Pressure from Producers
About midway through her journey with Juan Pablo Galavis, producers started
pushing Clare Crawley to tell him she loved him. At the time, she hadn’t said “I love you” to anyone in 10 years. The producers were like, “You have to say it, you have to say it, you might go home.” They would very much encourage it. It was like, “Are you going to regret not saying it? This could be the last moment you have with him. Don’t you want him to know how you feel? What if this determines if you go home or not?” Crawley came to a “happy medium” with the team, agreeing to tell Galavis that she was falling for him, but never saying “I love you.”
Brooks Forester- who eventually left Desiree Siegfried’s season because he wasn’t in love with her- had a similar experience. In the days before he quit the show, he said, nearly all of his ITMs were centered around getting him to say he loved her, and the producers were quick to remind him that he was the only one of the three remaining men who hadn’t uttered the words.
“There is no ‘What if I don’t propose’ option. It’s just ‘Here’s the ring. Go give it to her.’ That’s how they make it,” a Bachelor explained. “When you’re 25 and you’re a baby and you’re in a foreign place and are still hungover from the day before, they’re in your head. They make you do what they want you to do. They give you a hundred reasons why it’s a good idea and they just make it happen.”
-“Bachelor Nation” by Amy Kaufman