From one lead to another! Desiree Hartsock weighed in on Arie Luyendyk’s upcoming Bachelor journey and revealed what advice she would offer the next bearer of red roses.
“I think because of age and having grown up, I think he’s going to do great,” the former Bachelorette exclusively told Us Weekly at The Knot Gala in NYC in October. “I mean really, when you watch The Bachelor, it’s mainly about the girls. I usually tell the ladies to follow your heart and trust you mind, but with the men, ask questions. I think the reason why Bachelorettes tend to end up with the right guy is because we as women tend to ask more questions. We ask the more serious questions.”
The Bachelor alum further explained her belief that the male leads of the ABC dating franchise tend to not think about the bigger picture. “A lot of guys, especially when you have 24 girls, it’s like, this is a date and they need to see what’s wife material rather than just dating aerial. I think with [the] show and in life, it can be very hard to decipher between love and lust. A lot of times, lust is disguised as love, so many times we make the mistake of going that route. I see it all the time on the show.”
Despite her success story on the show — she wed Chris Siegfried in January 2015 after the duo got engaged in the season 9 Bachelorette finale — Hartsock revealed that very few couples have sought out her advice after the show. “I wish they would. I’ve been through the ringer. I came up with my soulmate. I think more people should ask. I think I should have asked more of the leads before going,” she explained. “I wish more people would reach out because it is a different situation. It’s not like you just met in a coffee shop. There is a lot of social pressure. It’s a lot of cyberbullying and there are things you don’t think about. As viewers, you don’t realize the impact that even viewers ace on a couple. There is a lot of pressure. You just got to overcome it and go right back to what you were doing because that is what makes it last.”
The Bachelor season 22 premieres on ABC Monday, January 1, at 8 p.m. ET.
Reporting by Gabrielle Bernardini
