Getty Andi Dorfman was the season 10 lead of "The Bachelorette."
The Bachelor season 25 is underway, and plenty of Bachelor Nation alums have chimed in on the season lead Matt James and his journey for love. One of the latest former stars of the franchise to offer her opinion on how James is doing in the spotlight is season 10 Bachelorette Andi Dorfman.
In an interview with PureWow, Dorfman admitted to watching the latest installment of The Bachelor, in part because she was friends with James before he joined the cast. She said, “I’ve watched a few episodes of Matt’s season. I’ve known him for a couple years now, I met him in New York while training for the marathon, and obviously we share Tyler [Cameron] as a mutual friend, so I grew close to Matt.”
Matt James’s best friend Tyler Cameron was a fan-favorite on Hannah Brown’s season of The Bachelorette, and the two lived together in New York City pre-pandemic. Dorfman moved to New York City in 2015, after splitting from her Bachelorette winner Josh Murray.
Dorfman Coached James Back When He Was Supposed to Be a Contestant on ‘The Bachelorette’
Before James was selected to star in The Bachelor season 25 as the show’s first Black male lead, he was briefly cast as a contestant for Clare Crawley’s season of The Bachelorette. Dorfman told PureWow that she was helping him prepare for the reality show, revealing, “I was prepping him for The Bachelorette and then all the sudden he became the Bachelor, so it’s been fun and kind of surreal to watch him. He’s doing great.”
After Crawley accused James of using his upcoming spot on The Bachelorette to gain a social media following, production chose to pull him from her season and later announced him as the next Bachelor. James is the first Bachelor lead in recent history to have his own season without first appearing as a contestant.
Of her advice to James before he began filming the show and searching for his wife, Dorfman told PureWow, “My advice that I gave Matt, which remains, is to just be yourself. He is a sweet, kind, gentle guy, and he doesn’t need to do anything to gain attention or be a character of any sort. I told him leave that to other people. And so far, I feel like he’s done just that, just been himself, which is what America (and the ladies) will fall in love with.”
Bachelor Nation Alums Have Been Vocal About James’s Season of ‘The Bachelor’
Dorfman is far from the only Bachelor Nation alum to comment on James’s season as The Bachelor. Week after week, Twitter is abuzz with tweets and quips from some of the biggest names to come out of the reality dating franchise, including Nick Viall, Demi Burnett, Dylan Barbour, and Kaitlyn Bristowe. Viall, who recaps each Bachelor episode in his podcast “The Viall Files,” voiced his opinion about last week’s controversial interactions between several of the contestants, calling the girls’ actions toward Sarah “bullying.”
Even James’s best friend Tyler Cameron has been live-tweeting the episodes, and he hasn’t shied away from poking fun at his buddy.
😂😂😂 ayyyyoooo @mattjames919 what we got going on over here
When Twitter blew up with jokes and memes about how James seemingly keeps his eyes open while kissing, Cameron joined in on the teasing and quote tweeted a viral photo of one of James’s on-screen kisses. With the retweet, Cameron shared three crying-laughing emojis and wrote “ayyyyoooo
@mattjames919 what we got going on over here.”
New episodes of The Bachelor season 25 air on Monday nights at 8/7c on ABC.
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Andi Dorfman Weighs In on Matt James as The Bachelor