ABC
This summer, with no Bachelorette to air due to the pandemic shutting down TV production, ABC aired specials that looked back on some of the show’s most memorable seasons. Kaitlyn Bristowe’s stint as The Bachelorette was one that ABC featured, and she recently said in an interview that she ended up watching that episode with her new boyfriend Jason Tartick — and his entire family. Read on to find out how his mom reacted.
Bristowe Said Tartick’s Mom Was Super Into It
In an episode of the “Chicks in the Office” podcast, Bristowe revealed that ABC sent her the episode and she initially watched it by herself — and her emotions ran the gamut.
“I laughed, I cried, I was angry, I was happy,” said Bristowe, adding that she tried to watch it “through the lens” of appreciating the life she has now.
“I watched it through the lens of ‘this is why I have what I have, this is what it took to get here, such a pivotal time in my life, what a crazy ride, to be the bachelorette,'” said Bristowe. “I tried to watch it as a proud mom.”
And she thought that was going to be the end of it. But then it came time for her episode to air, and Bristowe was at Tartick’s house, so she figured they weren’t going to watch it.
“I was at Jason’s family’s house and I didn’t think we were gonna watch it, so I was like, ‘Well, I’ve already watched it,’ and his mom was like, ‘Oh no, we’re watching!'” Bristowe said with a laugh.
But it turns out her future mother-in-law was really excited about watching Bristowe’s journey on the show.
“I was like, ‘Oh, are you sure you wanna watch it?’ And she’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m gonna be there for you, we’re gonna have champagne!’ She was so great about it,” said Bristowe.
It Helped That At the End of the Episode, ‘DWTS’ Came Calling
At the end of Bristowe’s episode, host Chris Harrison asked her if she wanted to be on Dancing With the Stars, which she said helped soften the blow of watching a recap of such an emotional time in her life.
“It did help that there was that cherry on top where at the end, they were asking me to be on Dancing because it was pre-filmed, so I knew the world was going to see that I was going to be able to do that. I knew it wasn’t going to be a sad ending. It was like ‘and now this next step in your life.’ It was a roller coaster,” said Bristowe.
She also had to admit that being asked to be on Dancing With the Stars was not even on her radar, so when Harrison started to ask her about a new opportunity, she did have a fleeting thought that he was going to ask her to be the new host of The Bachelor.
“I couldn’t think of anything else [it could be],” said Bristowe.
The Bachelorette and Dancing With the Stars just wrapped their latest seasons. The Bachelor returns to ABC on January 4.
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