Keeping it real. When former Bachelorette lead Ali Fedotowsky got candid about contestant’s true intentions of joining the ABC franchise, she admitted that the primary reason is not to find love.
“I went on the show for a good time. I didn’t go on for love. Nobody goes on the show for love and then they’re just surprised when they actually do fall in love,” Fedotowsky, 34, exclusively told Us Weekly at the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Summer 2019 TCA Press Tour Event. “They go on there like, ‘This could be fun.’”
The Massachusetts native also thinks that Instagram growth plays a role in one’s decision to join. “In this day and age, you think people don’t think about all the Instagram followers they’re gonna get? And … It’s changed. The show has changed,” she shared.
Fedotowsky revealed that she would be focused on establishing her influencer status through the show if she had joined in recent years. “If I went on the show right now, I [would] 100 percent be thinking Instagram followers. … I think to not think that way is kinda dumb,” she added. “Like … That’s gotta be in the back of your mind. … I’m an entrepreneur, I have an entrepreneurial type way of thinking.”
Fedotowsky first appeared in the ABC franchise when vying for Jake Pavelka’s affection during season 14 of The Bachelor. Fedotowsky would later star on season 6 of The Bachelorette in 2010, where she got engaged to Roberto Martinez. They’d later split in November 2011. She went on to marry Kevin Manno in March 2017 and the couple now share daughter Molly, 3, and son Riley, 14 months.
Hannah Brown, a former pageant queen, is currently starring on season 15 of The Bachelorette. During the show’s two-part finale, she will be tasked with choosing between three suitors: Jed Wyatt, Tyler Cameron and Peter Weber.
Fedotowsky has seen the two-part finale in its entirety, and knows how the 24-year-old’s journey to finding love ends. With this, she recently told Entertainment Tonight that viewers are in for an exciting conclusion.
“I have [seen it]. I know what happens. It is unlike any finale there has ever been, and that’s the truth,” she noted to ET. “I know Chris Harrison says it every season — the most dramatic episode ever — and I’m like, ‘Chris, come on! This is, like, so not! Sometimes it is, and sometimes it’s not.’ Last season with Colton [Underwood], I thought, ‘Oh, we can’t get more dramatic than this.’ I think this finale might top that finale!”
The Bachelorette’s two-night season finale airs on ABC Monday, July 29, and Tuesday, July 30, at 8 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Amanda Champagne
