Zach Shallcross got his happy ending with Kaity Biggar, but not without some bumps in the road. Bachelor Nation was hard on the season 27 star — from calling him “boring” to criticizing the way he reacted when things weren’t going his way during conversations with his contestants.
“I blame my genetics. I can’t hide my emotion,” the 26-year-old Bachelor said on Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast during a joint interview with his fiancée when asked about his facial expressions.
Kaity, 28, then defended her man.
“He definitely wears his heart on his sleeve, for sure,” she told Us. “And I think that’s what’s also great about you too, is that you can’t hide it and you’re not faking it. You’re not bulls—tting anybody. And if he’s not feeling it with a woman, he wasn’t feeling it.”
Zach noted that “it’s nothing something I realized in the moment,” explaining: “I was alerted of this cause of the memes and I was like, ‘No way. I dunno how long I’ve been doing that.’ But I’ve never had that face with Kaity. … I couldn’t stop smiling and I still can’t.”
The sales exec proposed to the Canadian native during the Monday, March 27, finale of the ABC show after he ended things with Gabi Elnicki. Things between the lead and his finalists got hazy during the overnight dates after he decided he wasn’t going to sleep with anyone on the show. Zach broke his own rule during his fantasy suite with Gabi, 25, and faced backlash when he clued Kaity in on what happened.
Some viewers — including season 21 Bachelor Nick Viall — blamed Sean Lowe for putting the idea in Zach’s head.
“Sean had been someone from, you know, the very beginning that has been so supportive and helpful throughout all of this, giving me advice and support. And when the week of overnights came, we had that time to talk and I was starting to freak out,” Zach admitted. “I just knew of this infamous week, this historical week on this show, and I wanted to go about it the best way I could. I didn’t know if there’s a right way, or a wrong way. I didn’t know. And I did pick his brain and he informed me of the way how he went about his week.”
Fans who watched season 17 of the reality show know that Sean had been celibate for several years before handing out roses because of religious reasons. He married his winner, Catherine Lowe (née Giudici), in 2014.
“He has this loving family and a beautiful wife, beautiful kids. And in my mind, I was like, ‘You know what? You did that and that really worked for you. What could go wrong?’ And obviously, as we saw what transpired, a lot went wrong,” Zach continued. “Obviously, his was for different reasons and stuff like that. But yeah, he’s someone I trust, he’s an intelligent dude. I mean, he’s someone so trustworthy and I took what he was saying and almost just took it too literal because I was just grabbing anything I could to help me through this mind-boggling week.”
Sean and Catherine — who share Samuel, 6, Isaiah, 4, and Mia, 3 — were in the audience at Monday’s live finale.
“[He navigated the overnights] terribly. … I kid,” Sean told Jesse Palmer. “I think Zach is in an extremely difficult situation. It wasn’t my game plan. He asked me how I might approach it. I kind of told him my opinion, [but that] doesn’t mean he has to follow it. Obviously, he feels guilty for the way things occurred, but, you know, I think he is strong enough to get through it. At least he was open and honest. At least he got it out of the way now and it was not something that came up weeks from now.”
For more from Zach and Kaity, watch the video above and listen to Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast.
