Jillian Harris Comes To ‘Bachelor’ Juan Pablo’s Defense: 'He's In A Difficult Position — He Is Not Like All Of The Other Bachelors’
March 1 2014, Published 10:13 a.m. ET
It wouldn’t be a good season of The Bachelor if there wasn’t a little bit of drama — and in the most recent episode of Juan Pablo Galavis’ season, it hit an all-time peak when contestant Andi Dorfman decided to exit the show after her overnight date with Juan Pablo.
Dorfman told the cameras that JP spent the night talking about himself and rubbing it in her face that he had already spent a night with Clare Crawley. Since that episode, JP has been slammed for his selfish behavior — and former Bachelorette winner Jef Holm said “I actually don’t know of any good things that have been said about him.”
But in the wake of this drama, former Bachelorette Jillian Harris came to Juan Pablo’s defense.
“It’s a difficult position to be in for him,” she told RadarOnline.com exclusively. “Just being on the show and being in the public eye, I’ve realized how quickly people are to judge and how awful it feels when people say mean things.”
Harris continued on to explain why she thinks people are attacking JP.
“I don’t think he is like all of the other Bachelors and Bachelorettes,” she said. “I don’t think he is like the rest of the family.”
Juan Pablo just has his own way of doing things.
“I don’t think that he’s selfish or all the different names that people have called him,” Harris said. “I just think that he is really independent and strong minded in his independence.”
And Juan Pablo has a reason to act the way he does.
“And I think in a way, if he is selfish, it’s because he is a dad,” Harris said. “Just because there are 30 girls on the show, it doesn’t guarantee that he is going to fall in love.”
Harris did agree that Juan Pablo isn’t the typical Bachelor fans are used to viewing.
“I don’t know if he’s the right person for the show,” she said. “Juan Pablo’s probably not the best Bachelor. I think in Juan Pablo’s situation, he put his foot down a lot of times and said, ‘No, this is the way it is.’ All of us Bachelor and Bachelorettes try to ignore everything around us, but it just seems like maybe this time, it just didn’t go as smooth as it was supposed to.”
Harris also said it might have to do with the fact that the women on his show weren’t his perfect match.
“It just may not be one of these girls and that’s not the end of the world,” she said. “Sometimes you just have to find the right person who brings out the best in you.”
As Harris has been in Juan Pablo’s shoes before, she decided to reach out to him and see how he was handling all of the negativity.
“In fact I texted him asking if he was okay,” she said. “I had said, ‘It’s difficult to go through this… I just wanted to make sure that you are keeping sane.’
Juan Pablo responded to Harris saying, “Yeah. Thank you very much. I’m fine.”
“I know when I was in this stage on the show, I was really upset because these last three final episodes, they make it as dramatic as possible,” Harris told Radar, reflecting on her experience with the series. “When they do that, it gives you this anxiety. But that’s their job to make this part of the show so crazy.”
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And while people continue to hate on Juan Pablo, over eight million people tuned in on Feb. 25 to watch the Bachelor drama unfold on the screen, according to TV by the Numbers.
“If people are watching it, and they are wound up in it and they are entertained by it, the TV show is doing it’s job,” Harris said. “It’s the first time I’ve really been interested in the series for like the last four seasons. It’s been entertaining and exciting and just really different. As far as I’m concerned, we needed somebody to switch it up and add some spice to it.”
