Kelley Flanagan was one of the only women on this season of The Bachelor who may have been ready for marriage.
Kelley works as an attorney in Chicago and she appeared to have her life together.
She was praised on the show for not getting involved in the drama and not crying after Peter sent her home, as she had only spent a few weeks with him.
As she exited the show, Kelley slammed the other women, revealing she was an attorney and Peter Weber was crazy to pick a woman who didn’t have a career.
She would be shamed for career-shaming the other women, but was that really enough for her to not be invited to the Women Tell All?
Kelley Flanagan was invited to the live finale
Then, during tonight’s finale, Kelley showed up in the audience. She was briefly introduced and then nothing happened after that.
Chris Harrison told the audience that she was there, and she waved at the camera. And just like that, Kelley’s moment on The Bachelor finale was over.
After she missed the Women Tell All, there was a theory that it was Kelley who had won The Bachelor.
There was also a crazy rumor that she was pregnant with his child and that the two would come face to face during the reunion special. Neither of those rumors was true.
Kelley Flanagan drama: Are producers trying to save face?
The fact that Kelley was on The Bachelor finale wasn’t just because she was in the neighborhood with nothing to do. In fact, viewers have a theory that producers are trying to save face after not inviting her to the Women Tell All.
Kelley is in the house tonight. I guess there was some backlash that the producers responded to finally? #thebachelor
— JenSav2109 (@sav2109) March 11, 2020
The Bachelor producers did face backlash for leaving Kelley out of the episode.
Even former Bachelor star Nick Viall chimed in with his thoughts, saying that Kelley was winning the Women Tell All even though she wasn’t there.
As the episode was airing, she was retweeting people’s thoughts, clearly letting her thoughts be known.
And Kelley’s presence during the finale resulted in more questions than answers.
https://twitter.com/millerxtoria/status/1237531210026344448
Why is Kelley there?? Backlash from not letting her on women tell all
— Abby (@abzken) March 11, 2020
Last week, Chris Harrison was confronted with the fact that Kelley wasn’t invited to the Women Tell All during a visit to Ashley I’s podcast. He gave the reason that producers didn’t feel that she gave anything to the show and they, therefore, didn’t need her there.
As it turns out, they apparently needed her during the finale.
The Bachelor concludes tonight at 8/7c on ABC.