Kaitlyn Bristowe may have been out of the country when drama ensued after Kelly Ripa said The Bachelor and The Bachelorette “disgusts” her earlier this month, but the former lead of the reality dating show had a pretty clever comparison when asked about the situation.
“Oh, that’s so interesting,” Bristowe, 33, told Us Weekly on Monday, May 20, while discussing her Dew Edit brand. “I mean, The Bachelor and Bachelorette is kind of like a soap opera, and she met her husband on a soap opera, so, I mean, we all find love in dramatic ways!”
Ripa, 48, and her husband of more than two decades, Mark Consuelos, met on the set of ABC’s All My Children in which they played onscreen lovers Hayley Vaughan and Mateo Santos, respectively. The duo eloped in Las Vegas in 1996, and now share three kids: Michael, 21, Lola, 17, and Joaquin, 16.
The I Love You, Mom! author made headlines after her morning talk show cohost, Ryan Seacrest, struck up a conversation during their Tuesday, May 14, episode about the premiere of Hannah B.’s season, prompting her to share her opinion.
“You guys, you know how I feel about the show, it disgusts me,” Ripa told the American Idol host, 44. “I can’t stand the idea of 25 exceptional women fighting over one ordinary fella, in my opinion. You know how I feel, ladies, we are too special to be arguing over a guy.”
As the discussion continued, Ripa went on to call both the female and male versions of the show equally “creepy.” Her remarks sparked backlash from not only former Bachelor leads including Colton Underwood and Arie Luyendyk Jr., but also show creator Mike Fleiss who claimed the reality show is what pays Ripa’s salary.
However, a source told Us Weekly that isn’t the case. “People at ABC are laughing at [Harrison and Fleiss] for their attempted clapbacks at Kelly. They should have quit while they were still living in the past,” a source told Us amid the controversy. “Ryan and Kelly’s show is one of the most lucrative shows on TV. It’s in syndication! The ad revenue, the demo. So to say that the Bachelor is paying Kelly’s paycheck? Just LOL.”
With reporting by Brody Brown
