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Former ‘Bachelor’ Contestant Erica Rose Dishes About the Most ‘Traumatic’ Competition on ‘Bachelor Pad’

Looking back. In a new interview, Erica Rose Sanders recalls some of the most traumatizing and brutal moments during her tenure in Bachelor Nation.

Sanders, 38, was one of the first iconic Bachelor “villains” after she appeared on the ninth season of the show in 2006. While the lawyer didn’t win Lorenzo Borghese’s heart, she did venture back to the Bachelor mansion for the second season of the short-lived Bachelor Pad.

Related: ‘Bachelor Pad’ Stars: Where Are They Now?

During an appearance on the “Unpopular with Jacques Peterson” podcast, which was released on Monday, June 21, the Texas native recalled memories of her time on the show and a particularly brutal challenge she dealt with.

Former Bachelor Contestant Erica Rose Dishes About The Most Traumatic Competition on Bachelor Pad
Erica Rose ABC/Craig Sjodin

The Bachelor alum opened up about the “Target on Your Back” challenge during which she claims it was “traumatic” and “physically hurt.” During the game, the women lined up blindfolded while wearing swimsuits and a target painted on their backs. Behind them, each of the guys was asked a question where the answer was one of the ladies. To answer, they tossed a paint-filled egg at that person. To win, the players needed to accurately hit the target on the person’s back to get a point. Questions included “who they wanted to send home” and “who was the least attractive.” In the ABC scene, which aired in August 2011, fans saw multiple eggs being chucked toward Sanders. Former show host Chris Harrison even mentioned during the episode, “Erica is taking a beating down here.”

“Emotionally, yeah, it was traumatic, but physically, that f–king hurt,” the former Married to Medicine Houston star said during the interview about how hard fellow contestant Michael Stagliano threw one. “They cut some of it down, but I walked off and I was like, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. This is abusive. It’s not just my feelings are hurt, but that f–king hurt.'”

Related: 'Bachelor' and 'Bachelorette' Villains: Where Are They Now?

The former Below Deck Sailing Yacht guest even claimed that Harrison, 49, told her she’d be eliminated from the entire competition if she failed to complete the challenge. “We were there competing in a game, so I get that, but at that point, the damage had been done,” she said. “They did tell the guys you can’t throw it this hard. The point of the game wasn’t to injure people. It was to humiliate them, I guess.”

The Bachelor alum added that she felt the situation was “unfair.”

Related: The Weirdest ‘Bachelor’ and ‘Bachelorette’ Job Titles Ever

“What upset me was that I was told if I didn’t finish that challenge, I’d be eliminated, and then a couple weeks later, it was the kissing contest and they let Michelle Money and a few other people, I think, sit that one out because they were parents and they didn’t feel that was appropriate,” the reality star claimed. “But I felt like, for sure, on that show, it was playing favorites. And in another challenge, they were told tricks in order to win it: The time that Blake [Julian] and I got really close to winning the questions challenge, they were given tips to help them win. … So, they were supposed to be complying, but honestly, the rules got bent a lot.”

The second season of Bachelor Pad also starred Bachelor Nation fan favorites including, Jake PavelkaVienna Girardi, and Graham Bunn. The series, much like Bachelor in Paradise, featured contestants from previous seasons returning to the Bachelor mansion to look for love and compete for a $250,000 grand prize. Season 2 aired in August 2011, and contestants Holly Durst and Stagliano, 37, won.

Us Weekly has reached out to ABC and Warner Bros. for comment.

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