A day in the life of ‘The Bachelor’
Contestants take down the competition.
LOS ANGELES – When you’re the star of The Bachelor, it’s natural that single women will fight over you.
That was literally the case for serial dater Arie Luyendyk Jr., who in this season’s third episode of ABC’s longrunning dating franchise (Monday, 8 ET/PT) pairs up women to wrestle, Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling-style.
USA TODAY went on location at a theater in September to see the young reality contestants practice hair-pulling, crotch-kicking and body-slamming. And cry in a stairwell.
Surveying two ladies sulking on the steps, avoiding the wrestling match, a producer jokes that you can lead a horse to water but can’t make her drink.
But the two youngest women were having a blast in the ring: Bekah Martinez, 22, and Maquel Cooper, 23.
Martinez, a nanny from Los Angeles, has had plenty of makeout screen time with the salt-and-pepper-haired Luyendyk leading into this episode. Jimmy Kimmel predicted on his talk show, to a poker-faced Luyendyk, that Martinez would be one of the last women standing.
“It’s nice to see a woman with short hair on the show; you don’t see that much,” Kimmel said. In Bachelor confessional interviews, Luyendyk has swooned over Martinez’s beauty, positive energy, sex appeal and how she keeps him on his toes.
It’s easy to see how the fresh-faced contestant is charming Luyendyk: She got this reporter into an excited conversation about rock climbing that had us chatting so loudly that the film crew had to shush us.
“Arie is somebody, I think, who’s really considerate and kind and good at making everyone feel at ease,” Martinez, in a sweaty bandanna from the day’s wrestling practice, says. “I think that’s one of his biggest strengths.
“Also, he’s super-hot. He’s like a silver fox, and it’s been super-great to get to know him better.”
But what about that age gap? “I’m 22 and he’s 36, so that’s a little bit different, but it’s cool because he’s got his stuff together,” she says. “He’s got his career in place, he’s ready to be serious about a real relationship, about marriage, and he’s all in all a great guy.”
Luyendyk isn’t sure. “I’ve already sent somebody home who I just felt was too young for me,” he tells USA TODAY, presumably referencing 25-year-old Jenny, who exited in the Jan. 8 episode.
But then he realizes that a few of the remaining women are younger and explains: “It’s not really about the age; it’s more about the maturity level and just how someone carries (herself ) and their life experience. So I’m not really looking too much into that.”