The Craziest Bachelor Moments You Didn't See On TV

The Bachelor host Chris Harrison does an excellent job of hyping up the show before it airs, often using his "the most dramatic season ever" line to drum up ratings. But as much as producers work to create drama on the ABC reality series, many of the scandalous moments happen off-camera. Don't believe us? Just ask any of the broken up Bachelor couples, like Emily Maynard and Jef Holm, for instance. Despite putting on a fairytale for viewers, Maynard and Holm's post-show romance was marred by explosive cheating rumors. 

And who could forget Andi Dorfman and Josh Murray? Dorfman spilled the beans on their toxic relationship in her 2016 book, It's Not Okay. Talk about a dramatic read. As for the Bachelor singles? One contestant opened up about a heartbreaking health issue post-filming, while another star endured a tragic car accident.

Have we piqued your interest yet? Get comfy and let's rehash the craziest Bachelor moments you didn't see on TV.

Many fans were rooting for Emily Maynard to find love during Season 8 of The Bachelorette, support that made sense given her tragic backstory and status as a single mom. But were viewers cheering on a villain in disguise the entire time? Jef Holm, who received the final rose from Maynard in July 2012, might say yes.

Although Holm and Maynard initially dismissed the August 2012 tabloid reports of the rift as "bogus," Holm's brother Mike also addressed the story. "I can tell you that it's all 100% true," Mike explained to Us Weekly. "I was there and I heard the fight and watched the whole thing go down, Emily leaving and everything. I love my brother very much and, like the rest of our family, I just want him to be happy." Mike did cut Emily some slack, however, stating: "Mistakes happen, we all get that."

Jef's ex-girlfriend Kaylee Shepherd also spilled the tea to Us Weekly a month later, claiming Emily cheated with football star Matt Leinart. Jef supposedly found inappropriate text messages between Emily and Matt that caused him to question their whole relationship. "'She strung me along and was talking to another guy the whole time!'" Jef reportedly told Kaylee. 

By October 2012, Jemily was no more, although neither Jef nor Emily confirmed any infidelity in their official statements about the split. 

Season 19 Bachelor lead Chris Soules encountered tragedy on April 24, 2017 when, according to The Chicago Tribune, his pickup truck allegedly "rear-ended a tractor" belonging to his 66-year-old neighbor, Kenneth Mosher. After calling 911 and reporting that Mosher "didn't appear to be breathing," Soules allegedly left the scene and returned back to his home in Arlington, Iowa, before police arrived. 

Sadly, Mosher later died at the hospital as a result of his injuries, and Soules was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of an accident. Soules initially faced felony charges and up to five years in prison, according to Us Weekly, but the reality star's legal team was able to arrange a plea deal in November 2018 in which Soules pleaded guilty to "the lesser-included offense of Information and Aid – Leaving the Scene of a Personal Injury Accident."

"I acknowledge I did not provide the registration number of the vehicle I was driving to 911 dispatch or law enforcement as required by Iowa Code 321.263," Soules said per the plea deal. Soules also acknowledged his efforts to help Mosher. "I immediately stopped, called 911 and identified myself, and rendered reasonable aid to the injured person — including requesting an ambulance and administering CPR while the ambulance was en route," he explained.

As of this writing, Soules is still awaiting sentencing.

One of the most upsetting off-camera Bachelor events concerns Britt Nilsson, who starred on Season 19 of the original series. Nilsson — in a brave move — revealed that she struggled with a bulimia relapse during the show. 

Blaming the relapse on "pain and anxiety," Nilsson shared that she dealt with the eating disorder for most of her life. She said in a now-removed video shared to her YouTube channel: "For me, having tons of food everywhere ... it just became too much. ... I felt insecure, I didn't feel pretty enough, I didn't know what was going on, I missed my family."

In a heartbreaking reveal, Nilsson shared that she tried to conceal her health issue. "I was totally terrified that it was going to be caught on a mic and that millions of people were going to know that I just couldn't control myself," she added. "It was really, really hard for me, and it just kept going and going."

She continued: "You're mic-ed 24/7. I would take my mic off and try to hide it under towels so they wouldn't hear me throw up, because then that was going to be on the show and that was going to be a plot line."

Luckily for Nilsson, she has found support in her now husband, Jeremy Byrne. "He just stuck by me with it," Nilsson explained. "He would ask me about it, he would keep me accountable, and it actually got much, much better."

Juan Pablo Galavis is arguably the most reviled bachelor of all time, an opinion that seems to hold weight when you consider what he told runner-up Clare Crawley during a helicopter ride. Here's what happened: While on what was supposed to be a romantic one-on-one date, the Season 18 bachelor decided to whisper a sweet nothing in Crawley's ear that audio didn't pick up. As it turned out, that sweet nothing became a total deal-breaker for Crawley. 

"I'm shocked," Crawley said at the time during a confessional (via E! News). "He chose to tell me something that no woman wants to hear. That he doesn't know me and some sexual thing I don't want to repeat. It was insulting and it was offensive."

So, what did Galavis really say to Crawley? "He said, 'I love f***ing you but I don't know you,'" an insider shared with Us Weekly in March 2014. Yikes.

The good news? Crawley moved on from their breakup fairly quickly thanks to the inappropriate conversation. "She's totally over him," the source added. "She is done with him and relieved that they are not together."

Phew, it sounds like Crawley dodged a major bullet.

It's pretty common for Bachelor couples to break up after they reenter the real world, something Andi Dorfman and Josh Murray know all too well. Not only did the couple split six months months after Dorfman gave Murray the final rose in July 2014, but their breakup was chock-full of drama.

Dorfman confessed to Us Weekly in May 2016 that Murray would sometimes call her a "wh**e" or a "b***h" during their fights, a disturbing claim given their seemingly perfect on-camera personas. Dorfman elaborated on these issues in her book, It's Not Okay, alleging that Murray didn't want her to pursue a career and that he would express jealousy over her male friendships.

Dorfman's breaking point? Murry allegedly called her a "b***h" in front of their friends following an argument. "My humiliation had hit an all-time high," she wrote about the October 2014 incident, adding: "I was tired of the snark, tired of the childish behavior, tired of the accusations, and now I was tired of him."

"It saddens me and is very unfortunate that Andi has chosen to characterize me in such a negative way," Murray said in response to Dorfman's book (via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution). "I respect the private relationship we had for those 8 months and I wish her nothing but the best. I pray she finds peace and happiness in her life."

Many fans thought Marcus Grodd and Lacy Faddoul found love during their time on Bachelor in Paradise in summer 2015. The two cemented their romance with a wedding in June 2015, an event that was officiated by Bachelor host Chris Harrison. The pairing seemed like a dream come true, until the relationship imploded one year after their nuptials in June 2016. But what seemed like your average Bachelor breakup turned into a major scandal after it came to light that the two were never legally married. Gasp.

So, what happened here? Grodd claims Faddoul "vanished" after they returned home from Mexico. "It feels like she's a runaway bride," he shared with Life & Style magazine. "We had this fantastic relationship, and then it totally vanished. It was like she ran away."

As for the legal side of things, they never signed the paperwork to make their marriage official. "When we came back, we were supposed to start the paperwork. But she stalled," Grodd alleged, adding that he felt "duped." After supposedly finding flirty texts in Faddoul's phone from another guy around January 2016, the two started drifting further apart. Then in June 2016, Faddoul allegedly "cut off all communication."

Of course, there's two sides to every story. And after Grodd's interview came out, Faddoul cryptically tweeted: "Less Is Always More...." Hmm...

Amanda Stanton and Josh Murray met while starring on Bachelor in Paradise in summer 2016, The Bachelor's popular spin-off. Both Stanton and Murray failed to make lasting connections during their time in The Bachelor franchise, so it makes sense they connected. The two got engaged by the end of the show (fast, right?) and they went on to have a long-distance relationship that ended in flames around January 2017.

As for why the couple called it quits? Let's just say there was a ton of drama behind-the-scenes. Murray's assistant Hayley Watts spilled the beans to E! News, claiming that the couple "got into a big argument" during the finale of Nick Viall's season of The Bachelor, on which Murray made an appearance. "[Amanda] ended up taking his things from their shared apartment and putting them out in the hallway," Watts shared. 

Watts also alleged that Stanton refused to return Murray's car and the police had to get involved. In response, Stanton told E! that Watts' clams were "all lies." 

Unfortunately, the drama escalated when Stanton started dating Bachelorette alum Robby Hayes in July 2017. Murray's mom commented on an Instagram pic of the new couple writing "wow" next to crying face emojis, a sentiment Stanton didn't appreciate, according to the now defunct website WetPaint. "I'm sorry you lack social skills and don't see how that is inappropriate/childish/slightly creepy," Stanton shot back in the comments.

Translation: It's probably a good thing the couple never got hitched.

Just when you thought Stanton had moved on from her toxic relationship with Murray, she was arrested in September 2018 for domestic battery against her new boyfriend, Bobby Jacobs. Yikes.

The alleged incident occurred following a wild night out in Las Vegas, Nevada, to celebrate a pal's bachelorette party. Upon returning to her hotel room, Stanton, who was allegedly "intoxicated," woke up a sleeping Jacobs and "stated [sic] yelling at him," according to a police report of the incident obtained by Radar Online. 

Supposedly upset that Jacobs hadn't been answering his phone, Stanton allegedly "started to hit him while he was laying in bed" and then they "continued to argue for hours." The two eventually took a break from fighting after Stanton's friends intervened, but that didn't last for long. While Jacobs "was laying in bed with Stanton, she started to argue again," and "Stanton took the room phone and swung it" at her boyfriend, "hitting him in the body." Stanton allegedly "continued to scratch and pinch Jacobs," so he decided to call her pals for back-up. Once Stanton's friends noticed the supposed marks on Jacob's body, they got security involved. 

Though a statement (via People) Stanton said she was "embarrassed by her behavior," but admitted only to giving Jacobs a "playful shove." She ended up pleading not guilty to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge, but her case was dismissed in December 2018. 

Bachelor in Paradise faced a major scandal in June 2017 when contestants Corrine Olympios and DeMario Jackson drunkenly hooked up in the jacuzzi — right in front of the cameras. The footage never aired, however, after two producers filed complaints with Warner Bros. (the studio that produces the series), claiming they were uncomfortable with what went down. The producers' complaints then triggered an investigation, which halted production for 10 days.

Naturally, the tabloids exploded with speculation, but the predominant rumor that emerged was that Olympios was too intoxicated to consent to the encounter. The investigation by Warner Bros. ultimately concluded that it could "not support any charge of misconduct by a cast member," and denied that "the safety of any cast member was ever in jeopardy," according to People.

Both Jackson and Olympios later spoke out about the scandal. Jackson maintained to The Hollywood Reporter that the encounter was "was 100 percent consensual." Olympios told Good Morning America (via USA Today) that she "didn't remember much at all" about the incident due to a mix of the alcohol and prescription medication she'd consumed, which resulted in "a horrible, horrible blackout." However she did add that there was "no bad blood" between her and Jackson.

As for how the show handled it? According to The Washington Post, they did so "in the most frustrating way possible," framing the whole thing as "an exciting reality TV plot twist, rather than serious allegations of misconduct that temporarily shut down production."

Before Rachel Lindsay became the first African-American bachelorette, she competed to win Nick Viall's heart in Season 21 of The Bachelor. During her time in the bachelor mansion, she butted heads with Vanessa Grimaldi, the woman Viall proposed to in the finale. Although fighting between contestants is nothing new in The Bachelor universe, this feud is particularly juicy because fans didn't know about it until after the season wrapped. The topic only came to light because another contestant from Viall's season — Danielle Lombard — spilled the beans on Reddit. 

"Vanessa called Rachel something that was extremely derogatory," Lombard wrote to one fan (via Us Weekly). "From what I heard it was bad. Vanessa had to be separated for the rest of the show."

Say what now? We're all ears.

Following rampant speculation about this "derogatory word" (there were a lot of possibilities), Lindsay addressed the situation in a conversation with Entertainment Tonight.  "She called me a 'bully', and for her to use that phrase was offensive to me," Lindsay explained. "She had no examples to match it. ... I also felt as a special education teacher who works with children, she was using the word frivolously." 

But wait — there's more. "Vanessa told me that I used 'aggressive' tones with her, and I was very upset by that," she elaborated. "There are so many stereotypes placed on African-American women." 

Yep, we think it's safe to say there's no love lost between the ladies.

The Bachelor contestant Bekah Martinez's time in the iconic mansion wasn't always easy because she was 22 at the time. Martinez complained to People about the alleged ageist backlash she received, stating: "I've never gotten so much judgment in my life about how old I am." 

Martinez got the last laugh, however, when she blasted Bachelor lead Arie Luyendyk Jr. for his seemingly inappropriate DMs. It all started after Luyendyk dumped Becca Kufrin for his runner-up Lauren Burnham in mid-January 2018, a decision that played out when the finale aired in early March 2018. Amid all of this drama (seriously, this split was intense), Martinez took to Twitter to share screenshots of DMs Luyendyk sent her in early February 2018. 

The conversation — arguably a lighthearted one — between the exes centered around Martinez's missing persons status after The Bachelor wrapped filming. We'll spare you the details of the confusing situation, but Martinez made a few memes to poke fun at her embarrassing predicament (her old license photo went viral because of it), one of which caught Luyendyk's attention.

"This may just win the internet today,"Luyendyk DMed Martinez about the meme. "Such a shame they didn't use your license photo." Martinez captioned a tweet featuring screenshots of the DMs: "Dm'ing your ex is a good look too @ariejr." 

As for Luyendyk's response? He told E! News: "I think it just shows her immaturity."

Many fans were thrilled when Becca Kufrin found love with Garrett Yrigoyen during Season 22 of The Bachelorette. But some of the enthusiasm faded after her now-fiancé's social media past resurfaced. To the disappointment of many fans, Yrigoyen allegedly "liked" numerous offensive posts that mocked Parkland shooting survivors, undocumented immigrants, and women with democratic ideals, according to Glamour. 

One particular post that Yrigoyen allegedly "liked" shows an unidentified soldier playing with a child, a seemingly innocent image that was made into a disturbing meme about border security. "When a kid makes it over the wall and you have to throw them back," it reads. Another meme body-shames a "leftist woman," posing her beside conservative commentator Tomi Lahren for comparison. "Yeah, I think we win this one too," the caption says. But arguably the worst like of all concerns a post that accused a Parkland High School shooting survivor of being "a crisis actor."

"I didn't mean to offend anyone," Yrigoyen told People about the scandal. "Just because I liked it, doesn't necessarily mean that I supported it. I was raised in a very open-minded family that was accepting to everybody. We're very non-judgmental. I'm genuinely sincere." He's since deleted the controversial Instagram account and started a new one. 

Kufrin, who didn't have access to social media during her time as the bachelorette, said during The Bachelorette finale (via HuffPost): "He feels so bad for everyone he did offend."