Even while he was on The Bachelorette trying to woo Jillian Harris, Ed Swiderski openly talked about having a girlfriend, former contestant Wes Hayden tells the new issue of Us Weekly (on newsstands now).
"Dave [Good] and I both remember Ed saying he had a girlfriend," says Hayden, who also was accused of having a girlfriend while on the show. "But we are not the kind who are going to run our mouths."
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Finalist Reid Rosenthal tells Us Weekly some contestants knew Swiderski, 30, was bad news and "didn't care to hang out with him." Adds Michael Stagliano, "There was definitely something, I can't put my finger on it, where I did think, I'm not going to be best friends with this guy. Ed's a shady character."
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Bachelorette contestants are required to relinquish cellphones and laptops on the show to keep interaction lively among the participants. But because of Swiderski's job as a Microsoft consultant, he "had an agreement" to keep both "because it was imperative for him to have access for work," castmate Jesse Kovacs tells Us Weekly.
While he did some work, he also kept in touch with girlfriend Lindsey Johnson, whom he told he was only going on the show for fun. As Us Weekly first reported last week, he even texted her that Harris wasn't his "type." (Us also reported that he slept with Johnson a week after proposing to Harris and tried to bed another woman, Bethany Steffen, a few days later.)
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On April 12, three days before he told Harris he had to leave the show to focus on his career, Swiderski emailed Johnson "I love you." Says contestant Kovacs, "Obviously, no one knew he was saying, 'I'm not into [Harris] and I can't wait to go home.'"
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For more on how Swiderski tricked Harris — including how she is coping, why she refuses to leave him, whether Reid Rosenthal would ever take Harris back and the hurtful mind games Swiderski played — pick up the new Us Weekly today!
