Dozens of rose lovers filled Baker Theater on Thursday night to hear a member of Bachelor Nation, Blake Horstmann, talk about his experience on The Bachelorette and The Bachelor in Paradise, and give an inside scoop on what goes on behind the scenes.
Horstmann first appeared on Bachelor Nation two years ago, when he was Becca Kufrin’s runner-up on season 14 of the Bachelorette. He later appeared on season 6 of Bachelor in Paradise but left without finding love.
Blake kicked off the night by describing his experience before he was chosen to be a contestant on The Bachelorette, recalling a time when producers asked him a series of rapid questions to test how good he was under pressure.
“They asked me, ‘If you were stuck on a deserted island with one friend and they died, would you eat them?’ and I said ‘yes,’ and then they had me pick out which person in the room I would eat and asked me to describe how I thought he tasted,” Horstmann said.
When asked about his time spent on The Bachelorette, he described his connection with Becca, admitting that he fell in love with her early on and their connection was genuine.
He described The Bachelor mansion as “kind of like a big frat house” and said with all the alone time the guys spent there, it was really easy to get in your head.
When asked if he would reappear on any of The Bachelor spin-off shows again, like Bachelor in Paradise, he replied “absolutely not,” adding that it was hard to trust the producers after they portrayed him as a villain on Bachelor in Paradise.
“They pick a villain from the very beginning, and they’ll edit it any way to fit the narrative,” he said.
Horstmann said he knew he was possibly going to be portrayed as a villain on the show when the producers asked him to get on camera and juggle eggs — and then let all the eggs fall to the ground and crack.
“No one has been a fan-favorite on either The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, and then went to paradise and still come out a fan-favorite,” Horstmann said.
Because of his negative portrayal on Bachelor in Paradise and how that affected him, Blake said he is now an advocate for mental health.
Blake told the audience that he’s a huge country music fan and has gotten to know some country artists. In the next few months, he said plans to start a podcast about country music, pop culture and other Bachelor-related topics.
When asked his thoughts about the current season of The Bachelor, Peter Weber’s season, Horstmann said he thinks it’s a bit of a rough season so far.
“It’s a bit of a rough season, I’ll be honest. I really like Pete. He’s a really good guy, and I think he’s almost too good of a guy,” Horstmann said. “These girls kind of took advantage of his good nature.”
Hostmann said that although he doesn’t like to judge the women on The Bachelor, he thought the girls this season seemed mean to each other.
“I don’t like to judge people off of their edit because I know how that goes, but a lot of these girls seem like they’re mean to each other,” Horstmann said. “I think the few girls left are really good, and I think he ends up with Madison.”
He said this season of The Bachelor was the first one where he actually doesn’t know what happens at the end.
“(Peter) could be single right now, I don’t know,” Horstmann said. “I guess we’ll see.”
