Dating show fans have long questioned: just how real is reality TV?
And now, a former Bachelorette star has just let slip some juicy insights about what really goes down when the cameras aren’t rolling.
WATCH: Ex Bachelorette star spills show’s behind-the-scenes secrets
Ryan Jones, who was one of the suitors vying for Sophie Monk’s affections on The Bachelorette, appeared on new podcast The Blind Side this week and shared some revealing insights from his time filming the show.
Speaking to the podcast’s host Nath Smith, Ryan admitted that the Bachelorette boys had actually all met before the show’s famous first cocktail party.
Ryan, who now hosts his own podcast The People Pod, explained that each contestant is initially given an address – which for their season was a park. Here, they crossed paths for the first time before being driven to a hotel.
“Everyone met each other before we even went to the house. We were in the park then we went up to the hotel room and everyone had a hotel room,” he said.
“So everyone got paired with someone and you go out and you talk legals with someone, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t say this’ and then you’d go and do an interview.”
He added: “We did that and we all got suited up and fitted. This process went over about two or three nights, locked in a room.”
Ryan also divulged that once they eventually did rock up to the Bachelor mansion for filming, they were encouraged to act like they were meeting strangers for the first time.
“I get into this house and they’re like ‘pretend like you haven’t seen anyone’ and I’m like, ‘But I have seen everyone. I’ve seen these guys for the last four days,’” Ryan said.
“And I walk in and they’re like ‘Oh hey, what’s your name?’ and I’m like, ‘f**k, this is terrible. So f**king bad. I’ve seen you all’. These guys are playing the part like ‘Gday mate, I’m so and so.’ I’m like, ‘I’ve just spent four days in a room with you dude.’ This was not real and I’m not going to play into this.”
Revealing more details about the cocktail party, Ryan said that while it appears as though it’s a one-night event, they actually filmed the first part over six or seven hours before returning the next day to continue.
“It was at that point I knew that this was a load of sh*t. You’re a f**king pawn on a bloody chess board and you’re going to get played like a fiddle and lo and behold that’s exactly what happened.”
During his season of The Bachelorette, Ryan was portrayed as the villain, most well known for storming out midway through a date with Sophie. The Bardot singer eventually went on to pick millionaire publican Stu Laundy.
Speaking about Sophie and Stu’s relationship, Ryan shed details of why he believed that Stu was always going to win.
“I was at a party [before the show] and a mutual friend mentioned that Stu was going to go on there and I was like ‘Oh, this is dodgy. This smells like a set up,’” Ryan explained.
“I think it was all a set up, I think it was a media attempt to revive a career on her behalf.”
However, he admitted that belief is just a theory, adding, “I could be totally wrong.”
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