Bachelor Jimmy reveals his biggest regret on the show: ‘Disappointing’
Three weeks into The Bachelor and viewers have already been treated to more romance, comedy and scandalous drama than ever before.
Speaking with Yahoo Lifestyle, leading man Jimmy Nicholson shared his honest thoughts on his contestants’ “disappointing” behaviour, while also revealing which decision he regrets most from his time on the show.
One of this season’s major incidents occurred when Stephanie Lynch called frontrunner Holly Kingston a “c**t”, and then denied it happening despite video footage proving otherwise.
While fans online slammed Stephanie’s behaviour, Jimmy was seemingly unaware of her actions and selected the 27-year-old for the show’s fourth single date.
RELATED
Bachelor: Angie Kent on what we didn't see in 'offensive' C-bomb scandal
The Bachelor's Jay says it wasn't 'love at first sight' with Jimmy
Bachelor viewers divided over ‘unfair’ cocktail party advantage
Jimmy says that knowing what he knows now - including the fact that Stephanie has repeatedly said she “hates pilots” - he would never have given her one-on-one time.
“Watching the show back, I’m looking at it and I’m thinking, ‘no don’t do it mate! What are you doing?! Don’t take her on this date!’,” he admits.
“Now I’ve seen everything that everyone’s said, and I think it’s important to realise that I didn’t know any of this kind of stuff.
“People might be like ‘get rid of her, get rid of her’, but I wasn't seeing what we’re seeing now back then.”
The C-bomb
Talking about Stephanie’s C-bomb, Jimmy says it was “disappointing” to see “schoolyard antics” being brought into the mansion.
“I know Australian culture is pretty laid back and in some contexts, the C-bomb is used quite jovially,” he details. “But I think in that environment, you're on national television.
“If that's the way you're acting on national television when you're supposed to be a little bit more polished and wary of your audience, then how are you going to act outside of it?”
The 31-year-old also adds that Stephanie shouldn’t blame anyone else for her actions, but instead accept that what she did was wrong.
"People sort of say ‘oh the edit stitched me up’, but they don’t tell us to say that,” he says. “There's no script, so if you say something, you’ve got to own it.”
Seeing a different side to the women
After rumours that Jimmy was upset with his ‘fame-hungry’ contestants this season, the Sydney pilot confesses that watching the show has made him have a different perspective of the women.
“Some of them I have [seen a different side to] that I just had no idea,” he explains. “If I had known that, I definitely would have changed my narrative on the show.”
Jimmy went on to say that while he’d love to retrospectively make some changes about who did and didn’t receive a rose, he knows that the drama is all part of the reality TV process.
“There's a reason why the producers keep that stuff away from me because they just want it to kind of work organically,” he says.
“If they're showing me that kind of stuff then I know exactly what's going to happen, I know exactly what's going on and I probably would have just gotten rid of some people earlier on if I had seen that.”
Despite this, he’s happy to have been “kept in the dark” because he wants the show to be entertaining for viewers.
“Watching it back, I don’t care how everyone else acts and how they play out because I’ve got an amazing girl and I couldn’t be happier.”
Holly’s Instagram post
Another major controversy from earlier in the season involved an old post resurfacing from rumoured winner Holly, who had shared a photo of herself with an American flag and the caption ‘#MAGA’.
Jimmy shared his thoughts on Holly’s divisive caption - which is an abbreviation of the Donald Trump campaign slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ - and believes that it’s simply a joke.
“I haven’t spoken to Holly about it, but knowing her, she sort of takes the piss a fair bit,” he says.
“I can't comment on her political stance, but I dare say that that was definitely said in jest and that was kind of just her having a laugh. I don’t think that she was serious on that one.”
Holly, who was recently exposed as being a former actress, is currently the hot favourite to win Jimmy’s heart according to betting agencies.
Never miss a thing. Sign up to Yahoo Lifestyle’s daily newsletter.
Or if you have a story idea, email us at lifestyle.tips@verizonmedia.com.