Has it really been nearly eight years since Kaitlyn Bristowe was The Bachelorette? Kaitlyn just seems to have stayed around.
She recently stirred up controversy on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast by suggesting that the reason she slept with contestant Nick Viall prior to the Fantasy Suite was because the producers’ manipulated her feelings for him. Sleeping with someone before the Fantasy Suite was unheard of on the Bachelor franchise — at least on camera.
Yeah, right. It was the producers’ fault. And you weren’t just fired up by the chemistry between you. We see you, Kaitlyn.
“They really sexualized Nick to me . . . One producer actually said to me, after I would kiss him, she’d come in and, like, wipe my lips and, like, lick her lips and be like, ‘Oh, I just want to know what that tastes like — to, like, make out with Nick,’” Kaitlyn said, as reported by Us Weekly. “They really, like, put [him] on a pedestal to me . . . I was brainwashed.” Okaaaaaaay.
Nick joined the former dance instructor’s cast mid-season in 2015 after previously connecting with her outside the show. He learned about her remarks from his Viall Files podcast cohosts on February 7, 2023.
“Was she suggesting, because someone asked her, I guess, what my breath smells like or how I tasted, that from that moment forward, she was incapable of decision making?” the Season 21 Bachelor wondered.
“I think the whole thing is kind of dumb,” Nick clapped back. “I don’t, like, defend the show. [But] it’s cherry picking that some of my peers seem to do when it’s beneficial to them to criticize certain things, when I tell you who felt really manipulated and brainwashed on Kaitlyn’s season — this guy.,” he added. “And it wasn’t just from producers.”
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Though Nick believes the Dancing with the Stars champ is telling the truth, he doesn’t think what she described was “brainwashing.” I would say it was more “manipulation” than brainwashing. Kaitlyn already had the hots for Nick (their chemistry was intense). Production just fanned the flames a bit. It didn’t take much.
During the same interview, the former Bachelor contestant claimed that she didn’t congratulate her ex on his recent engagement to girlfriend Natalie Joy due to the advice in his book, Don’t Text Your Ex Happy Birthday. She also joked that he would only invite her and fiancé Jason Tartick to their nuptials “for headlines.” Really? She thinks her presence at Nick and Natalie’s wedding would boost their publicity? Kaitlyn needs a Reality (Tea) check.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Nick said on his podcast, confirming that he has no plans to invite his ex to the ceremony. And he wouldn’t expect to be invited to her wedding, either.
The Bachelor in Paradise alum has previously admitted to being “eternally grateful for how things played out.” Just like the rest of us, Nick had to go through his share of frogs (sorry, Kaitlyn) before finding his princess.
TELL US – DO YOU BELIEVE KAITLYN WAS MANIPULATED INTO SLEEPING WITH NICK MID-SEASON BY PRODUCERS? DO YOU THINK KAITLYN IS JUST TRYING TO GET HEADLINES WITH THIS STORY?
[Photo Credit: Presley Ann/Getty Images for MTV]