Jamie Otis may have found her forever on Married at First Sight, but the first time she sought out romance on The Bachelor didn’t exactly leave her feeling the love.
On Saturday’s Share Your Shine Podcast, hosted by Erica and Melissa Eckman, the Wifey 101 author opened up about her internal battle while filming the 16th season of the ABC dating show, and how it left her feeling “very ashamed and embarrassed.”
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“When I was on The Bachelor, I was not authentic,” she admitted. “I hid who I was. I was very ashamed and embarrassed.”
These feelings of shame came from insecurities stemming from her background, she continued.
“I come from a trailer park, so I had custody of my siblings when I’m on the show and these girls — anybody’s who’s seen The Bachelor — they’re gorgeous,” Otis added. “And it seems like they have money and they have these beautiful families and I was like, ‘Oh boy, I do not belong here.’”
With all these feelings swirling in her mind, Otis didn’t exactly bond with many of the women on the show alongside her, but found friendship with people behind the camera.
“So I hid myself and made — I did make a couple actually,” she said, thinking twice of her connections of the show. “I made better friends with the producers than I did with the girls, because I was more myself with the producers. I had no choice but to be. They really grill you in the producing role.”
She might have left the mansion without a final rose, but Otis learned far more about herself in the Bachelor franchise than she first thought.
“So what I’ve realized is that being yourself,” the TV host concluded. “Not everybody’s gonna love you and that’s OK. Those people aren’t for you anyways.”
Since leaving Bachelor mansion, Otis gave reality TV another shot on Married at First Sight (produced by Kinetic Content), which is where she met and married husband Doug Hehner in 2014. The two are now parents to 1-year-old daughter Henley Grace.
Photo credit: Taylor Hill/Getty Images
