Time heals all wounds … and even Bachelor feuds! Shawn Booth sent Nick Viall some love after the former Bachelor posted about their mutual ex Kaitlyn Bristowe.
Booth, 33, and Viall, 39, both competed for the 34-year-old Bachelorette’s heart on season 11 of the ABC dating show in 2015. Before Booth and Bristowe got engaged during the finale, Viall went to pop the question to the Canadian reality star, but she stopped him mid-proposal.
“It was like waving at someone who’s waving at the person behind … but million times worse,” the “Viall Files” podcast host wrote alongside a video from the season 11 finale on Sunday, June 14, via Instagram. “TBH I look back on this time of my life and have nothing but positive memories.”
Viall then addressed the fact that ABC is airing a condensed version of the season on Monday, June 15, as part of the Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons — Ever!
“I just didn’t think ABC would make us relive the entire failed proposal tomorrow night … It really was a season for the ages,” Viall wrote. “You never know how you view things as time passes. Glad to be able to call KB a good friend!”
Booth then took the comments, writing, “Well said, ‘other guy’ 😏.”
Fans first met Viall during Andi Dorfman’s season 10 of The Bachelorette, which aired in 2014. A year later, he made waves when he showed up during Bristowe’s season and revealed they talked before filming started. Much to front-runner Booth’s dismay, Viall subsequently joined the cast … and had sex with Bristowe before the fantasy suite dates.
The “Off the Vine” podcast host later revealed that her hookup with Viall nearly ruined her relationship with Booth.
“When you became the Bachelor, Shawn almost broke up with me and said that you won,” Bristowe told Viall during a November 2019 podcast interview. “And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ That hurt me so badly. And he said, ‘That guy won. That’s what he wanted. That’s why he came on the show and he won.’”
Bristowe added at the time that she “always felt so much shame” when Booth brought up her tryst with Viall.
“At the end of the day, you have a choice and I chose him and he chose me and then he chose to focus on you. It really was hard for him. It was really, really a lingering thing in the relationship,” she said. “I think I was made to feel shame, but deep down I wasn’t ashamed. But that’s why I acted the way I did or that’s why we didn’t talk or that’s why I made little jabs here and there because I knew he had been so hurt by it and I hated that … I truly, deeply loved him and I wanted to protect him, so it was so hard for me.”
Booth and Bristowe called it quits in November 2018 after three years together. The “If I’m Being Honest” songstress subsequently started dating Bachelorette season 14 alum Jason Tartick.
