Love is not dead
Rivals fall for each other in Bachelor show
The defining relationship of our times — Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson — may no longer be together, but do not weep for the death of love; it turns out the women who fell in love on The Bachelor: Vietnam found their way back to each other after all and are now a couple.
In a September episode of the reality series, in which 25 women compete for the heart of one man, contestant Minh Thu turned down Bachelor Nguyen Quoc Trung during a rose ceremony and instead revealed her love for someone else — her competitor. Tearfully standing in front of the Bachelor, Thu said, “I went into this competition to find love, but I’ve found that love for myself. But it isn’t you. It’s someone else.”
Thu then fell into fellow contestant Truc Nhu’s arms for a hug and said, “Come home with me.” Struck by emotion, Nhu walked over to Trung, and said, “I’m sorry. I really want to get to know you. Because you’re someone who made me feel special, and I haven’t felt that way in a long time.”
Nhu handed him back her rose and walked away with Thu. Off-camera, however, Trung insisted she stay, managing to convince her to continue in the competition.
The heartbreaking turn to the romantic moment quickly went viral, but this week, the show’s executive producer Anh Tran revealed the pair did indeed find their way back together, telling Nextshark (and taking the credit for their union): “They left the show and have been together since. We delivered on our promise that two people would find love.”
Tran made the comments after a Facebook post in which a user revealed what happened in later episodes. According to the user, it was eventually revealed that both Nhu and Thu had agreed that she not leave the show right away, because “they just wanted to make sure their feelings weren’t just a misconception of love because they are so close.”
But after only two more episodes, Nhu requested to leave because she had “already found what she was looking for.”
Producer Anh-Thu Nguyen added to Nextshark that the romance has been “especially” powerful “in the context of Vietnamese culture.”
“It’s been a proud experience to see our clip resonate around the world and become an unexpected platform for discussing LGBTQI+ issues in Vietnam on a global scale,” she added.
They aren’t the first contestants to find love on the franchise. On Australia’s 2016 season, contestants Megan Marx and Tiffany Scanlon fell in love while competing for the same Bachelor, and dated for nearly a year after the show aired.