ABC/John Fleenor Pictured: Jed Wyatt and Hannah Brown
This season of The Bachelorette has been a particularly tumultuous one, full of on-screen and behind the scenes drama that continued even after the season stopped filming. Hannah Brown’s men have dealt her a number of curveballs, and fans have been closely following how the reality franchise and its star choose to address each scandal.
Below are some of the season’s biggest contestant scandals, some of which have not yet played out on television yet and are directly related to the winner and what happens at the end of this season so STOP READING NOW if you do not want the season finale spoiled for you.
Tyler G.’s Unexplained Early Exit
At the start of episode 3, viewers were surprised by a brief and vague explanation from Hannah Brown that Tyler Gwozdz, who received the first one-on-one date of the season, had left the show.
Reality Steve reported that he neither got eliminated by Hannah nor decided to quit, but rather that “production came to the mansion and removed Tyler G. from the show. They had been given some information about his past relationships and told him it wouldn’t be good for him to remain on the show and he needed to leave immediately.”
Scott’s Swift Elimination Before the Premiere Rose Ceremony
On the very first night of the season, after Hannah met her 30 men, Demi Burnett and Katie Morton showed up to do some undercover detective work after hearing a rumor that one of the men was already in a relationship.
Demi identified Scott A. as the potential cheater and told Hannah of her findings. When Hannah confronted him, he confirmed that he did have a secret girlfriend and she eliminated him from the competition on the spot.
Covered-up relationships seemed to be a trend among the contestants this year, because while he may have been the only one caught, on-screen, he’s not the only contestant who has been accused of signing up for the reality dating show in spite of already being in a relationship:
Peter’s Alleged Relationship While Auditioning for ‘The Bachelorette’
Earlier today, Entertainment Tonight released an exclusive interview with Peter Weber’s ex-girlfriend, Calee Lutes. Lutes said that she believed their long-distance relationship was serious and going well, but that he abruptly ended it via Facetime, adding that he told her “we should end our relationship before it got even more serious. He didn’t really have a reason why. I was devastated and completely blindsided.”
She believes that the timing of the break up aligned with his being cast on season 15 of The Bachelorette: “Things didn’t work out simply because he chose to go on The Bachelorette instead.”
Jed’s Ex-Girlfriend Haley Stevens’ Tell-All Interview
The biggest scandal of the season, and perhaps one of the biggest scandals in the history of the show, is that Jed Wyatt apparently still had a girlfriend when he arrived in Los Angeles to start filming The Bachelorette. Haley Stevens, in a tell-all interview with People Magazine, said that she and Jed were dating when he booked the show, and when he chose to participate he reassured her that he was “doing this for [his] music.”
This news, which broke a couple of weeks ago, is especially dramatic because according to Reality Steve, Hannah chose to give Jed her final rose and the two were engaged at the end of filming.
While neither Jed nor Hannah can comment on these rumors directly until after the season has finished airing, the truth is reportedly bad enough that Hannah not only broke off their engagement, but ended their relationship entirely. That break-up was said to be filmed by ABC, and will be aired on night two of the finale episode (July 30) as part of the “After the Final Rose” special.