'The Bachelor' is getting real.
The Bachelor is getting real.
The ABC dating show aired its most honest and emotional moment yet on Monday night's episode, when during her one-on-one date with Colton Underwood, contestant Caelynn revealed her past sexual assault.
"Tonight is important because I have to talk to Colton about an experience that I've been through," Caelynn told the camera. "And it's not a conversation that I enjoy having with anyone. There are things that I've struggled with and that's intimacy. I like to be this happy-go-lucky, fun person, but it's a conversation we need to have."
"It's not an easy thing for me to talk about, but it's something that's really important, especially in relationships, because it's something that has come between a lot of different things in my life," she shares with Colton.
Caelynn then described a night during her sophomore year in college. "I woke up the next morning and I was completely naked in my bed and had no memory of the night before... I just had a pit in the bottom of my stomach," she revealed. "[Two friends and I] were all sexually assaulted... not only did a guy come home and have sex with me, another guy, I was passed out on the couch from the drugs, and he said, 'Watch what I'm about to do.'... They laughed and took Snapchats. It was horrible."
The beauty queen continued, recalling being turned away from a hospital before she was able to get a rape kit at another one. "The men got away with it. One of them did get expelled, the rest of them did get away with it," she said. "It's the most difficult thing in the world. It's so painful. ... "It's like, a dark part of my history, but I'm not going to let that diminish me or who I am."
Colton couldn't have been more respectful in handling the situation, and revealed to Caelynn that one of the reasons he's still a virgin is because of his relationship with Aly Raisman, who is also a survivor of sexual assault. The Bachelor recently called Raisman, whom he dated from late 2016 to mid-2017, his "first love."
"I want you to know with me, you're safe," he replied. "She was sexually abused, and for me, that was the hardest thing I ever had to watch. Going through something with someone, looking into her eyes and just knowing the pain associated with it. Who am I to feel the pain when I wasn't the victim?"
"Opening up last year about my virginity wasn't the easiest thing to do," Colton said. "My reason [for being a virgin] is complicated."
Raisman was one of 150 women to accuse former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar of sexual abuse in 2017. She powerfully confronted Nassar during his sentencing hearing in January 2018, stood strong with 140 other female athletes to receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2018 ESPY Awards last July, and has continued to speak out in support of sexual abuse survivors.
Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison in July 2017, after pleading guilty to child pornography charges. The following year, he was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in a Michigan State prison after pleading guilty to seven counts of sexual assault of minors. He was also sentenced to an additional 40 to 125 years in prison after pleading guilty to an additional three counts of sexual assault.
During an interview with ET last December, Bachelor host Chris Harrison shared that Caelynn's honesty would prompt a personal revelation from Colton.
"She brings out a story, a personal story, that is one of the most emotional, revealing conversations we have ever had on the show. We were all very much taken aback," Harrison said. "So was Colton, and that kind of prompts things in Colton's life."
"Caelynn kind of started it with something she let go, and I think Colton felt comfortable and I think he felt like he owed her certain things in that space because she had just revealed so much personally," he added. "It really is a depth and emotion that we have never really faced before."
See more in the video below -- join ET's Bachelor Nation Facebook group here.
If you or someone you know would like to speak with someone who is trained to help, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or visit https://www.rainn.org/
RELATED CONTENT:
