The Bachelor premiere is finally upon us, and as Grant Ellis steps into the lead role following his time on Jenn Tran’s season of The Bachelorette, he’s surprisingly void of nerves. “The premiere is a sneak peek into my personality and the ladies’ personalities,” he tells Glamour. “It was fun. It was a lot of fun.”
The way Ellis, 31, describes it, you’d think this was bound to be a pretty straightforward season in which his only concern would seem to be his family watching him kiss onscreen. “I’m not too excited about them seeing me kiss. Maybe I’ll just stay away when that happens.”
Of course, as viewers first saw following the finale of The Golden Bachelorette last fall, Grant’s Bachelor ending might just be the most unexpected one yet. In the preview, host Jesse Palmer tells his leading man that he’s got “both women here on standby.” And, “Of course, I have to know which one to send first.”
As Bachelor vets know, “here” means at the final rose ceremony before Grant presumably proposes to one of them. And except for the very rare occasion, the first woman to get out of the car is the one who will be sent home. So, to hear that Grant is this conflicted up until the final moment? Well, let’s just say it doesn’t give me great hope for happily-ever-after.
Of course, we all know that previews aren’t often what they seem on this show. In fact, in our interview, Grant tells me he’s “happy with the way things turned out.” But what’s the real story? And is the finale as unpredictable as the footage leads us to believe?
Below, Grant answers all those questions and more, including his thoughts on the new twist involving the first impression rose, whether the women’s limo entrances have gotten to be too gimmicky, and how he found empowerment from loneliness.
