Former Bachelor contestant Lacey Mark is speaking out against the franchise.
Unlike previous contestants, who have recently dished out negative experiences and thoughts in regards to the show’s process, Lacey gave her view on things in a not-so-judgmental way.
Her take was based on her own experiences while filming Season 21 with The Bachelor lead Nick Viall.
She recently dished new details in a podcast interview, where she also opened up about her own interesting elimination story – something that appears to back up recent claims from contestants that a lot of the show is planned out.
As it turns out, she suggests that the top 10 contestants on every season could be predetermined by producers.
Lacey Mark talks top 10 contestants and how they could be predetermined
This is, of course, a big claim and while she didn’t confirm it to be true, she did hint that she would believe it to be true.
She dished all of these details on the Behind The Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast, where she shared that she would believe the casting rumors about a predetermined top 10.
“I’m sure like there’s all these rumors floating around that like the top 10 is predetermined before they even finished casting and things like that, which I would believe a hundred percent, ,” Lacey explained.
She continued, “Especially based on seeing like how the producers work behind the scenes when you’re actually there. So like, of course, like, like Nick’s season Alexis Waters slept through an entire day, an entire cocktail party and just like woke up for the Rose ceremony and got a Rose.”
When asked to clarify whether she truly believed that the top 10 contestants were predetermined during the casting period, Lacey explained that she had a strong feeling that this was true.
While she didn’t provide any details or proof that this is so, she did film Season 21 of The Bachelor and even did a season of Bachelor In Paradise. In other words, she’s been part of the Bachelor world enough to see that things are not as they appear.
“It’s definitely. I could. I know. I felt on my season, which was it’s predetermined and I imagined that happens on every season and everybody just feels it a little differently. Cause like the way you, the way it’s shown too is like, that’s not the order the roses are given, like it’s all edited and chopped up,” Lacey explained.
She is not the first to make a point about editing and how things are not always as they seem on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.
Lacey Mark reveals she wanted to quit The Bachelor
During the interview, Lacey also made reference to her own experiences, including when she told the producers that she didn’t want to continue.
She pointed out that, in the contract, contestants were told they could leave at any point. For Lacey, she knew that she didn’t want to stay. She didn’t feel a connection with Nick and she didn’t want to pursue an influencer role.
But when she approached producers about leaving, producers asked her to stick around so they could send her home during the rose ceremony.
“And they were like, do us a favor. I’m like what? They’re like, you’re getting eliminated tonight. Can you just stay so we can see when you get eliminated instead of having to create a whole nother storyline of you quitting, I was like, yes, that’s fine. So I stayed for the Rose ceremony where I got eliminated,” Lacey explained.
In other words, producers wanted to set the stage to make it seem like Nick was calling the shots, not that the women were leaving the show because they weren’t feeling it.
It’s an interesting story, considering there have been women on the show before that just didn’t fit in with the narrative.
Back in mid-January, JP Rosenbaum revealed that he thought producers had planted Victoria Larson on Matt James’ season. He didn’t think that she fit into the cast and the situation, but Matt continued to keep her around.
Last year, Peter Weber kept Victoria Fuller around for weeks even though viewers didn’t understand their connection either.
The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.