Monday’s Bachelorette finale was one of the most dramatic in the show’s history. After being dumped on national television by Brooks Forester, Desiree Hartsock quickly turned her affections towards Chris Siegfried, who she got engaged to on the finale. Many viewers questioned whether or not Desiree’s feelings were genuine, but host Chris Harrison assures them that the pair’s love is real—at least for now.
“I have to tell you, when I saw what happened with Brooks, I was just as skeptical as everyone else. [The producers] said to each other, ‘We really don’t even have a finale, much less a proposal!’… We had fully embraced the fact that we were not going to have a proposal… And then a week later, we were standing in a room watching this proposal… We were in shock. I can’t tell you how unproduced it was. We were not expecting it and that’s why we had this crazy good proposal,” Harrison told E! Online.
Harrison went onto talk about how Chris Siegfried, Desiree’s eventual fiancée, reacted to Brooks leaving. “It kind of empowered him, I think, to stand by her and that’s true love, I guess,” he said. “He said, ’I’m not going anywhere, I love you.’ He just was that guy that said, ‘We’re going to fix this and I’m not going to leave.’ And good on him.”
“I don’t think anybody saw [Brooks leaving] coming. I kind of took [Desiree’s] word for it that she was pretty sure about him. And nothing led us or I think any other producer to think that this guy was going to really just do a 180 and bolt. But there were you know definitely signs along the way that she was much further along than he was, and much easier at expressing her feelings than he was,” Harrison told the Hollywood Reporter.
Harrison also talked about the backlash from fans that Brooks has been receiving. “[Brooks] didn’t do this with you know malice or ill intent. He didn’t come here to, you know, screw her over and be the bad guy. He was very sincere and very sweet… I would have been disappointed and more upset with him if he had gone through with all of this and... he has this fake proposal and they just kind of go out for a few weeks and it doesn’t mean anything and they break up.”
Harrison was more close-lipped about the couple’s chances of getting married, though. “I mean, let’s be honest. What are the odds?” he told E! Online. “Most relationships don’t make it down the aisle. They just don’t.”
He did see some signs that gave some hope to their relationship, though. “These past few weeks, [Desiree and Chris] have been phenomenal off-camera… and what happened on the show has really only made them stronger. The fact that she’s willing to leave Hollywood and move up to Seattle tells a lot. That is very telling.”
He added, in a conversation with TV Guide, “As far as weddings, I have no idea, but I think they’re starting off as strong as any of our couples have. And not to cheapen anyone else’s proposals, but I think because the way they got there was so stressful and rough, it just felt more sincere; they really earned it.”
Time will tell whether The Bachelorette will have another success story, or if Desiree and Chris will join the long list of TV couples who couldn’t make it in the real world.
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