Kaitlyn Bristowe may have gotten her happily ever after with Shawn Booth after The Bachelorette, but that doesn’t mean that her season went exactly the way that she wanted it to.
In fact, Kaitlyn says that there was one thing in particular that she’d never planned on — and that was keeping Nick Viall around as long as she did.
There have been no shortage of breakups of Bachelor couples.
In many cases, people have found that the person they got to know on reality television isn’t the same when the cameras aren’t rolling.
In others, the fact that the cameras were rolling at that they were all on a timetable doesn’t give them time for honest communication before they get engaged.
And their celebrity status afterwards makes it hard for their relationship to continue even after the season airs.
And, obviously, some couples just drift apart.
You can look at the breakup of Lauren Bushnell and Ben Higgins, whose relationship was strangled by a lack of honest communication thanks to the relentless presence of cameras in their lives.
(Ben was on Kaitlyn’s season — that will come up in a moment)
Then you have breakups like the one between Josh Murray and Amanda Stanton, that involved Josh calling the police.
Their split seemed like it would have happened even if they’d just met over Tinder or whatever.
But, despite all of the things that can and so often do go wrong in relationships, Kaitlyn Bristowe and Shawn Booth are still together.
Not married, but they’re together.
So what, in Kaitlyn’s view, went wrong with her season?
On her own podcast, titled Off The Vine, Kaitlyn Bristowe revealed that she never intended for Nick Viall to make it to the final two.
For some time, Kaitlyn knew that she wanted to be with Shawn Booth.
(Clearly, he was the right choice, as they’re still happily together)
She had also decided that Ben Higgins would be the last man she sent home.
As you remember, Ben came in third, not second, and it was Nick Viall who was Kaitlyn Bristowe’s final breakup.
Nick Viall ended up going on and getting engaged to Vanessa Grimaldi (though they of course have broken up).
Kaitlyn doesn’t say why things ended up the way that they did, but it’s interesting that her own decisions didn’t quite match up with her own plans.
Kaitlyn may have gotten her happy ending, but that doesn’t mean that she’s turned her back on the Bachelor Nation.
Recently, when it was finally revealed that Rachel Lindsay had made the controversial choice of settling with Bryan Abasolo, Kaitlyn posted this message to Instagram.
“Attention Rachel and [Bryan Abasolo]. Today will be one of the best days of your life. When you can finally be out in the real world hand in hand.”
She actually referred to Bryan as “Jerome,” which had been Rachel’s code word for her unnamed fiance.
We suspect that Kaitlyn wrote this out in advance. Or maybe she just didn’t want to spoil things for those who hadn’t seen it yet.
“I honestly don’t think you need advice because you seem to be on cloud 9 and you’re smart af, but here’s mine for what it’s worth.”
Awwww, that is so cute.
“Do not listen to outside voices. People will try and bring you down, I’m not sure why…But they do.”
We, at least, don’t want to bring down Rachel Lindsay.
We don’t understand her choice, but we want her to be happy.
“As long as you surround yourselves with people who love you, and remind each other that they come first, you will be ok. You both have our full support. #TheBachelorette”
This was from her and from Shawn Booth.
Adorable.
We’re not sure what lesson to take from this.
Kaitlyn isn’t alleging a conspiracy by the Bachelorette producers or anything.
It just sounds like she had a hard time letting Nick go before the end. Harder than she’d anticipated.
Nick Viall’s been on one Bachelor show or another about a million times (approximately), so he’s clearly good at winning hearts.
But … he’s also seemingly done with reality television. For a little while, at least.
