Peter Kraus is happy to watch The Bachelor from the comfort of his home. The former Bachelorette contestant opened up about not being the lead on the ABC reality show and his future in the franchise.
“I’ve thought about it,” Kraus exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, January 24, about the fact that he could have been the one dating the contestants current on Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s season of The Bachelor. “But I’m happy it’s not me.”
When asked why, Kraus explained, “Like reality TV is … it’s a whole ‘nother beast. The amount of pressure that he has to face now, he’s on every magazine cover. He’s all over the place, and people have their opinions of him and I don’t know. It’s a world that I am happy without … I mean, being in the spotlight if you will, it’s exciting. I’m not going to lie. Walking past a magazine and seeing myself in a little tiny picture in the corner, it’s interesting. But, I don’t know. It’s not something that I need to get fulfillment in my life.”
Kraus was a fan-favorite to be The Bachelor after he was the runner-up on Rachel Lindsay’s season of The Bachelorette last year. Fans were shocked when Luyendyk Jr. was announced as the lead instead of Kraus, and some viewers even started calling Luyendyk Jr. “not Peter.”
“I feel kind of bad for him,” the personal trainer said about the fan’s nickname for Luyendyk Jr. “He got kind of pushed into a pressure situation last minute it sounds like and I mean he’s already got kind of like cards stacked against him going into a situation like that. To then be added on to that, not even being called by his own name, that’s got to be tough.”
Despite things not working out with The Bachelor, Kraus has managed to stay busy. He just launched an app called Hive with former NFL star Terrell “T.O.” Owens.
“Hive is a social networking app,” the Bachelor finalist told Us. “The idea behind it is you have friends here in this area that you’ve probably never met, so it will put you in sync with people who have similar interests based on the categories you select or the groups you join. You all go onto one feed and anything that you follow as far as categories will show up on that feed.”
As for his future in Bachelor Nation, Kraus told Us that Bachelor in Paradise is “a hard no.”
“But other things within the franchise, I really like the people that I worked with … The production team are fantastic, yeah,” he said about returning to the franchise one day. “People ask me about Mike Fleiss, like what’s my thought on Mike Fleiss, and I think he’s a great guy. We have a great rapport. If they were to talk to me about something else in the future, I’d be open.”
The Bachelor airs on ABC Mondays at 8p.m. ET.
