It’s the Corinne show, and everyone knows it! With The Bachelor season 21 villain Corinne Olympios getting all the attention on Nick Viall’s current stint on the ABC dating series, her former fling Keith Berman opened up exclusively to Us Weekly about what the polarizing breakout star is really like, along with how it feels to watch her cozying up to another guy. (Watch all of Corinne’s buzzed-about antics from the January 30 episode in the video above!)
According to Berman, he met the Miami-based 24-year-old business owner a couple of years ago in her hometown through a mutual friend. He says they hooked up “a couple times” and have since “stayed in touch,” and he points out that they spoke as recently as a few weeks ago. He explains that their relationship never got serious, due in part to the distance. (Berman lived in New York City at the time but currently resides in Los Angeles. To read his blog post about Olympios, click here.)
Berman has high words of praise for Olympios, calling her a “f–king superstar right now.” He tells Us he was not at all surprised when he first heard that she was going on the show: “It’s right up her alley. She’s got a great personality for it. I was pumped that she was on it. I knew she would kill it, honestly.”
The TV version of Olympios is a bit of an “exaggerated representation” of her, he says, as she’s typically “very normal” but is “playing it up for TV.” He explains, “They’re trying to portray her as some stupid girl, but she’s really not that dumb. She knows exactly what she’s doing.” (He says he doesn’t know much about her nanny, Raquel, aside from having been aware that she has one.)
Indeed, Berman points out that Olympios — who famously took off her top and had Viall grab her boobs during a photo shoot on a previous episode — has been using her sexuality to her advantage since before her moment in the reality-TV sun.
“She’s a very good-looking girl, and she’s just aggressive,” he says. “She’s very aggressive, and when you’re that good-looking of a girl, and you’re aggressive, most guys aren’t going to turn — who’s going to turn a girl that looks like that down?” He adds, “She knows how to play up her sexiness. Nick is into it, and she knows.”
Berman, who is watching Viall’s season and has watched previous ones as well, loves seeing Olympios’ antics, and he says she’s the reason why this season is the most entertaining one yet.
“She skipped the rose ceremony — no one’s ever done that,” he says. “She’s setting herself up. Bachelor is going to invite her back for God knows what spinoff, Paradise and this and that. She’s got followers growing by the second, so she’s clearly doing something right.”
The Bachelor airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
