Jade Roper Tolbert on 'Bachelor' Nick Viall and her bestie: 'I'm a little disappointed'
There are a few reasons why this season of The Bachelor is the most dramatic ever.
One is Nick Viall, who is really making a career out of this show with his fourth official quest for love. He's been a controversial figure in Bachelor Nation since calling out Season 10 Bachelorette Andy Dorfman on air during the "After the Final Rose" episode. He broke the then-cardinal rule of mentioning sex on the primetime show, asking why she would have slept with him in the Fantasy Suite if she was going to break up with him soon thereafter. Many fans interpreted the act as shaming.
What happens in the Fantasy Suite stays in the Fantasy Suite, Nick, hence it's the one stage of the entire six-week process that doesn't involve cameras.
Anyway, times have changed and Kaitlyn Bristowe also admitted on television to sleeping with Nick during her season of The Bachelorette. Sensing a trend?
This time around there are no pretenses that Nick isn't in it partly for the sex — so much so that one contestant made her grand entrance on a camel with a cheeky line about knowing he likes a good hump. And instead of responding in feigned horror, the other girls mumbled "Why didn't I think of that?" under their breath.
It was also of little shock that one contestant had already slept with Nick. That lucky lady is Liz, best friend and maid of honor to another member of Bachelor Nation, Jade Roper Tolbert from Season 19.
Last February, Jade married another one of tribe, Tanner Tolbert, whom she met on Bachelor in Paradise. Nick attended their televised ceremony, and apparently recreated a scene of Wedding Crashers with Liz.
At the end of the wedding weekend, Liz told the Bachelor cameras that Nick asked for her number but she declined.
So how did he take it when she suddenly appeared on his season, which we're calling the 4th Annual Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Nick Viall, Too?
Not well.
"I've heard a little bit and I know the whole situation is awkward, but I'll say I'm a little disappointed..." Jade told ET at a fundraiser for the premiere Monday night.
"He could've gotten her number, too."
She went on to explain that Liz had started to see someone else over the summer so hadn't initially given the liaison much thought. But she told Us that Liz did enlist her to invite Nick to a charity event to potentially reconnect, but he was busy, likely filming the show.
But perhaps Nick just needs a little time to let the shock of seeing a one-time flame after supposedly not knowing about her role on the show, the whole concept of which we find difficult to believe escaped the Bachelor Nation rumor mill, but here we are.