Lacey Mark will always be remembered in Bachelor history for her first line. After all, riding into the house on a camel’s back and saying:
“I hear you like a good hump. So do I.”
…isn’t something any viewer is likely to forget.
But it’s what she’s saying now, four years later, that’s really bringing the drama-dary. (Sorry, we couldn’t resist!)
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Fans will remember Lacey from Season 21, competing for the rose from Nick Viall, but the truth is she wasn’t competing very hard. In fact, she didn’t even really get eliminated, not like it was portrayed on the show.
Over the weekend she appeared on the tell-all podcast Behind The Velvet Rope with David Yontef and pulled back the curtain. When host David Yontef asked if she was upset she got eliminated in Week 2, she revealed:
“So I wasn’t because there’s… So there’s an out clause basically in our contract where it’s like, you can leave at any point whenever you want. No questions asked, you just have to ask, obviously there are more legal terms, but that’s the gist of it. So the night of the cocktail party that I got sent home, I was like, not really… I was like, I’m not interested in Nick. And if I’m not interested in Nick, like I’m not trying to be an influencer. I don’t want to be here. So I pulled one of the producers aside, and I was like, ‘Can I go home?’”
Yep! She didn’t get dumped by Nick, she chose to quit!
“I was like, I think like, I don’t really like Nick. I don’t think Nick really likes me. Like, I’m starting to see some house, like girl politics form. And I don’t want to be a part of it. Like, can I just go home?”
So what was their answer? It would play better — and be easier on them — if she got “eliminated”:
“And they were like, ‘Do us a favor.’ I’m like ‘What?’ They’re like, ‘You’re getting eliminated tonight. Can you just stay so we can see when you get eliminated instead of having to create a whole ‘nother story line of you quitting?’ I was like, ‘Yes, that’s fine.’ So I stayed for the Rose ceremony where I got eliminated and then I left.”
OK, but… it sounds like the producer already knew she was being eliminated. How’s that? Yontef asked if the producers already knew who was getting eliminated and when, to which Lacey answered:
“Yeah. To an extent, but yeah.”
Wow! Though… is it possible they had already spoken to Nick, and he had the same feeling she did? No chemistry?
She doesn’t think it was about that — she says they didn’t need her anymore because she had served her purpose as “filler cast.” What does she mean by that?
“I wasn’t a big personality they were storyboarding… There was a lot of interviews that I wasn’t in on. They never really like focused on me at all. And like, there were times where I did have alone time with Nick, albeit like again two and a half minutes, but there were times where I had alone time with Nick where like, it wasn’t even filmed. So I was like, ‘Hmm.’”
They didn’t even bother filming some of it? Dang!
But at the same time, Lacey insists they were desperate to have her exit on their terms, trying to paint it like she was being torn away from her dream guy kicking and screaming or something:
“And they did an exit interview and they were desperately trying to get me to cry. I was like, it’s not going to happen. And I was like, I really don’t care that I’m leaving right now.”
She wasn’t the only one who wasn’t really heartbroken. Lacey confirmed something we’ve all known for quite some time. Many of the contestants have no intention of looking for love in all the right time slots. They’re just there for the 15 minutes of fame — and self-promotion:
“It’s just like an added bonus if you happen to get along with the lead. There are so many girls from my season, I won’t name names, but there were so many girls from my season who are like, I’m doing this so that I can like grow my business or I’m doing this because like, I want to model, or I’m doing this because I want to act. And I’m like poor Nick, you’re robbing him of a 1,000 chances in life.”
Yeah… Kinda hard to feel bad for Nick Viall, but we definitely get her point.
Though it may not matter what the other 20 women are there for — because Lacey buys into the Bachelor Nation conspiracy theory that the only real contestants are the Top 10 — which the producers know from jump street:
“I mean, I’m sure like there’s all these rumors floating around that like the top 10 is predetermined before they even finished casting and things like that, which I would believe a hundred percent, especially based on seeing like how the producers work behind the scenes when you’re actually there. So like of course like, like Nick’s season Alexis Waters slept through an entire day, an entire cocktail party and just like woke up for the Rose ceremony and got a Rose, like… it’s predetermined.”
When asked if she thinks it’s still happening that way, the digital marketing manager from Montville Township, NJ clarified she can only speak to her own experience — but based on what she’s seen it’s always predetermined:
“I know how I felt on my season, which was it’s predetermined and I imagine that happens on every season and everybody just feels it a little differently. ‘Cause like the way it’s shown too is like, that’s not the order the roses are given, like it’s all edited and chopped up.”
Hmm… What do YOU think of these revelations, Perez Nation? Will it change the way you watch the show? Or did you kind of figure this the whole time??
You can listen to the full episode of Beyond The Velvet Rope for yourself HERE.
[Image via Lacey Mark/Instagram/The Bachelor/YouTube.]
The post <i>Bachelor</i> Contestant Claims Top 10 Is 'Predetermined' & Eliminations Are NOT What They Seem! appeared first on Perez Hilton.
