The Bachelor’s Jake Pavelka has narrowed down his final choices of bachelorettes to the final 2, and according to our Bachelor poll, an overwhelming 81% of you are pulling for Tenley Molzahn to win Jake’s heart.
Another person who seems to be rooting for Tenley is someone all too familiar with the situation. Former Bachelorette Jillian Harris reveals to UsWeekly that she is Team Tenley, while her fiance Ed Swiderski is pulling for Vienna.
UsWeekly interviewed both Jillian and Ed, during which they shared their thoughts on this season’s Bachelor, and discuss their openness to having a televised wedding.
Us: What are your thoughts on the women on this season’s Bachelor?
ES: We had a chance to meet most of the girls, and I still take them at face value, yes I’m biased because I went through the ringer with you guys, but the truth is I read that stuff and I’m like she’s [Vienna’s] a normal person, she really is, yes she’s gone through some weird stuff, she had some fun and whatever she did, but she’s been pretty loyal to Jake as far as we know.
JH: The thing is everyone has a past, everyone was young and dumb at one point, everyone was vulnerable at one point, everyone has made mistakes, we all have our skeletons in the closet, and maybe she has more for whatever reason. If he picked her or if he picked any other girl, it doesn’t even — we hope that it will last, but in the grand scheme of things this is supposed to be fun and it’s supposed to be light-hearted and there’s so many more awful things in the world to stress out about. For me I just look at it and am like well she probably shouldn’t have done all the bikini shoots and maybe shouldn’t have signed up for the show but everybody is human and all those girls on the show deserve to find happiness. Not one of them is a vindictive awful bad person.
Us: Having been on the show and talked to Jake, who’s your preference?
JH: I’ve always thought Tenley was a good person for [Jake].
ES: They come off as the perfect couple I think because they’re both religious, they’re both praying to end up together. But who knows. Maybe Vienna is a better person than she’s being portrayed. Ali I don’t know, there’s something about her that rubs me the wrong way. She was a bit too sassy for my liking. I think she was cute, a great-looking girl, great personality, intelligent but maybe she was a little too sassy. She left a little too easily I thought.
Us: What advice would you give to Jake?
JH: It’s so hard because as much as you say hang on tight, don’t listen to what anyone says, lean on your friends and family, it’s hard.
ES: It’s got to be like one-on-one get through it together, otherwise you won’t. you can’t just say ignore it, it’ll go away, because it’s not going to go away. You have to learn how to deal with it and either improve your relationship or move on.
Us: Would you do a televised wedding?
ES: We’re going to use Molly [Malaney] and Jason [Mesnick] as a guinea pig, we’re going to see how that goes down. We’ve gotten to know those guys.
JH: I talked to Trista, and I expected after all those years she’d say it was a pain in the ass, but no, this is incredible, she said it was the best in her life. Then I thought well the franchise has changed a bit since Trista’s day. But then Molly was like it’s been an incredible experience so far, and it’s been really easy on her, so potentially. I think we both — when I close my eyes and think about what our day is going to be, there are no cameras, it’s just us and our family and friends. Then there’s the more practical side of me that knows when I have to start writing those checks to put the deposit down on things — and I think a lot of people don’t realize we didn’t make any money on the show. He did not make a dollar.
ES: I made zero dollars. I made $400 going on Ellen, for the record.
JH: So then I think — I’m really practical with money, and I think it’s super irresponsible to throw yourself into even $20,000 in debt, and you know you can spend $20,000 on a wedding. So then that’s when I’m like babe, maybe we should do this whole televised wedding thing.
