Author: Emily Yahr / Source: Washington Post
It has not been a great week for Arie Luyendyk Jr. The 36-year-old race-car-driver-turned-real-estate-agent faced immense backlash after his turn as ABC’s “The Bachelor” when he proposed to Becca Kufrin, a 27-year-old publicist from Minnesota, and then blindsided her with a breakup so he could propose to the runner-up, Lauren Burnham, a 25-year-old salesperson from Virginia.
So, as is tradition, the final “Bachelor” couple has to embark on ABC talk show appearances after the finale — and for Arie, it has naturally turned pretty defensive. By Thursday, even Becca — just named the newest Bachelorette — was halfheartedly defending him during an interview with “Good Morning America.
”“He had to do what he had to do. And I don’t fault him for that,” Becca said, in response to whether she felt “ambushed” by the breakup. “I would want him to follow his heart and not to feel trapped in a relationship with me. At the end of the day, if it had to happen, then it had to happen.”
Here are three takeaways from Arie’s press tour:
Arie has multiple explanations for breaking up with Becca on camera.
Viewers were stunned on Monday night upon seeing the footage of Becca, who thought she was arriving at a house in Los Angeles to spend a romantic weekend with Arie. Instead, he had brought along a camera crew to film as he called off their engagement because he was still in love with Lauren.
Arie was roasted on social media for this decision — while the producers probably encouraged it, they swear the cameras were Arie’s choice — and some of our country’s top TV personalities were equally confused.
“There’s a lot of backlash from a lot of people,” Michael Strahan said Wednesday on “Good Morning America,” reading tweets from former “Bachelor” contestants who thought the show went too far. “Why was the decision made to film this? It probably could have been done — I think a lot of people felt — in a more quiet way.”
“I really wanted everyone to know that this was on me, this was my fault. And I felt like filming that would let people know that. That if there were any questions on the breakup, those would be squashed if they saw the breakup,” Arie explained….
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