‘The Bachelor’ contestant explains miscommunication led to her reported missing
There appears to be some communication issues between former “The Bachelor” contestant Rebekah Martinez and her mother.
Martinez, 22, had been reported missing by her mom to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department, only to have fans of the reality TV dating show unearth her as one of 29 contestants vying for the attention of former racecar driver Arie Luyendyk Jr.
Martinez’s mom believed her daughter, a nanny from Los Angeles, had gone north to Humboldt County to work at a marijuana farm. Not so, said Martinez, who failed to coax a rose from Luyendyk in Monday’s episode, and who later in the evening made her first post ”Bachelor” appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“First of all, a lot of people thought I lied to my mother, saying that I was on a farm when I was actually on ‘The Bachelor.’ But no, I had already been eliminated from the show,” she told Kimmel.
Martinez said she went away with friends on a trip to the mountains. She thought she would be able to communicate with her family during her planned two-week getaway, only to find that there was no phone service where she was staying.
“I just had this weird feeling like on the sixth or seventh day, I need to go home now,” she told Kimmel. “So I got in my car, drove to where I had service, called my parents and then come to find out only 12 hours before, my mother had called the Humboldt Sheriff’s Department saying that I was missing.”
Martinez’s mother had told Humboldt County authorities that when she spoke to her daughter in early November, Martinez said she was in Eureka and was planning to work at a pot farm, according to People.
“To set the record straight I’m not a weed farmer. I’m still a nanny in L.A.,” Martinez told Kimmel, adding that she is a longtime “Bachelor” fan and had always wanted to be on the show.
She was, however, somewhat disappointed at the beginning of the shoot. “Well, I was hoping it would be Peter (Kraus) and it ended it up being Arie,” said Martinez, referencing the popular finalist on “The Bachelorette” season featuring Rachel Lindsay.