PLAYING THE FIELD
Ex-ball player new Bachelor
The Bachelor Canada Debuts Wednesday, W Network Chris Leroux is ready to settle down — and he doesn’t want to do it alone.
After 12 seasons as a majorleague baseball pitcher, Montreal-born Leroux, 33, is on the hunt for a home close to his parents in Mississauga, Ont., where he looks forward to doing “normal” stuff such as camping, going to the cottage, getting married and starting a family.
Enter The Bachelor Canada. Starting Wednesday, Leroux will begin his love journey on our home and native land’s version of the popular U.S. franchise. Will he find a wife among the 20 beautiful women he meets on the season première? He’s not telling. But here’s what he did reveal during a recent phone chat with Postmedia:
Q Why did you ultimately decide to retire from baseball?
A My last season in Buffalo I was pretty good and I never got an opportunity in Toronto. I think with my age and the writing on the wall. Basically, ‘you’re too old, you’re not what we want.’ I was just tired of that. I was just like, I’ll give real life a try for a minute.
Q What sort of vision do you have for your family?
A I’m a pretty normal guy. I want a couple of kids that have respect for their elders. I want a wife who loves me for me and I want to love her for her and all of that stuff. When that comes, that’s a good question. But that’s what I’m looking for.
Q Why do you think you haven’t been successful up until this point?
A I don’t want to say I haven’t been successful. People think I’m helpless when it comes to (love). I think it’s mostly about timing with me. I’ve been so consumed by baseball and by making money that I almost forgot about the most important things in life. So it’s good that baseball is on the back burner right now and I can focus on my relationships with people. It’s not about finding a job, it’s not about making money, it’s about having good relationships with people that I love.
Q What are you looking for in a wife?
A When it comes down to looks, there’s really no particular thing that I look for. Maybe I’d say a healthy person, someone who has that healthy living vibe about her.
When it comes to personality, I’m a little more picky. I like somebody that’s funny, somebody that has a good heart, I like somebody who’s kind. Those are my deal-breakers. If you’re not any of those, then we’re probably not going to get along very well.
Q How did you prepare for the show? Did you work out a lot?
A My preparation was very limited. I guess I worked out but whether I work out seven days a week for three hours a day or whether I work out zero times a week my body is gong to look similar. Genetically I’ve been blessed. My parents are both 65 years old and they’re both in really good shape. So it’s kind of a blessing and a curse. I want to be bigger, I want to look like Arnold (Schwarzenegger), but it’s never going to happen for me.
Q What about emotional preparation?
A I didn’t do any emotional preparation whatsoever. It was kind of a crash course for me. I had a lot of things that I wasn’t so good at. I wasn’t so good about opening up, I wasn’t so good about talking about myself. It was a challenge. I think that I’ve become a better person because of this show. I want to thank the people involved in this show because they taught me to be a better man and without them I would be the same old person that I was last year.
Q So you’re more in touch with your emotions?
A I’m way more in touch with my emotions, how to treat people, what a relationship entails. I was always very good at making people happy, but it was all very surface.
Now that the show has taught me how to dive deeper, I realize that that’s what matters in a relationship and not the surface stuff.
Q There tends to be a lot of drama among the women on The Bachelor. Is it safe to say that happens with your season?
A Yeah, but I don’t know if it revolves around me or not. A lot of it is between the girls on the show. I’ve always tried to steer myself away from any type of drama. If anything happens in a relationship where there’s any kind of yelling or screaming, I kind of just shut down. And whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is up for discussion, but that’s how I’ve been. But I don’t like arguing, I don’t like fighting, so you probably won’t see any of that from me on the show.
Q How did your mom and dad feel about the show?
A They weren’t super into it at first. My parents are very private, so I think that me being on national television is a big thing. My mom worries about what the chatter is going to be and what the internet says so it might be hard on her to hear a 12-year-old tell me that I’m ugly or that I’m a terrible baseball player.
But she was great on the show. She came off as a loving, funny person just like she is in real life. My dad is just the same dude whether he’s on television or not, he’s just a chill guy. But my mom was most worried about everything.