8 Former Bachelor Contestants Share Never-Before-Told Secrets of the Show

When The Bachelor cameras are filming at least eight hours a day and the footage needs to be cut down to two hours a week, a lot of juicy material ends up on the cutting room floor. Bachelor Nation only gets to see an edited glimpse of life in the mansion, and that’s just not fair. So we grilled eight former contestants about secrets they’ve kept over the years and the things they wish had aired but never did. Enjoy!

“One day, I was the first interview and the ‘interview room’ was being set up in a producer’s hotel room. I headed down to that floor, and when the doors opened, I bumped right into that producer and one of the contestants. Her hair and make up were a mess, and she was in the same dress as the night before. Her face turned bright red—total giveaway that something scandalous had gone down! There are more of these producer/contestant relationships than viewers realize—they’re always kept hush-hush.” —Jamie Otis (The Bachelor, Season 16)

“The roses in front of the mansion are actually fake, but the ones they hand out at the rose ceremonies are real.” —Courtney Robertson (The Bachelor, Season 16)

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“On Bachelor In Paradise, there were a lot of lonely nights. Luckily, most of us had brought vibrators. Some of the girls would names their sex toys and sing songs about them when we were going to bed. I highly advise all future contestants to pack a vibrator. You’re going to need it!” —Lacy Faddoul (The Bachelor, Season 18, and Bachelor In Paradise, Season 1)

“There isn’t a workout room or any kind of equipment in the mansion. So we had to improvise if we wanted to stay in shape. We would run up and down a hill in the backyard and use whatever we could find in the house as free weights. It was pretty comical!” —Andi Dorfman (The Bachelor, Season 18)

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“You spend a majority of your time with the other girls, so bonds are formed very quickly. Catherine [Lowe] and I used to bust out raps in the limo on the way to group dates. One moment that I’m thankful didn’t make it on-air was when I decided to rap ‘Lotus Flower Bomb’ to Sean [Lowe]!” —Jackie Parr (The Bachelor, Season 17, and Bachelor In Paradise, Season 1)

“There are a lot of special moments that the camera doesn’t capture. My favorite was when Sean [Lowe] slipped me a note during our flight to St. Croix.  He did it secretively so no one else could see. He had crossed out the destination on his airline ticket and written ‘Snugglesville’ instead…letting me know he wanted to cuddle with me and no one else.” —Catherine Lowe (The Bachelor, Season 17)

“The bachelor or bachelorette doesn’t plan the dates and doesn’t even know where or what the date is until either the day before or the morning of the date. Though they do get to choose who they want to go on which date. In the beginning, producers will suggest guys, but it’s ultimately up to the bachelor or bachelorette.” —Desiree Siegfried (The Bachelor, Season 17, and The Bachelorette, Season 9)

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“You spend so little time with the person you choose before the final rose ceremony. I would say you probably spend about 72 hours tops with the person you wind up choosing, and 12 of that is spent ‘sleeping’ in the fantasy suite. You can’t really get to know a person in that time frame.” —Ali Fedotowsky (The Bachelor, Season 14, and The Bachelorette, Season 6)

“Those delicious meals you see on the one-on-one are for display, not for eating.” —Jackie Parr (The Bachelor, Season 17, and Bachelor In Paradise, Season 1)