, who went on to appear on Dancing With The Stars, Drop Dead Diva, Bachelor Pad, H8R, and Celebrity Cook-Off, just wanted fame, not a wife. "I literally have been living six months with this guy who won't be intimate with me," she vented to Star magazine (via Hollywood Life). "He kisses me only if we're on a red carpet or if cameras are there. He really, really wants to be an actor. This wasn't supposed to be our life!" She added, "He went on auditions while I sat in the apartment doing nothing ... I thought he was a pilot. He really wants to be an actor. This wasn't supposed to be our life ... He moved me out to LA. I didn't know anyone there!"
Pavelka, meanwhile, says it's Girardi's fault they split. He told People that he dumped her by phone because of "trust issues," while a Dancing With The Stars show insider told E! News, "She was kind of stalkerish. She wanted to spend a lot of time with him. Everywhere he would go, she would go ... Rehearsals, photo shoots and even practice. She was the only significant other there sometimes — it was a little weird."
Jade Roper
Season 19 contestant Jade Roper had quite a checkered history in her youth. Life & Style reports that Roper was busted in October 2004 for possession of alcohol when she was 17 years old, which was punished with six months of probation and 20 community service hours. It doesn't seem like she learned her lesson then: She was sentenced to 15 days in jail and six months of probation in December 2005 after being charged with a DUI.
In April 2006, just before her probation ended, she was busted for petty theft by a roommate, but the charges were dismissed. Five years later, she was arrested for allegedly shoplifting from a department store, but a judge dismissed the charges when the allegedly stolen items were recovered.
Kat Hurd
Like Roper, Kat Hurd was accused of hitting the bottle before she was able to legally. Radar Online reports that Hurd was busted for possession of alcohol while underage in 2004. However, the Phoenix Suns cheerleader seems to have cleaned up her act since then and doesn't have anything else on her record.
Brad Womack
Before The Bachelor, Brad Womack was a real bad boy. Radar Online reports that the hunk was arrested in 1993 for carrying a forged driver's license, serving 180 days of probation and paying a $200 fine. The New York Daily News reports that Womack was also busted for public intoxication and writing a bad check.
Womack later told People of his past, "I'm sure I wouldn't be the first to admit that I had a couple of missteps when I was a teenager — some 20 odd years ago. Some of the claims have been blown out of proportion but I took responsibility for my actions and took immediate measures to remedy the situation. It was just part of my growing pains back when I was still young and naive. You learn from your experiences good and bad — and you move on. It ultimately builds character."